HAMPSHIRE is preparing to celebrate the royal wedding with scores of street parties confirmed up and down the county.

Thousands of well-wishers are expected to take advantage of the bank holiday declared for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on Friday, April 29.

Street parties and celebrations will be staged across the entire weekend.

• Complete coverage of the Royal wedding.

The city council is throwing Southampton’s biggest royal wedding party at the newly revamped Guildhall Square.

A big screen will be put up to broadcast the wedding from 10am, followed by a free mass street party for up to 5,000 people in the square.

One hundred tables and 500 chairs will be set up in the square, although council bosses are inviting people to bring their own fold-up seats.

Art Asia will provide colour sheets on the tables for revellers to design their place mats.

Organisers are urging party goers to dress in red, white and blue.

Once the royal wedding broadcast ends, the council and City Eye, a community film-making outfit, will broadcast a montage of wedding images supplied by members of the public.

Entertainment will be provided by a 16-piece jazz swing band and the 60 singers of the Voxpop choir, who will perform a specially composed wedding ballad.

One of the biggest celebrations in Hampshire will take place at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.

Special tours will allow visitors to explore the historic links between the Beaulieu Estate and the Royal Family, which date back to 1204, when Beaulieu Abbey was built on land that King John had given to Cistercian monks.

Prince William’s father Charles opened Wheels, the museum’s hi-tech pod ride, in 1985.

Other New Forest towns and villages will celebrate the royal wedding, with the service screened live in Bramshaw Village Hall, followed by a hog roast.

At least 20 parties have been confirmed around the Winchester district.

Christine Pilgrim, an organiser of the Canon Street party in Winchester, estimates that 200 people will attend the ticket-only event on Sunday, May 1 on the part of the street between Culver Road and the Wykeham Arms.

Ms Pilgrim said: “There will be trestle tables, a hog roast, balloons and bunting.

“People are very pro- William and Kate.

“They are so lovely. She is a lovely girl and everyone has respect for William.

“We are hoping to raise money for the Nightshelter,”

she said.

Saints and Portsmouth fans will don their shirts but put aside rivalries for a street party in Fareham.

Fareham mayor Councillor Brian Bayford will be attending the family-friendly bash in Alders Road.