Trooping of the Colour question

just go and stand in the Mall. You will see the procession back and forth and can look up at the flypast.

You just won't be in the audience for the ceremony.

Watching the parade from the Mall is really more fun. For the ceremony itself in the parade grounds, there's a lot of sitting and waiting, and you are expected to wear morning dress and a hat! If you want to watch one of the parade ground ceremonies during the week, check out Beating Retreat on Wednesday or Thursday evening. Tickets may still be available for one of those. It's shorter, not so dressy, and has horses, bands, and fireworks.

Hi -

Having been to the ceremony on Horseguards, I think the idea that to sit in the seats you need to wear morning dress is inaccurate. Certainly I didn’t and nobody near us was in morning dress. I believe there is a requirement to dress smartly - we did, jacket and tie, sensible shoes (but no hat) for me - and many of those round where we were sitting were military from all over the world and they were in dress uniform. But who knows, maybe we were in the cheap seats!

Ian

"those round where we were sitting were military from all over the world and they were in dress uniform"

They were the most properly dressed people there. Dress uniforms are considered equal to or better than tuxedos.

Hi Bob -

Point taken about the military version of the tuxedo! The ‘civvies’ there were largely smart - no shorts, jeans or t-shirts to be seen. Point is everybody had made an effort, but nobody was in full morning dress, or being turned away if they weren’t!

Maybe if you were a civvie in the royal party morning dress would be compulsory if you had no military uniform to wear.

You can turn up smart casual and fit right in, but you need to be in possession of a ticket to get into the seating round Horseguards.

Ian

P.S. I have no idea where the tickets for standing apply to I’m afraid.

Thanks for the info. I’m just going to show up. The site wasn’t clear about where standing was, so I wasn’t sure if that meant ceremony, mall, etc. And thought surely not everyone on the mall had a standing ticket.

Nobody in the Mall has a standing ticket.