Pop royalty to play for Queen Elizabeth

DHAKA: The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee will be marked with a star-studded concert in front of Buckingham Palace later.

Sir Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder and Sir Elton John are among the artists, and Madness will perform on the roof.

The audience will comprise of people who got tickets in a public ballot and those from charities with royal links, reports BBC.

At the end of the show, the Queen will light one of the last of around 4,500 beacons across the globe - in celebration of her 60-year reign.

In the afternoon, prior to the Jubilee concert, 10,000 ballot winners and VIPs will enjoy a picnic in the gardens of Buckingham Palace created by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and royal chef Mark Flanagan.

Individual hampers handed out to each of the guests will contain tea-smoked Scottish salmon, chilled garden soup, a coronation chicken-inspired dish, and strawberry crumble made from fruit grown on the Queen’s Sandringham estate.

There will also be cupcakes created by Fiona Cairns, who baked the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding cake, and cheese and biscuits.

A union jack flag and plastic poncho in case of rain will also be included in the hampers, which will arrive at Buckingham Palace at about 10:30 BST in a convoy of eight lorries after being assembled in Leicester overnight.

The concert follows Sunday’s spectacular River Thames pageant which attracted hundreds of thousands of rain-soaked people to watch the flotilla of 1,000 vessels.

BDST: 1402 HRS, JUN 4, 2012

Edited by Robab Rosan, Cultural Affairs Editor