LONDON: Thousands of people were to gather for a special street party outside Buckingham Palace on Sunday to mark Queen Elizabeth II´s 90th birthday.
Up to 10,000 people are expected to attend the Patron´s Lunch along with the monarch, her husband Prince Philip, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Tickets cost £150 (190 euros, $215) and most of the guests will be from organisations with which the queen has links.
The not-for-profit event was organised by the queen´s grandson, Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne.
“The queen has had many celebrations in her honour over the years but there´s never really been an appreciation or recognition of the number of organisations she is personally attached to through her patronage,” Phillips said.
Britain is holding several days of celebrations to mark the queen´s official 90th birthday, which began on Friday with a special service at St Paul´s Cathedral in London.
On Saturday, she took the salute at the Trooping the Colour military parade which drew a crowd of thousands, with her vivid green outfit causing a sensation.
After Trooping the Colour, members of the royal family gathered on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch a military flypast, including Prince William and Kate with their children George and Charlotte.
The queen celebrates two birthdays as part of a royal tradition which dates back over 250 years.
The actual date of her birth is April 21, 1926. But her official birthday is also marked in Britain on a Saturday in June with Trooping the Colour.
In the afternoon, the royal barge Gloriana led a flotilla of about 50 boats in a pageant down the River Thames, carrying figures including five-time Olympic gold rower Sir Steve Redgrave.
Visible in her vibrant ensemble, the Queen smiled and waved to crowds as she was driven with the Duke of Edinburgh in an open-top carriage up the flag-lined Mall.
She has attended the annual event – also known as the Queen’s birthday parade – every year of her reign, except in 1955 when it was cancelled due to a rail strike.
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The Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge, both dressed in white, travelled together in another carriage with Prince Harry.
The Duke of York and his daughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, in characteristically striking headwear, followed behind.
The Prince of Wales, who is Colonel of the Welsh Guards, the Princess Royal, Colonel of the Blues and Royals, and the Duke of Cambridge, Colonel of the Irish Guards, rode on horseback in their ceremonial uniforms.
The Queen herself rode on horseback in the parade until she was in her 70s, riding side-saddle and wearing the uniform of the regiment whose Colour – or flag – was being trooped.
This year the Colour being trooped belonged to 7 Company Coldstream Guards.
Spectators in the packed stands rose to their feet as a mark of respect as the Queen’s carriage drew into the parade ground – Henry VIII’s former jousting yard.
Among them were Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife Samantha, as well as many families of the servicemen and women taking part.
Weeks of preparation go into the tightly choreographed spectacle, which includes mounted military bands and Guardsmen wearing traditional bearskin hats and scarlet tunics.
The massed bands of the foot guards performed music, including an arrangement of Happy Birthday, and an intricate display of marching manoeuvres before the Queen received the royal salute.
The Royal Family then gathered on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch an RAF flypast of aircraft including two Spitfires, four helicopters and the Red Arrows.
Princess Charlotte, who joined her family on the balcony for the first time, covered her ears as two Tornados flew overhead.
The gathered crowds gave three cheers as the ceremony came to an end.
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Later in the afternoon, the million-pound royal barge Gloriana was rowed down the Thames by crew of both able-bodied and adaptive rowers with disabilities.
It led a flotilla that included boats from every decade the Queen has been monarch.
Oars were raised on Gloriana as Tower Bridge was opened for the event.
Street parties
Throughout the weekend a number of street parties will be taking place around the UK in honour of the Queen’s official birthday.
She celebrates two birthdays every year – her actual birthday on 21 April, and her official birthday held on a Saturday in June – in a tradition going back 250 yearsto try to ensure better weather for the monarch’s official celebrations.
On Friday a national service of thanksgiving was held at St Paul’s Cathedral paying tribute to the Queen’s “faithful devotion” to the country.
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said the Queen had reigned through “war and hardship, turmoil and change”.
‘A symbolic affair’
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESBy Peter Hunt, BBC Royal correspondent
This was an unmissable monarch – wearing, as she was, a vibrant, lime green coat – at an annual occasion she’s never missed – an occasion where the dominant colour is usually the scarlet of the ceremonial soldiers’ tunics.
The guardsmen performing for their colonel in chief on the parade ground were fighting soldiers.
Centuries ago, the colour or flag was a rallying point on the battlefield.
It’s now a symbolic affair. Today, it was held in honour of the Queen who inspected her troops – as Queen Victoria did once, and as all monarchs have done since the time of Edward VII.
The annual pageant ended with the fly past and the Queen and other royals appearing on the balcony.
Dedicated royal watchers will have been delighted by the sight of Princess Charlotte and an animated Prince George.
With Prince Charles and Prince William also there, this was the British monarchy, its present and its future on display.
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Image copyrightMODAlso on Friday, a host of celebrities and figures from public life were recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, including singer Rod Stewart and British astronaut Tim Peake.
On Sunday, the Mall will play host to a street party for some 10,000 people, bringing the three-day celebration to a close.
The Patron’s Lunch will be a celebration of her patronage of more than 600 organisations in the UK and around the Commonwealth.
Image copyrightANNIE LEIBOVITZ
