Four-day festival for Golden Jubilee

Street parties, local community projects, a three-month tour of Britain and a four-day weekend of celebrations were promised by the Government yesterday to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee.

She will visit all parts of the United Kingdom next summer, culminating in a four-day weekend of celebrations in June around two Golden Jubilee bank holidays, on Monday 3 June and Tuesday 4 June.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport will take the lead in planning the events, putting the emphasis on local celebrations rather than a huge national jamboree.

Voluntary organisations will be offered National Lottery grants of up to £5,000 to fund projects to mark the anniversary and community groups will be encouraged to hold street parties, echoing the celebrations for the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977.

Mr Blair said the Queen had made it clear that the taxpayer should incur "no undue expenditure" on the celebrations. Officials are keen for the emphasis to be on community-based celebrations rather than memorials and statues.

But a specially-designed jubilee emblem has been designed to "brand" events and souvenirs.

The Queen also decided against a central Golden Jubilee charity fund, nominating instead organisations of which she is patron, including Barnardo's, CRUSE Bereavement Services, I CAN, a charity for children with speech difficulties, the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution; and the Soldiers, Sailors and Air Force Association.

Mr Blair said: "This significant national anniversary of 50 years of the Queen's reign will offer people of all ages and cultures and from all walks of life the opportunity for celebration.

"The events surrounding the jubilee will provide numerous opportunities for voluntary and community service.

"It should be a time for looking forward as well as back, including at the great changes that have taken place in the nation's life during Her Majesty's reign." The proposals were also backed by Kim Howells, junior minister in the Culture department, who famously described the Royal family as "bonkers" earlier this year.