Plymouth will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of VE Day with the Hoe Promenade and Park at the heart of the city’s celebrations.
On the 8th of May, at 10:30am, at the historic Victorian monument the Belvedere, a flag-raising ceremony and full parade will take place at Plymouth’s chief flagpole, and you can watch the ceremony live on our webcam pages.
Members of the armed forces and veterans will stand to attention, with a Royal Navy guardship and other vessels out in the Sound.
Festivities in the Hoe Park will include live music and an evening concert that will draw to a sunset lighting of the Plymouth Beacon at 8:40pm.
Communities across the city are being encouraged to organise street parties and a showcase of vintage military vehicles to celebrate the end of the War in Europe.
The events on the Hoe are being funded by Plymouth City Council and Babcock International Group, which operates Devonport Dockyard.
Residents looking to organise street parties have a deadline of the 11th of April for road closures if needed.
The city’s BOX will be bringing history to life with archive film clips showing Plymouth during the war years, and especially the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth visit to Plymouth in 1941.
The late Queen Mother sent a message to the city in March 2001, remembering the 60th anniversary of the Plymouth Blitz, at a Charles Church memorial service on the 21st May, 2001.
The letter by the late Queen Mother paid tribute to the ‘city’s fortitude and unconquerable spirit displayed by the people of Plymouth, who suffered dreadfully from enemy air raids in 1941’.
Kevin Kelway, Editor of Westward Shipping News, said: “My mother was born in the Plymouth Blitz and celebrated VE Day with a party at Palace Street Flats on the Barbican in May 1945.”
THE PLAN OF EVENTS
Thursday, May 5: Hold your own street party – with the cost of road closures suspended.
Thursday, May 8: Celebration on Plymouth Hoe
- 10.30am: flag raising, standards and ships in the Sound
- 11am: live music on The Hoe, street party, stalls, and vintage vehicles
- 5.30pm: evening concert
- 8.40pm: Sunset Guard lighting the Plymouth beacon
