Queen's Platinum Jubilee: Here is the range of celebrations in Sussex and how the data shows us the extent of public interest

Whenever she has visited East and West Sussex over her seven decades as our Queen, there has been enormous excitement and the crowds have always turned out in force to line the streets and shout their words of welcome.

One such occasion was in October 2003 when the Queen visited Horsham.

People of all ages lined the route and waved at the Royal visitor as her car travelled through the Carfax and on to North Street.

Accompanied by Prince Philip, the Monarch opened the refurbished Capitol theatre, and unveiled the sculpture in the newly-created Forum, the heritage sundial, before visiting Christ’s Hospital.

You can be reminded of that day here:https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/news/people/horsham-nostalgia-were-you-in-the-crowd-when-the-queen-visited-in-2003-3673082

Across these four days of celebration from June 2-5, the residents of West and East Sussex – in every city, town and village – have shown that same determination to throw themselves into party mood and to demonstrate their loyalty to a woman who has always put service to others first.

Many houses are decked out in bunting, with photos of Her Majesty adorning windows and Union Jacks fluttering in the Sussex-by-the-Sea breeze.

But the sheer range of celebrations is hugely impressive too.

There are, of course, the big set-piece events – the beacon lightings, the church services, and the parades.

For many months there has been a massive voluntary tree planting programme – The Queen’s Green Canopy – led by the Lords-Lieutenant to mark 2022. Thousands upon thousands of new trees have taken root.

In addition, this week, there is everything from teddy bears’ picnics to a whole host of street parties.

You can find details of all the events happening where you live in Sussex on our SussexWorld website https://www.sussexexpress.co.uk/

Our heritage weekly newspapers also have full details of local celebrations. They are the Chichester Observer, the Bognor Regis Observer, the Midhurst and Petworth Observer, the West Sussex Gazette, the Littlehampton Gazette, the Worthing Herald, the County Times, the Crawley Observer, the Mid Sussex Times, the Sussex Express, the Eastbourne Herald, the Bexhill and Battle Observer and the Hastings and Rye Observer.

They are on sale now – and next week’s editions will each have special supplements packed with photos of your celebrations.

But it is the SussexWorld website that gives us the clearest indication of the level of support for these jubilee celebrations.

We can see from the data every story that is being read.

For the past week the top 50 best read stories have been dominated by articles giving details of jubilee celebrations in Sussex.

Today, June 2, virtually every one of the top 20 stories is about the jubilee.

So the data is clear – the people of Sussex want to read about the local jubilee celebrations and we have no doubt thousands will take part in them.

SussexWorld and its newspapers could not be more proud of our Queen nor could we be more sincere in wishing her the very best of health and happiness and a wonderful four days of celebrations in which we will all share.