At the end of May, beginning of June, the UK was in party
mode to celebrate 50 years of the Queen on the throne. Two public holidays
added to the weekend lead to four days of celebrations. Street parties
were held across the UK and thousands went to Buckingham Palace in the
evenings for massive rock and classical concerts.

The English Tourist Council predicted that around one
third of Britons took part in a Golden Jubilee event of some kind over
the long bank holiday weekend. Also to celebrate the event there was almost
2,000 beacons lit across the UK and many more in all of the Commonwealth
countries. The fact that the jubilee coincided with the start of the World
Cup gave an extra boost to the festivities and resulted in far fewer (about
1.5 million people) people going abroad to take advantage of the 4 day
holiday.