Scotland
Ex-Roxy Music front man Bryan Ferry, he of the 'highly distinctive, flexible and partially decayed voice', is holding a concert at Princes Street Gardens East, Edinburgh (0131 226 7010) as part of the jubilee celebrations at 6.30pm on 1 June. Tickets £17-£32.
Wonder at the ancient royal sport of falconry at Falkland Palace, Fife (01337 857397) a Stuart hunting lodge where Mary, Queen of Scots used to hunt with a merlin. A static display and talks on the history of falconry will provide the background to flying displays conducted by a falconer in period costume. No mice will be harmed. Admission £7 adults; £3 children; £5.25 concessions; £19 family (two adults, six kids). Open 12am-5pm Saturday 1 June to Monday 3 June.
Take a trip down memory lane at the Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery, War Memorial Gardens, Kirkcaldy (01592 412860). It is holding 'Golden Years', an exhibition celebrating the years 1952-2001, with a collection of objects, art and photography that reflect Britain's character in every year of this second Elizabethan period. Admission free. Open 10.30am-5pm Monday-Saturday, 2pm-5pm Sunday. 4 May-25 July.
Wales
For four days of free jubilee festivities head down to Cardiff Bay and Cardiff City Centre. All weekend there will be live music, strolling entertainment along Mermaid Quay & Cardiff Barrage, the Lord Mayor's Walk, plus the annual Cardiff Harbour Regatta. The weekend will centre around the Oval Basin which will host three live-music events. (029 2087 2087)
England
Get back to your roots by checking out the middle ages' most popular sport, jousting. Warwick Castle, Warwickshire, (0870 442 2000) hosts a long weekend of silk tents, clashing steel, thundering hooves and knights in armour tilting at each other at full gallop. If you get sick of all that lancing you can always take a look around the spectacular castle. Adult £10.75 to £13; child £6.55 to £7.60; concessions £7.70 to £9.50; family (two adults, two children) £30 to £34. Open Saturday 1 to Tuesday 4 June 10am-6pm.
A traditional Lakeland village fair with stalls, street entertainers, photograph exhibition and live music (theme 'Last Night of the Proms') is taking place at the Hawkshead Jubilee Fair, Ambleside, Cumbria (01539 442435; www.lakeland-hideaways.co.uk) starting noon, 1 June.
Join the crowds watching top-class classical artists including Mstislav Rostropovich, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, conductor Sir Andrew Davies and members of the Royal Ballet in Buckingham Palace Gardens (www.goldenjubilee.gov.uk) on Saturday 1 June at 8pm. Tickets have been distributed by ballot, but the concert will be relayed to giant screens in Green Park, St James's Park, The Mall and Horse Guards and played live on BBC TV and BBC Radio Three.
St Martin-in-the-Fields Church, Trafalgar Square (020 7839 8362) is holding a celebratory concert given by the choirs of St-Martin-in-the-Fields and the Belmont Ensemble, featuring Handel's 'Coronation Anthems' and Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons'. Adults £6-£18, open Saturday 1 June, at 7.30pm.
If you haven't already been lord of all you survey for 30 minutes on the London Eye (0870 5000 600) the wheel will be spinning until midnight over the jubilee weekend with 10p from each ticket sold going to the Queen's charities. This will enable visitors to enjoy the jubilee activities, such as Monday's fireworks in Hyde Park, from 450ft above the capital.
Discover the connections between royalty and wildlife during the Royal Wildlife Week held at the Wetland Centre, Queen Elizabeth's Walk, Barnes (020 8409 4400) from Saturday 1 to Friday 7 June. This includes a 'Living History Royal Wildlife Walk' where the guides will include Swan Uppers, the people who look after all the Queen's swans. The Wetland Centre's 105 acres are home to more than 140 wild bird species, 300 species of butterflies and moths, 18 species of drag onflies and damselflies, four species of amphibian and a host of itinerant species. Admission: £6.75 adults; £5.50 concessions; £4 children aged 4-16; £17.50 family (two adults, two kids). Open 9.30am-6pm.
