The Diamond Jubilee Pageant, also branded ''The World Comes to Windsor'', held between 10 and 13 May 2012 was an equine pageant held in the grounds of

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original c ...

, organised as part of the

Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee The year 2012 marked the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II being the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II on 6 February 1952. The only diamond jubilee celebration for any of Elizabeth's predecessors was in 1897, for the 60th an ...

celebrations.

Date and location

The pageant was to be the first major event of the

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...

celebrations for

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

taking place in 2012. It was to act as a curtain raiser for a programme of Spring and Summer celebrations in the UK which will culminate in an extended bank holiday weekend in June. The pageant was a four-day event held in a 3,000-seat arena the grounds of

in Berkshire, England, taking place on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13 May 2012. The Queen herself is to attend the final day's show. The pageant was to be combined with the annual

Royal Windsor Horse Show The Royal Windsor Horse Show is a horse show held annually since 1943 for five days in May or June in Windsor Home Park.

, with the horse show events occurring during the day, and the pageant shows being held in the evening.

Programme

Theme and hosts

The theme of the pageant is a combination of the Queen's passion for horses, and her

state visit A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state to a foreign country, at the invitation of the head of state of that foreign country, with the latter also acting as the official host for the duration of the state visit. Speaking for the host ...

s to more than 250 countries, many of which have featured horses. The arena set will feature images of

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

in central London. The show will feature military and equestrian displays of riding, as well as dancing and music, over a 90-minute-long programme. The performance is to be hosted by

Alan Titchmarsh Alan Fred Titchmarsh HonFSE (born 2 May 1949) is an English gardener, broadcaster, TV presenter, poet, and novelist. After working as a professional gardener and a gardening journalist, he established himself as a media personality through a ...

, with

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom ...

Martin Clunes Alexander Martin Clunes Order of the British Empire, OBE Deputy Lieutenant, DL (born 28 November 1961) is an English actor, comedian, director and television presenter. He is best known for portraying Martin Ellingham in the ITV (TV network), IT ...

Sanjeev Bhaskar Sanjeev Bhaskar (born 31 October 1963) is a British actor, comedian and television presenter. He is best known for his work in the BBC Two sketch comedy series '' Goodness Gracious Me'' and as the star of the sitcom ''The Kumars at No. 42''. H ...

and

Omid Djalili Omid Djalili ( fa, امید جلیلی; born 30 September 1965) is a British actor, comedian and writer. Early life and education Djalili was born on 30 September 1965 in Chelsea, London, to Iranian Baháʼí parents. He attended Holland Park ...

introducing the various acts on stage.

Performers

The show was initially described as including 500 horses and 800 performers, and later rose to 550 horses and 1,100 performers For the equine pieces, the horses were to be drawn from every continent except Africa, which due to quarantine regulations, would instead be represented by zebras and cattle. The Mounted Band of the

Household Cavalry Regiment The Household Cavalry Regiment (HCR) is an Armoured Cavalry regiment of the British Army based in Bulford Camp in Wiltshire. It is the brother regiment of the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (HCMR) based at Hyde Park Barracks in London - bo ...

and the King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery will open the show. Other acts announced include: :''Lineup is in alphabetical, not running order'' * Abigail Washburn, a Nashville singer and banjo player * Cook Island dancers *

Cossack The Cossacks , es, cosaco , et, Kasakad, cazacii , fi, Kasakat, cazacii , french: cosaques , hu, kozákok, cazacii , it, cosacchi , orv, коза́ки, pl, Kozacy , pt, cossacos , ro, cazaci , russian: казаки́ or ...

s from Russia *

Cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the '' vaqu ...

s from

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a state in the South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the north, Missouri on the northeast, Arkansas on the east, New ...

David Garrett David Christian Bongartz (born 4 September 1980), known by his stage name David Garrett, is a German classical and crossover violinist and recording artist. Early life When Garrett was four years old his father purchased a violin for his ol ...

, a US classical violinist * Dhol drummers and dancers * Huasos from Chile *

Il Divo Il Divo (; ) are a multi-national classical crossover vocal group. The male quartet, which originated in the United Kingdom in December 2003, consists of tenors Urs Bühler, David Miller, and Sébastien Izambard. It also included baritone ...

, a vocal quartet *

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territorie ...

from Canada * The Italian

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...

Mounted 4th Regiment * Mexican singers and dancers * The Nairobi Chamber Chorus *

New South Wales Mounted Police The New South Wales Mounted Police Unit is a mounted section of the New South Wales Police Force. Founded by Governor Thomas Brisbane, on 7 September 1825, the Mounted Police were recruited from a British military regiment stationed in NSW at ...

and Aborigines *

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of ...

i Mounted Activity Ride * The President's Bodyguard of India *

Raghu Dixit Raghupati Dwarakanath Dixit (born 11 November 1974) is an Indian singer-composer, producer, and film score composer who is the frontman for the Raghu Dixit Project, a multilingual folk music band. Dixit's music is an amalgamation of Indian e ...

, an Indian folk singer *

Rolf Harris Rolf Harris (born 30 March 1930) is an Australian entertainer whose career has encompassed work as a musician, singer-songwriter, composer, comedian, actor, painter and television personality. He often used unusual instruments in his performan ...

* The

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

(The Musical Ride) * South African performers from ''The Lion King'' musical *

Susan Boyle Susan Magdalane Boyle (born 1 April 1961) is a Scottish singer. She rose to fame in 2009 after appearing as a contestant on the Britain's Got Talent (series 3), third series of ''Britain's Got Talent'', singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from '. Bo ...

* The Ugandan

Watoto Children's Choir The Watoto Children's Choir is a group of African children choirs based in Kampala, Uganda, at Watoto Church and which tours internationally. Each is composed of about eighteen to twenty-two children from Uganda. Their tours raise money as well ...

Organisation and ticketing

Organisation for the pageant had begun in mid-2010. Simon Brooks Ward was the pageant's director and producer.

and

Angela Rippon Angela May Rippon (born 12 October 1944)"Angela Rippon," ''Contemporary Authors Online'', Detroit: Gale, (2008) ''Gale Biography In Context'' is an English television journalist, newsreader, writer and presenter. Rippon presented radio and tele ...

are ambassadors for the pageant. The pageant was privately funded, with surplus monies raised being donated to charity. Tickets for the shows went on sale in November 2011. The event was expected to attract 12,000 spectators.

Broadcasting

The pageant was broadcast on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

at 18:30 on Sunday 3 June 2012, as a 2-hour programme with the title ''All the Queen's Horses''.

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control 2012 in England Festivals in Berkshire Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II Windsor Castle May 2012 events in the United Kingdom 2010s in Berkshire