Diamond Jubilee: Crowds gather for picnic and concert

TICKET-HOLDERS for a star-studded Diamond Jubilee concert for the Queen have enjoyed specially-created picnics in the gardens of Buckingham Palace.Actors including Sir Paul McCartney will play at the concert which will be watched by 12,000 people.Meanwhile, the Duke of Edinburgh has been taken to hospital with a bladder infection, Buckingham Palace said.The show is due to end with the Queen lighting one of 4,500 beacons across the world marking her 60-year reign.Beacons in Commonwealth countries including Tonga and New Zealand have already been lit.Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard lit her country’s beacon at Parliament House in Canberra.The beacons are being lit at 22:00 local time in the Commonwealth and British overseas territories - those in the UK, Channel Islands and Isle of Man will be set alight between 22:00 and 22:30 BST.Ticket-holders entered the palace gardens - where teams of helpers handed out picnic hampers created by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and royal chef Mark Flanagan - to the accompaniment of a steel band.Kelly Downey, 21, at the palace with her sister Shannon, 17, from Northern Ireland, said: “It’s amazing - it’s class.“We have chilled country garden soup, Scottish smoked salmon, all kinds of bread, jubilee chicken, cheese, chutney and three cakes.“The only thing is I don’t drink champagne.”