Saturday the 6th of May marks the Coronation of King Charles III and, to commemorate the occasion, many people are planning on organising events in their street to celebrate with their neighbours, friends and family. If you’re one of them, check out our advice on ensuring your party goes to plan.
Once you’ve decided where your party will take place, the first thing you’ll need to do is decide who to invite. This should be pretty straightforward as you’ll be expected to invite everyone on your street. If your street is on the smaller side, you can easily extend the invitations to cover one or two adjoining streets.
Try to send the invitations out as soon as possible to allow your guests time to reply and make any necessary arrangements. The easiest way to do this is by setting up a WhatsApp group for local residents; if a significant number of your neighbours don’t use WhatsApp, you can always use the more traditional method of putting up flyers or making leaflets and popping them through your neighbours’ doors.
Once you know how many people are attending, it’s time to let the council know if you’d like to put a temporary road closure in place.
Now you know which streets are taking part, it’s time to start decorating! Red, white and blue bunting is essential and can either be bought cheaply or handmade by you and your neighbours.
Other popular decorations include Union Jack coloured flags and tablecloths, and red, white and blue ribbons and balloons. If you’re having tables, bring them to life using flowers picked from local gardens and displayed in jars or vases.
Arguably the most important aspect of the street party is the menu, so plan what you’ll be serving in advance to make it as hassle-free as possible.
Your best bet is to ask everyone to bring a dish or jug of drink but remember to find out who’s bringing what so they don’t all bring the same thing! As the King is the star of the show, use His Majesty as the theme – things like cucumber, coronation chicken or egg and cress sandwiches, Victoria sponge cake and Pimms will all go down well.
You’ll also need to supply any necessary cutlery, plates, drinks receptacles and food storage, avoiding glass items wherever possible, as well as deciding where to position tables and chairs and ensuring you have enough to go around.
Food, drink and decorations are all important but you’ll need to make your street party entertaining if you want people to stay the course. It’s a good idea to set up a TV so everyone can watch the official celebrations live but you should also prepare some games for your guests to play, especially if children will be in attendance.
Games like skittles and bowls are easy to set up in the street, as is cricket if you have enough players and a ball soft enough not to damage any property or cars. You could also provide chalk so kids can draw their own hopscotch boards on the pavement, host a royal quiz or play a giant game of hide and seek. If you have a grassy communal area you could even arrange a tug of war!
You’ll also need to prepare a playlist for the day. Try to keep it neutral, with well known songs everyone can enjoy. Just remember not to play it at ear-splitting volume or keep it going after the kids have gone to bed.
We love a good celebration at Leeds Credit Union and we can’t wait for the Coronation parties to begin. We’d love to see the pictures of your parties so remember to share them on our social media channels!