With just a few weeks to go before the royal wedding takes place, the number of official applications for street parties are significantly down on 2011, when millions of people across the UK marked Prince William’s marriage to Kate Middleton with community-based parties and picnics.
The lack of interest in official parties may well be a reflection of the lack of formality and tradition of the upcoming wedding, but it does not bode well for party product suppliers hoping for a boost in trade.
The wedding itself is taking place in Windsor on Saturday 19 May – and unfortunately clashes with the FA Cup final.
Applications for road closures are in fact so low that some councils have waived the official fees in order to encourage more people to celebrate the wedding.
At the time of going to press, no-one had asked Manchester City Council for closure orders, compared to the 24 granted when William and Kate got married seven years ago.
Devon County Council has had three street party applications compared to 75, while Newcastle City Council has only received one, compared to 31 for William’s and Kate’s nuptials.
Hertfordshire County Council has attracted the most with 51 – but that is still a huge drop when compared to 2011’s figure of 298.
The Welsh don’t seem to be in the mood for celebrating either, with just six street party applications in Cardiff, and there has been only one request across all 32 Scottish councils.
