Diamond Jubilee Concert
We were proud to supply over 13,000 baskets for the Diamond Jubilee picnic, which was held at Buckingham Palace on Monday. As suppliers, we were lucky enough to be invited and our colleagues, Dan and Ali Haysom had an incredible day there.
This is Dan’s account of the day:
If you’re a gardener, then you will have appreciated the garden, with a sizeable pond and absolutely immaculate flower beds. If you’re a celebrity fan, then I can tell you that Eamonn Holmes and Andrew Marr both enjoyed their picnics but the latter (and his wife) did not leave with their basket. I’m trying not to take it to heart but I’m struggling.
When we walked through into the Palace, all I could smell was the sweet smell of wicker in the air. I had to pinch myself, was I dreaming? Waitrose had 10 articulated lorries lined up and standing to attention with the baskets laid out on pallets being handed out by the super friendly staff.
The link below is to a good article to show you what was inside the hamper. Amazingly, it was one hamper per person, and the basket was jammed full of goodies. For those that like detail, the hamper had a very presentable top layer and the bottom layer was packed into two card inserts. The plastic cutlery was first rate and Ali was very excited about the quality of the napkin (single ply but, to be fair, it was very luxurious)…
We had a walk around the garden and spent a good couple of hours soaking in the music and general atmosphere. Although 12,000 people were in the garden, it didn’t feel particularly squashed. The Queen has quite a good sized garden, it turns out.
So, with bellies full, we headed back out to the front of the Palace to the concert area. We had pretty good seats and a fantastic view of the light show that was projected on to the front of the Palace. The acts were on the whole very good and the atmosphere was really electric. However, none of the TV footage or photos show Prince Andrew with a union flag draped around his shoulders and stood up dancing, so there is some kind of censorship going on there! Cliff and Heston had obviously conferred beforehand, with Cliff’s smoked salmon coloured suit beautifully complimenting Heston’s Tea Smoked Salmon from earlier.
Needless to say, the fireworks were quite something to watch and were a fitting end to a day that we will never forget.
The strangest part of the day was watching everybody walking around with a VH basket; I did feel very proud. VH got a mention on the menu card inside the hamper too, which was unexpected and thankfully it wasn’t sorted alphabetically. Obviously it was listed in order of importance….
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