BRITONS, WHO have grown up with a tradition of organising street parties for momentous royal and national events, seem to be warming up to celebrate the wedding of Prince William.
It is being estimated that around one million Britons will celebrate long holiday weekend, good weather and the royal wedding with street parties. Till now, 5,500 formal road closures have been arranged where residents are holding proper traffic-free events, according to the Local Government Association. London, with 825 events is the leader in street parties and Prime Minister David Cameron has taken the lead by organising one in 10 Downing Street.
People will also resort to informal StreetMeets without closing the road, according to Chris Gittins, director of Streets Alive. He has estimated that this will double the number of celebrations to more than 10,000. He estimates that an average of 80 people will attending each one, leading to a final figure of about 1 million joining. However, the anti-monarchy group Republic will be organising its “Not the Royal Wedding” street party in Holborn, central London, on the day to highlight democracy and people power. The group estimates that there are 10 million republicans in Britain.
Kate Middleton’s fellow villagers in Bucklebury have emerged as the most enthusiastic street party organisers. The celebrations will begin in Bucklebury with Indian-origin shopowners Hashmukh and Chandrika Shingadia, who will be away in London attending the wedding, organising a free wedding breakfast for the 2,000-odd residents of the village.
The Bucklebury farm park will then entice residents with a hog roast, live music, a crown and tiara contest and ferret racing and a two-and-a-half-foot-high cake will be the highlight of the afternoon at the event.
At the same time, in Chapel Row green, some 2,000-odd visitors are expected for the party with big screen, barbeque and of course, beer.
“If the weather holds out like it is today, everybody in England will be having street parties of some kind, celebrating one way or the other. Here at Chapel Row, we have a big green. There will be a big screen there and we are expecting a couple of thousand people from throughout the area. There will be a barbeque, hog roast, beer tent. In deer park, they have got 1,500 people down there. There’s a party here on that evening as well,” local butcher Martin G. Fidler, owner of Bladebone Butchery at Chapel Row, said.
The Bladebone pub will host a “knights and maidens” themed party by the Knights of the Bucklebury round table, the Cottage Inn will organise a fireworks display and Old Boot Inn, owned by John Haley, will have a wedding disco and barbeque.
Streets Alive is an organisation that tries to foster friendship amongst people with street parties said it would have expected double the number of events if the royal wedding was being held in the summer. This is the first national event not held in the summer since street parties started in 1919, Mr Gittins said.
“This tradition is so great for the country for building a sense of community spirit at the street level. Residents meet an average of 8 new neighbours, our research has shown. Also, most residents, up to 85 per cent, attend which is unique compared to any other type of event,” Mr Gittins said.