Queens Jubilee transcript

Transcript

So we’re going to have 250 carnival dancers today coming into London’s Embankment Place to get ready. Normally this space would be used for deliveries in and out of the building, so it’s quite a rare request.

Well, today I’m going to be a giraffe. I am part of Mahogany Carnival and as part of that, I will be a giraffe in the Queen’s Jubilee Parade. We have lots of schoolchildren, a number of schoolchildren with us. And we also are presenting a procession of the Queen’s dress as it emerged at the time of her coronation, as part of that.

One of the biggest things for us was obviously, of course, security. You know, we’re in a busy London street. The second busiest street in London during normal times. We’ve got to make sure we get the security right.

So I’m here with my colleagues, and just help with the costumes, make up, and just making sure people are ready for the carnival, and the procession part of the Queen’s arrival, that they’re going to represent. We’ll go past PwC and I think further down. The part the Mahogany is representing today is about the Queen’s ascension to the throne.

We have a beautiful procession of I think about thirty to thirty-three ladies, making up the dress that she actually wore in that coronation, which is so beautiful, so powerful. And I can’t wait for everyone to see it!

Mahogany is all about telling old stories in a new way. They go around the UK and across the globe using carnival to just tell stories and I think something that’s so beautiful about this Jubilee weekend is that’s what people have been doing, you know. Back then, people may not have been as represented as they are now, but it’s bringing many cultures together to represent those old stories in a new way.

PwC is involved by providing us with the garage of One Embankment Place. We would be coming out of Embankment Place onto the road and proceeding down to the mall, where everybody would be waiting for us. I have worked with Mahogany Carnival for years and years in terms of supporting Clary, who actually leads Mahogany Carnival, in a number of different ways.

So I’ve been here since the early hours of the morning, helping people into their outfits and doing a little bit of coordination. So I've given up some of my weekends to really just be here as a figure, that I’m part of PwC. It is a very historical office, so you know, speaking to some of the older people that work for PwC, I do sometimes hear stories about the local environment and the actual site that EP was built on. So, it’s really amazing to see what’s going on today and really the transformation. It;s not what I see everyday but it is interesting to see. I’m a Londoner, born and raised, so it’s great to see, you know, different people from different sorts of backgrounds and ethnicities, taking part in what’s going on today.

I’m glad that PwC can be seen as a trailblazer to say “Hey, we are going to do something out of the ordinary and open our doors so that you can use our site.” I feel proud to be a PwC Associate today.