Armed Forces Week runs from today, Monday 22 June, through to Sunday 28 June, with the main day – Armed Forces Day – on Saturday 27 June. The set-piece national event is in Aldershot, but there are several hundred others spread across all four nations, from a flag run up a town hall pole to seaside weekends with air displays. Here's the national picture, and how to find what's happening near you.
Monday 22 June — flag-raising ceremonies at town halls and civic buildings across the country, marking the start of the week.
Wednesday 24 June — Reserves Day, recognising the reserve forces and the employers who release them.
Saturday 27 June — Armed Forces Day, and the bulk of the events.
Sunday 28 June — a second day at the national event and a handful of others.
One thing worth stating up front – flypasts and display teams are always subject to weather and operational tasking. Where aircraft are billed below, treat them as likely rather than guaranteed.
The flagship is in Aldershot — the Army's traditional home — across Saturday 27 and Sunday 28 June, on Queens Avenue (GU11 2JL). Saturday runs 9am to 6pm and is built around a parade down Queens Avenue, with massed bands from the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Army and RAF leading detachments of serving personnel, cadets and veterans. 3 PARA are marching with Pegasus, the regimental pony. The organisers have lined up flypasts including an RAF A400M Atlas and a historic aircraft from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, with an Apache and a Chinook also listed. There are arena and parachute displays and stage entertainment from 12.15pm to 4.15pm. Sunday is a community day, 10am to 5pm.
Tickets are free but must be booked in advance through Rushmoor Borough Council, with residents able to request up to nine. There's limited paid parking on site and a free shuttle for ticket holders from Aldershot and Farnborough Main stations. The organisers are pushing public transport hard, which tells you what the parking will be like.
Plymouth runs one of the bigger events, on the Hoe on Saturday 27 June, in association with Babcock. It opens at 10am, with the Parade of Standards at 11am — open to all veterans — led by the City of Plymouth Pipe Band as veterans and cadets march along the promenade. There's a Royal Navy dive tank, an all-day arena and stage programme, a Veterans' Village run with the Royal British Legion, and a free evening concert to close. Organisers expect north of 45,000 through the day.
On the east coast, Scarborough stages its long-running event around the South Bay, which it has held since 2009 and reckons draws upwards of 20,000. Cleethorpes runs what its organisers call one of the largest in the country, spread across Friday 26 to Sunday 28 June with a parade, demonstrations, live music and an air display, and a claimed 200,000-plus over the weekend. Bridlington and Barnsley both run family days with veterans' parades.
Inland, Nottingham puts on an Armed Forces Proms in the Park at Bridgford Park on the Saturday, and Peterborough opens its free event with a civic parade followed by stage entertainment. Beyond the set-pieces, dozens of towns mark the week with a flag-raising and little else — Blackburn outside the town hall, Kendal in Cumbria, Sleaford in Lincolnshire among them.
Edinburgh holds its parade on Saturday 27 June. It forms up at Charlotte Square, outside Bute House, from 10am and steps off at 10.30, with The Royal Regiment of Scotland providing a contingent. The route runs along George Street to St Andrew Square, where there's a short address from around 10.50 followed by entertainment, charity stalls and refreshments from 11am. Anyone wanting to march should assemble on the north side of Charlotte Square by 10am.
Glasgow's civic event moves to the City of Glasgow College Riverside Campus this year, on Saturday 27 June, with George Square still closed for redevelopment. Separately, there's a smaller gathering in the Gorbals (21 Thistle Street, G5 9XB) from noon to 3pm, tied to the city's Glasgow 850 programme. Clackmannanshire is among the councils running its own.
Wales holds its own national event, which moves around the country each year and lands at Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire this time, on Saturday 27 June from 11.30am to 7.30pm. It opens with a parade led by the Band of the Royal Welsh, followed by an opening ceremony, more than fifty stalls, a parachute display and an A400M Atlas flypast, with the RAF Falcons also billed. Entry is free, though parking charges apply at the park — serving personnel and veterans get parking vouchers — and there's camping on site for anyone making a weekend of it. Elsewhere, Pontypridd runs a picnic in the park and Colwyn Bay an Armed Forces market.
Northern Ireland's set-piece has already been and gone. Coleraine hosted the regional event on Saturday 20 June, with a parade to Christie Park, a drumhead service, a gun salute, the RAF Falcons and a Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Dakota flypast. For the rest of the week, councils across NI mark it with flag-raisings rather than full events.
The full searchable list, with a map, is on the official site at https://www.armedforcesday.org.uk/find-events/. It's the most reliable way to confirm times and check an event is still going ahead, as the smaller ones can shift or get pulled at short notice.
