Royal Wedding: the view from around the world

With double the usual number of tourists expected to descend on the capital for today’s Royal nuptials, thousands of people from around the world gathered outside Westminster Abbey to catch a glimpse of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on their wedding day.

Many camped overnight to get the best view the 1,900-strong congregation of big names and famous faces. “As soon as I heard they were getting married, I booked my flight,” said Annie Fischer, 36, from Frankfurt, Germany.

Those who couldn’t make it to Britain for the big day, didn’t have to miss out. Two billion people were expected to tune in to the live television coverage of the event across the globe. A wedding in a digital age, there are no shortage of news sites, blogs and online social networks to keep abreast of every last detail – with the official line coming from the official Royal Wedding website and Clarence House’s Twitter feed and Facebook site.

And the interest is not just from Britons; the wedding was the fifth most-popular topic on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, today.

Live coverage on the BBC website was interrupted briefly as huge numbers logged on to view the live streaming. The broadcaster warned viewers the site was “running slower than usual at times”, and some viewers could not watch at all when, shortly before the service began, the system buckled under the strain.

Clarence House told Channel 4 News that their YouTube live stream had managed to deal with demand.

Google said that overall interest in the Royal Wedding had slowed the internet down to some extent, but that the search engine had been able to prepare for expected traffic ahead of time. A spokesperson told Channel 4 News: “We were very prepared, we knew we were going to get a huge flow… and our servers have managed to take on the extra traffic”.

Google is at present unsure of exactly how many have logged on, and will be collating the figures later today.

Celebrations around the world

Those wishing they could be among those lining the approach to the Abbey will be consoled by the many celebrations taking place across the globe in honour of the big day.

Even countries who did away with their own Royals enjoyed the celebrations: according to the New York Times, France is making “quite a fuss” over the British royal wedding with three major channels – TF1, France 2 and M6 – showing the ceremony live, and reports of a “brisk” sale of memorabilia.

In Atlanta, the ceremony could be enjoyed at a live screening in Piedmont Park between 6am and 1pm. Early risers were treated to a showcase from Atlanta wedding vendors, just in case they were inspired to tie the knot.

Kenya’s tourist board handed out red roses picked from the Rift Valley to mark the occasion – no doubt proud of the country’s part in the happy couple’s love story (Prince William proposed there in November).

And while some watched the ceremony on televisions in their homes or workplaces (like the Kenyan cobbler pictured above, right), in one Nairobi suburb, a showing of the wedding was accompanied by high tea and scones, Pimms and Champagne.

Perhaps predictably, ex-pats have taken permission to party the most seriously.

Charity galas have proved popular, with black-tie events in Sydney, where donations were to be made to the Prince’s charity, and in Shanghai, where guests were dining on a pudding modelled on the one to be eaten at William and Kate’s wedding banquet.

All-you-can-eat buffets, garden parties and British music-themed discos were the celebrations of choice for ex-pat communities in Bangkok, Auckland, and Dubai.

In New York, the “Big Apple Brits” are planning an all-nighter with comedy acts, DJs and theatre performances, while for the more refined of the city’s expatriates, there will be afternoon tea.

Upping the ante is the “British Club” of Singapore, which has planned a lengthy 10 days of celebrations.

But the biggest ex-pat celebrations will be in the Costa Del Sol in southern Spain, home to hundreds of thousands of Brits, with street parties on the streets of Nerja, Fuengirola, Torremolinos, Benalmadena and Marbella.

Hopeful

Not everybody managed to celebrate the day in the way they would have liked, however.

In Sydney, disappointed TV execs lamented the axing of TV show “Chaser”, intended to be a live satirical commentary on the wedding, after the BBC banned usage of its live feed for comedy, satirical or entertainment purposes.

“My personal view is I really think the BBC needs to lighten up a bit and just get a bit of a sense of humour,” Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told local television. “Look at all the stuff around the place in terms of memorabilia, plates and whatever else, not all of that is deadly serious.”

The big day was rather serious for one 19-year-old from Mexico. It was reported earlier this week that Estibalis Chavez, who had gone on hunger strike in a desperate attempt to get an invitation to the royal wedding, had arrived in Spain.

She ended her 16-day hunger strike outside the British embassy in Mexico City in February when lobbyist Octavio Fitch Lazo purchased a ticket for her to fly to London, but was turned away by British immigration officials because she could not provide an address to show where she would be staying in England.

Whether she made it to the church on time, is as yet unknown.