Celebrate Liberation Day In Your Community

Islanders are being encouraged to celebrate Liberation Day in their own neighbourhoods this year as a nod to 'Guernsey Together'.

After discussions with Public Health, Liberation Day will not fully take place along St Peter Port's Seafront in the traditional way.

Instead, celebrations will be spread out across the island.

Following last year's Stay at Home Celebrations, the organising committee feels "we need to be a little cautious" in 2021 too.

That's despite lockdown having been lifted.

Deputy Sue Aldwell who sits on the Liberation Day Organising Committee says it's great we can all celebrate in-person again.

"It is fantastic that as an island we are in a better place to celebrate Liberation Day this year than we were in 2020, when people will recall we had to largely all mark the day from our own homes.

"But we need to be a little cautious, and having discussed this at length with Public Health – and I’d like to thank them for the advice and guidance they gave us – we have taken what we believe is a sensible approach to celebrating what is such a special day for all of us."

Deputy Aldwell added that plans are very much underway.

"Plans for those celebrations are full steam ahead but they will look and feel a bit different. We want everyone to get out and enjoy the freedom we have, but we just didn’t think it was sensible to have up to 10,000 people crammed together in town at the moment.

"We felt Liberation Day this year just came a little bit too soon after lockdown, and were concerned about having such large numbers of people in close proximity even if the island remains Covid-free at that point as we all hope it will be.

"So our plea today is for everyone to get their thinking hats on, discuss with their friends, families and neighbours, and come up with great ideas for their own celebrations closer to home."

2021's celebrations will feature the first ever island-wide cavalcade and the Town Church's usual Liberation Day service will be live streamed across social media channels.

The committee says it is looking forward to seeing how people spend their day.

"We really hope that there will end up being lots of these scattered across the island, which while limiting the number of people at any one location means the many people who normally enjoy Liberation Day will still be able to do so.

"We’re very excited for our plans for an around-island cavalcade and are working hard to make that happen"