Sunday, June 3, 2012

1,000 boats on Thames for Jubilee flotilla

(AP) LONDON - More than 1,000 boats are to sail down the River Thames on Sunday, in a flotilla tribute to Queen Elizabeth II's 60 years on the throne that organizers are calling the biggest gathering on the river for 350 years.

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Despite cool, drizzly weather, hundreds of thousands of people are expected to line the riverbanks between Hammersmith and Tower Bridge in London, feting the British monarch whose longevity has given her the status of the nation's favorite grandmother.

The queen and members of her family will lead the river pageant aboard a flower-bedecked royal barge, accompanied by skiffs, barges, narrowboats, motor launches, row boats and sailing vessels from around the world.

"We in Britain are experts at not letting the weather spoil our fun," said Adrian Evans, pageant master for Sunday's flotilla. "The London Philharmonic Orchestra will be playing 'Singin' In The Rain' as they travel down the river, and the crowd can sing along with them."

Hundreds of people ignored the persistent rain and camped out overnight to secure prime riverside spots. Crowds swelled into the thousands Sunday, with revelers in hats, flags, leggings and rain ponchos adorned with the Union flag mixing with burger and cotton candy vendors along the 7-mile (11-kilometer) route.

"It would have been wonderful if it had been sunny like last Sunday but we have come prepared," said 57-year-old Christine Steele. "We have got blankets, brollies (umbrellas), flags and bunting. We even got our glittery Union Jack hats and wigs, and the Champagne is on ice."

The spectacle is a tribute to Britain's past - monarchs used the river as their main highway for centuries, and naval power built the island nation's once-great empire - as well as to its abiding love of boats and the sea.

Among the flotilla vessels will be more than three dozen "Dunkirk Little Ships," private boats that rescued thousands of British soldiers from the beaches of France after the German invasion in 1940 - a defeat that became a major victory for wartime morale.

The four-day Diamond Jubilee celebrations also include thousands of street parties across the country on Sunday. Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, joined hundreds of people for a damp al fresco lunch on Piccadilly, one of London's main shopping streets.

Not everyone in Britain is celebrating. The anti-monarchist group Republic held a riverbank protest Sunday to oppose the wave of jubilee-mania.

"People are sick and tired of being told they must celebrate 60 years of one very privileged, very remote and very uninspiring head of state," said the group's chief executive, Graham Smith. "The hereditary system is offensive to all the democratic values this country has fought for in the past."

Jubilee celebrations kicked off Saturday with a royal day at the races, as the queen watched a horse with the courtly name of Camelot win the Epsom Derby.