London for Christmas

1st January 2011 London's New Year's Day Parade 2012, is the FIRST OFFICIAL EVENT in a year of celebrations to mark Her Majesty QUEEN ELIZABETH II's DIAMOND JUBILEE. London's New Year's Day Parade 2012 is also the FIRST OFFICIAL EVENT in London's 2012 OLYMPIC YEAR.

• 1 January 2011 will be the 25th Anniversary of the New Year's Day Parade
• The Parade starts at 11.45 on Piccadilly at the junction with Berkeley Street outside the Ritz Hotel and finishes around 3pm at Parliament Street.
• The Parade route is - Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Street.
• More than 10,000 performers representing 20 countries world-wide will assemble for the 2011 Parade.
• More than half a million are expected to pack London's famous streets to see this fantastic spectacular as it weaves its way along the 2 mile route.
• 3 hours of Live Satellite Coverage will be beamed around the world. Major broadcasters such as the BBC, CNN, Fox news, SKY and CBS are expected to cover the event.
• The 2011 Parade will be filled with marching bands, cheerleaders, clowns acrobats, balloons and much more!
• Stars of the show will be up to 33 stunning entries from each of the London Boroughs and the Capital's two cities.

At the heart of the London Parade there is a competition between the London Boroughs called 'The Let's Help London Challenge'.

Every year since 1997 each of London's 31 Boroughs along with the City of Westminster has been invited to enter the Parade with an act, float, or other form of entertainment or exhibit that demonstrates a facet of the Borough. With so many wonderfully diverse and exciting parts of London the Borough entries in 'The Let's Help London Challenge' form one of the great highlights of the Parade.

The Boroughs are all competing for a share of the big charity prize pot which in recent years has reached £ 40,000. Let's Help London Challenge prizes have made huge differences to a multitude of local London charities since 1997. In fact the Parade's efforts for charity began long before the Borough Challenge was created. Every year since the parade's inception a big cheque has been presented by the Parade to a local or national charity. With the annual street collection taken into account well over a million pounds has already been raised or donated by London's New Year's Day Parade since 1987.

'Let's Help London Challenge
I'm sure our chosen theme for 2012 does not come as a surprise to any of you! 'The Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee'. We really hope all Boroughs will be taking part this year and are eagerly awaiting your entries.

The judges for 2012 will be placed in the finale performance arena at the end of the Parade route just alongside Parliament Square so all of the boroughs will have to keep their entry sharp right up to the end of the Parade.

Finally don't forget the prizes are only a part of the charity fund raising picture. These boroughs are entertaining you to a fabulous feast of entertainment for a full three hours and for free. When you think something is good show it by digging into your pocket and contributing to the street collection that will be made throughout the Parade.

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