The Lord Mayor, reserve forces and children's groups will conduct a golden jubilee parade through the streets of Newcastle, Tyne and Wear, starting at the civic centre at 11.30am on Saturday 1 June (0191 277 8000).
The Tower of London (020 7709 0765) was besieged in 1267 by Earl Gilbert the Red, an event which will be commemorated as costumed actors 'Attack the Tower!' (shows at 11.30am, 12.30pm, 2.30pm and 3.30pm 1-5 June). The tower is holding a special exhibition looking at its role in the coronation from the Middle Ages and the display of the Crown Jewels to the public from the sixteenth century to today. Admission £11.50 adults; £8.75 concessions; £7.50 children; £34 family (two adults, three children. Opens 9am-5.30pm.
Oxford colleges and other public buildings with restricted access are opening as part of the Oxford Jubilee Festival (07879 405262 for programme details) from Saturday 1 June to Monday 3 June. Events range from a lunch in Christchurch college dining hall (where Harry Potter was filmed) and orchestrals in the All Souls quads to video art installations in council buildings and fire works and music on Monday evening. Admission generally free.
Windsor has been the Queen and Prince Philip's weekend home for the last 40 years. Marching through from 11am Monday 3 June will be over 2,000 people of all ages representing more than 100 local organisations, schools and bands, who will feature different themes to cover significant events of the Queen's reign. The Queen and Philip will watch the parade from the Guildhall in Windsor High Street.
It's strange to think that before the Queen took the crown pop music didn't exist - and we mustn't hold it against her. Artists including Sir Cliff Richard, Ozzy Osbourne, Will Young, Tony Bennett, Blue, the Corrs, Annie Lennox, Rod Stewart, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Sir Paul McCartney and S Club 7 will perform in Buckingham Palace Gardens on Monday 3 June at 7.30pm. Tickets have been distributed by ballot but the concert will be relayed to giant screens in Green Park, St James's Park, The Mall and Horse Guards and played live on BBC TV and BBC Radio Two.
The London jubilee parade on Tuesday 4 June begins at 10.40am with a ceremonial procession of the Queen and Prince Philip in the Gold Coach from Buckingham Palace. At 11.30am there is a service of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral. From 1.45pm-5.30pm there is a National Festival on the Mall, featuring parades and pageants. and at 5.40pm a balcony appearance by the Queen and her family will be followed by a fly past of numerous planes including Concorde and the Red Arrows.
Days out for the republicans
Scotland
Check out Big In Falkirk (0141 552 7136), Scotland's national street-arts festival running to 3 June, which includes the UK's only National Busking competition. This and other artistic events take place in Falkirk town centre, the surrounding area and satellite events in other local communities such as Denny, Bo'ness and Stenhousemuir. Among the main attractions are performances by Bob Geldof, the BBC Concert Orchestra, the BBC Big Band and hot-air balloon rides at the unique Falkirk Wheel and the Glasgow Rep performing Shakespeare's As You Like It in the grounds of Callendar Par. More generally roads, squares and parks will be transformed with live theatre, dance, music, mime, carnival art, circus and new technologies. Admission free.
A weekend of fun-filled activities, wildlife walks and lectures, badger, bird and otter watching trips, dolphin cruises, woodland wanders, seabird cruises, rock pooling, pond dips and bat walks, are available during the Speyside Environmental Festival at the Moray Firth Wildlife Centre, Spey Bay, Aberdeenshire (01343 820339). The festival takes place from Mon day 3 June to Sunday 9 June and includes an Adopt a Beach clean up, bouncy castles, pipe band, brass band, life-size whale and dolphin models including an 100ft blue whale, and a host of environment agencies and charities will have displays. Some events are free, admission on others can cost up to £5 adults; £2.50 children. Booking essential. Open 10.30am-5pm.
