Not all Britons agog with royal nuptials hoopla
Source: Agencies |
March 30, 2011, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THERE'S still a month to go until the royal wedding and yet some Britons are already asking: Is it over yet?
While millions around the world are following every detail of the wedding planning - the guest list, the cake, the carriage, the dress - others are desperately trying to tune it out.
In the British press, scores of stories about the April 29 nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton sit alongside grimmer news: An earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, war in Libya, and a diet of spending cuts, job losses and inflation in Britain.
It's no surprise many people are not in a party mood.
"I'm tired of hearing all about it," said Andreas Dopner, 24, a postgraduate researcher at London's Imperial College. "You see it on television, the Internet, everywhere. I don't believe in having a royal family and I think the money could be spent better elsewhere."
For many British businesses, the wedding is good news. International interest in the nuptials and the predicted pro-Britannia "feel-good factor" will bring in extra tourists, giving a boost to hotels, restaurants, shops and royal-related tourist attractions.
But there also will be an exodus, with several million Britons heading abroad, thanks to the lucky timing of the wedding day - a holiday for most - between the Easter weekend and the May Day public holiday.
Clever employees quickly calculated they could get an 11-day break by taking only three days off work.
"I've booked it myself for that very reason," said Sean Tipton of the Association of British Travel Agents, which has seen a surge in overseas bookings for the wedding period.
Those still in Britain on April 29 will find central London bedecked with Union Jacks, thousands gathering along the wedding procession route, millions watching on TV - and millions more trying to ignore it.
"It tends to be kind of an older-generation event," said London student William Dobson, 19. "Young people are much more interested in having a good weekend rather than seeing the wedding."
Even for the uninterested, the wedding may be hard to avoid. But for those determined to do so, alternatives are available.
A Welsh Nationalist group, unimpressed with English royal excess, is holding an "Escape The Wedding Camp" in the countryside for those who really want to get away from it all. A theater company in northeast England is staging a reading of "Cinderella 2," the story of a fairy-tale romance gone sour.
In southwest England, Bristol's Trinity community arts center is holding an Alternative Royal Wedding Party with children's games, DJs and a fake-wedding service allowing guests to get hitched to a friend or a stranger.
Others wish Kate and William well, but are sick of the commercialization and the hype surrounding the wedding. No detail, it seems, is too small to be celebrated - the palace released video of cakes being made for the wedding, one of which is a fruit cake that gets better with age.
While millions around the world are following every detail of the wedding planning - the guest list, the cake, the carriage, the dress - others are desperately trying to tune it out.
In the British press, scores of stories about the April 29 nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton sit alongside grimmer news: An earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan, war in Libya, and a diet of spending cuts, job losses and inflation in Britain.
It's no surprise many people are not in a party mood.
"I'm tired of hearing all about it," said Andreas Dopner, 24, a postgraduate researcher at London's Imperial College. "You see it on television, the Internet, everywhere. I don't believe in having a royal family and I think the money could be spent better elsewhere."
For many British businesses, the wedding is good news. International interest in the nuptials and the predicted pro-Britannia "feel-good factor" will bring in extra tourists, giving a boost to hotels, restaurants, shops and royal-related tourist attractions.
But there also will be an exodus, with several million Britons heading abroad, thanks to the lucky timing of the wedding day - a holiday for most - between the Easter weekend and the May Day public holiday.
Clever employees quickly calculated they could get an 11-day break by taking only three days off work.
"I've booked it myself for that very reason," said Sean Tipton of the Association of British Travel Agents, which has seen a surge in overseas bookings for the wedding period.
Those still in Britain on April 29 will find central London bedecked with Union Jacks, thousands gathering along the wedding procession route, millions watching on TV - and millions more trying to ignore it.
"It tends to be kind of an older-generation event," said London student William Dobson, 19. "Young people are much more interested in having a good weekend rather than seeing the wedding."
Even for the uninterested, the wedding may be hard to avoid. But for those determined to do so, alternatives are available.
A Welsh Nationalist group, unimpressed with English royal excess, is holding an "Escape The Wedding Camp" in the countryside for those who really want to get away from it all. A theater company in northeast England is staging a reading of "Cinderella 2," the story of a fairy-tale romance gone sour.
In southwest England, Bristol's Trinity community arts center is holding an Alternative Royal Wedding Party with children's games, DJs and a fake-wedding service allowing guests to get hitched to a friend or a stranger.
Others wish Kate and William well, but are sick of the commercialization and the hype surrounding the wedding. No detail, it seems, is too small to be celebrated - the palace released video of cakes being made for the wedding, one of which is a fruit cake that gets better with age.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
