The highest number of street parties were held for decades.
The Local Government Association announced that 9500 council formal road closures were set up for street parties for the Jubilee weekend, 2-5 June 2012.
This estimate is based on figures for road closures from the Local Government Association for England (7089 closures) and Wales (353). See their press release here. There is little tradition of street parties in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
With many more informal street meets planned in addition, we estimate that 2 million people had a street party of some sort. This is the highest number of such traditional neighbours’ events since the Silver Jubilee in 1977. (This is in addition to 1000s of community jubilee events that were held).
But street parties are for life, not just for Jubilees. In any street there are a wide range of views about the Queen and the royals, but they still want a street party together, and to build community spirit.
We have been promoting street parties for 10 years and 260,000 people have read our streetparty.org.uk site since January.
Whether or not you are a royal fan, we can all get swept along with the bunting. And why not? But it should not be assumed that everyone is ‘celebrating’ the Jubilee. It is like other cultural rituals, like how most people enjoy christmas and all its family meanings but are not christians.
Street parties are a traditional excuse for a street party that started in 1919, and many women particularly have cherished memories of one they had for the Silver Jubilee and want to give their kids the chance of having one.
Also, because the Jubilee was a half term holiday many people were away, and many residents told us that they are planning street parties later in the year, especially in September.
This is what has developed over years in hot spot street party places like Bristol, the UK street party capital, Oxford, Southampton, Lambeth in London and Brighton. Bristol normally has over 200 a year and there are ‘only’ 92 mainly new ones for the Jubilee.
See our Guide for Residents here.