Wales
The author of Under Milk Wood is celebrated at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Somerset Place, Swansea (01792 463980). It is launching an exhibition on Sunday 2 June entitled Dylan Thomas - Man and Myth . The exhibition looks at Thomas's life and work and the myths surrounding him. It focuses on the importance of Swansea to his work, and gives everyone the opportunity to see the original manuscripts, books and memorabilia. Admission free, open 10am-4.30pm.
England
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Walk and Playground, Black Lion Gate, Bayswater Road, London (020 7298 2141) consists of a children's playground (under-12s) at Kensington Gardens as just one stop on the seven-mile Memorial Walk which links up with Hyde Park, Green Park and St James's Park. The centrepiece is a 50ft wooden pirate ship surrounded by sand, there is also a wigwam village, a treehouse encampment and a 'movement and musical' garden with a xylophone and water piano. A seascape path leads to a mermaid's fountain past a sleeping crocodile who occasionally squirts water. There is also a swing park for under-threes and an area specially for the disabled. Admission free, open 10am-7.45pm every day. Nearest tubes are Queensway and Bayswater. Buses 12, 94. Unaccompanied adults, teenagers and dogs are not allowed in the park.
Have a day at the Hay Festival, Hay on Wye (01497 821217). Britain's premier literary festival perches on the border of Wales and England on the spine of King Offa's Dyke. It offers a diverse range of authorial and literary discussions from 31 May to 9 June. Tuesday 4 June highlights Afro-American literary queen Maya Angelou at 7.30pm, TV's Mr Survivor Ray Mears (5.30pm), novelists Sebastian Faulks (2.30pm) and Ian McEwan (4pm), and a children's Harry Potter session with the producers of the film explaining how they transferred the books to the silver screen (children £3, adults free). Tickets £5-£15.
Thomas the Tank Engine will be taking a working holiday from the Isle of Sodor to give rides at the Thomas the Tank Engine Weekend on the Paignton and Dartmouth Steam Railway, Paignton (01803 555872). Also Thomas's friends Mavis and Duck will be shunting troublesome trucks, and the Fat Controller and a locomotive will be answering children's questions. If rail travel palls boat rides are available on the River Dart. Open 10.30am-5.30pm, 1-2 June.
We Will Rock You, the Ben Elton-penned musical set to a soundtrack of the rock band Queen's greatest hits, is currently showing at the Dominion Theatre, Tottenham Court Road (box office 020 7316 4840). Set in a future where there is no music, a boy called 'Mercury' hears tunes and brings them to his world. Tickets are available for performances from 1-4 June starting at £22.50.
When Oliver Cromwell died in 1658 Britain was, largely due to his hard work, a republic. He'd be turning in his grave to see us now. Celebrate the UK's 40-year flirtation with republicanism at the Cromwell Museum, Grammar School Walk, Huntingdon (01480 375830). It's housed in a former grammar school which Cromwell attended and contains paintings and personal items, including his parliamentary hat and boots, from the Great Protector's life. Admission free. Open Tuesday-Friday 11am-5pm, Saturday-Sunday 11am-4pm.
Just 40 minutes drive up the road is Oliver Cromwell's house, 29 St Mary's Street, Ely (01353 662062). Although it dates back to the thirteenth century it has been lovingly restored to its seventeenth-century state, with roaring log fire and a 'ghost' in Cromwell's bed around which you can hear the tale of how his head, upon Charles II's return to power, was paraded around the world until its interment in 1960. Admission £3.50 adults; £3 concessions; £8.50 family ticket (two adults plus three children ) open 10am-5.30pm.
La République
In many areas traffic will be restricted all weekend by jubilee events, not to mention the more than 4,000 street, garden and pub parties planned for Monday 3 June. One way for diehard republicans to avoid this bonhomie is to escape to France, which dispatched its royalty around 210 years ago. Eurostar (08705 186186) offers tickets to Paris or Brussels for the weekend costing from £120 return, departing London Waterloo. Buzz Air (0870 2407070) offers return flights to Rouen on 31 May from £120, Caen on 2 June from £120 and Dijon on 2 June from £130 (prices include taxes).
