“I have my gin, so I’m fine now,” said Chez Ferdinand, a retired office manager with a crown and a cape as she paused to hand out bowler hats and plastic ties with a union flag.
“We have everything here. We have farmer, Eton mess, jubilee cake, buns and cream … We have pink gin, we have vodka, we have wine, beer, Pimm’s. What would you like?
“I would not say that I am a great realist, but we like to do something every time. We live locally, so we thought it would be good to support it. “
Ferdinand was organizing the family table on Passeig de Morecambe as part of an attempt to set a new record for the biggest jubilee street party. There were thousands of “big jubilee” lunches across the UK on Sunday, but the coastal city of Lancaster wanted to be the biggest.
“Jubilee” was the key word, said Luke Trevaskis, the city council secretary. They weren’t trying to set a new world record for any street party, as it was being held by the organizers of an incredible 37-mile-long event on a stretch of highway in Dortmund, Germany in 2010.
Organizers of the event said they expected about 5,000 people to attend. Photo: Christopher Thomond / The Guardian
“The last two years have been a very difficult time for everyone, and people haven’t had a chance to spend time with others, so we want to make up for lost time,” Trevaskis said.
“We started planning this event when we were coming out of confinement and it just grew and grew. Ticket demand has been absolutely phenomenal.”
The event featured 500 tables stretching 1.6 miles (2.5 km) along the boardwalk and organizers expected about 5,000 people to come. “Today we trust the patriotism of the residents of Morecambe.”
If the weather had been great, Trevaskis estimates that more than 10,000 people would have taken part.
The clouds remained stubbornly gray, but the rain held on.
In full swing: the acts included the performance of a samba dance band. Photo: Christopher Thomond / The Guardian
Attendees at the event included Paul and Kath Zanelli, at a table with their union flag tablecloth held by four cans of Tetley bitter. “It’s a pleasure to see the community come together,” Kath said. “It’s great to see the city so busy, especially after the Covid.”
She said she was a royalist, except for her husband Paul. “It’s a shame the weather, but I don’t think it’s slowing down too much,” Paul said.
The party was supported by the Eden Project, which plans a £ 125 million advance site in the city.
Tim Narey, Eden North’s project director, said the jubilee lunches were an extension of his long Big Lunch initiative to bring communities together for food. “There are over 200,000 great lunches across the UK, from Orkney to Penzance. It’s really pretty amazing.”
On Sunday, Morecambe was boiling, something that could not be said very often in recent years.
“Getting visitors back to Morecambe will be amazing,” Narey said. “Until about 1977, the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, this place was still very vibrant, and then short-haul flights and European holiday packages were really on the edge of the cliff; took out the main visitors.
“Like many coastal cities, Morecambe has not had much luck or investment, but it is an absolutely amazing and unique place. You look at the amazing bay and see the peaks of the Lake District.”
Louise Simpson and Dave Hodges at the Jubilee Lunch. Photo: Christopher Thomond / The Guardian
Morecambe’s acts included a samba dance band and singers, and volunteers firing red, white, and blue smoke from the canyons of the promenade. Amid much coughing, many people erupted in the performances of the national anthem.
The day was more fun than a professional record attempt, and there was no sign of the official award of the Guinness World Record.
Dave Hodges, a Slyne plumber in Lancaster, was dressed in red, white, and blue, and, a bit like an armed thief in the movie Point Break, wore a face mask that he refused to take off.
Why was he dressed the way he was? “Because I’m a cake,” he replied cheerfully.
“He’s the joker in the family,” said his partner, Louise Simpson, in a more charitable way. “If there’s a chance to dress up, he’ll do it. He ran the hospice race the other week dressed as a shark. If you do anything, you have to do it 100%.
“We made a jubilee barbecue at home and made everyone dress in red, blue and white. And I’m a realist. I love the queen. I think the royal family is amazing. “