Check out the major events on the Normandy D-Day Landings summer 2014
The 70th celebration of D-Day in Normandy will be a particularly poignant one as it is likely that the soldiers who took part will be there for the last time, and ‘living memory’ will pass. There is a huge amount of information on the web about the festival, but here is a short summary of the major events taking place around the crucial days of June 5th-7th. Queen Elizabeth II and President Francois Hollande will be at the commemorations at Sword Beach on June 6th so it will be impossible to get anywhere near that event unless you have an invitation.
The following official websites give information as it is updated on the different events.
Check out the major D-Day Landing events in the UK
June 1-9th:Special events organized by the 6 Tourist Offices of the D-Day Landing Beaches: Arromanches; Bayeux; Saintes-Mere-Eglise; Isigny-sur-Mer; Omaha Beach; Carentan; Utah Beach .
You can get more information on both the main official websites (see above) and also from the individual tourist offices in each town.
June 4th-12th: The Suffolk Regiment Memorial and Museum is planning to reconstruct an allied camp with military, civilian and agricultural equipment from the 1940s. Plus musical entertainment, processions of vehicles, workshops and more. Plus open-air screening of period films and images.
June 7th 5.30pm: Hillman – rue du Suffolk Regiment, Colleville Montgomery, Calvados.
The Suffolk Regiment Memorial and Museum is open on June 6th and offers free guided tours every Tuesday at 3pm from July 1st to September 30th.
June 5th:Coastal Fireworks from 24 towns along the D-Day Landing Beaches synchronized between all the 24 main sites of the landings.
June 6: Pegasus Memorial Museum at Ranville
June 6, 1944; They were the First: Screening in the museum garden of this 52-minute documentary film on the landing of the 6th British airborne division.
June 4-9:Concert for Freedom
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Lower Normandy choir perform the Mass for Peace, composed by Karl-William Jenkins while images from the archives of the Caen Memorial will be shown on screen.
It takes place in four different places: June 4th in the Caen Memorial; June 5th in Lisieux Cathedral; June 6th in the church at Sainte-Mere-Eglise; June 7th in Sées Cathedral, and June 9th in the Gare Atlantique in Cherbourg.
June 4th to 9th: Merville Battery
Full program of different events each day from morning to late evening.
Reconstruction of British and German camps plus personal remembrances, bagpipe concerts and re-enactments of the attack on the battery, and firework displays.
June 6th:D-Day Normandy 1944. The first Imax film in 3-D about the D-Day Landings and the Battle of Normandy. Zenith Cinema, Caen
http://gofrance.D106/od/lownormandyregion/qt/How-to-get-to-Caen-in-Normandy.htm
June 7th: Grandcamp-Maisy & Isigny-sur-Mer
Afternoon procession of military vehicles, from jeeps and Dodges to tanks take to the streets of the two places.
June 7th: Omaha Beach at Saint-Laurent-sur-Mer
Giant picnicon the beach as a tribute to the soldiers, when over 1,500 people of every generation and nationality get together each year.
June 7th and 8th:Stade d’Aéromodélisme Régional de Creully, Creully, Calvados
Major air showwith flying model aircraft like 12 typhoons on a 1.5th scale, 7 DC3s with a 5-meter wingspan and more.
June 7th & 8th: Ver-sur-Mer, Courseulles-sur-Mer, Langrune-sur-Mer and Luc-sur-Mer
Freedom Tournament – Huge football tournamentwith 64 teams and 700 children from Germany, England and Canada, a tribute to the first international football match in liberated France which tookplace at Courseulles-sur-Mer on July 14th 1944.
June 8th: Site de La Fière, Sainte-Mère-Eglise
International Parachuting – Major military and civilian parachute drops at La Fière which was the drop zone in 1944 from the Americans, French, German, Dutch and British
June 14th-August 23rd, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday: Bayeux Cathedral
The Lights of Freedom - A walk around the cathedral on the theme of freedom with son-et-lumiere displayed on the walls.
July 1st-August 31st: Omaha Beach
Every Monday,on Omaha beach open-air screenings at 9pm of films about World War II.
August 8th-15th: Saint-Aubin-sur-Mer
Acadian Week: A major event commemorating the landing by Acadian soldiers with ceremonies, hikes, an exhibition and an Acadian ball.
August 9th-17th: Montormel Memorial
Exhibition of a Panther Tank and German motorcycles
The Panther was the first modern tank. It will be here from the 9th, and over the weekend of August 16th, 17th it will be joined by 30 motorcycles.
Information on Montormet and the event
August 22nd and 23rd: Quai des Arts, Argentan
Grand Musical Show. An orchestra and choirs will perform against a backdrop of images from films specially made for the event.
Information on Argentan and the event
August 23: Mont-Ormel
Day of Discovery and Entertainment. The villages of the battlefield of Mont-Ormel are open for visitors to explore, with events and local people to meet and talk to.
PLEASE NOTE: These are just a few of the local events. Keep looking on the main website (see above) for more details as we approach the Normandy D-Day Festival 2014.
If you are planning to go, you will have to book as early as you can as this is a huge event with visitors coming from all over the world.
Here is a quick reference guide on how to get from Paris or the UK to Normandy.
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