The 2012 Tynwald garden party is to be held at Garey ny Cloie Gardens, St John’s.

Located close to Tynwald Hill the woodland gardens are to serve as the setting for the annual social event held in advance of Tynwald Day and will be hosted by the President of Tynwald, the Hon Clare Christian MLC, and Members in the presence of His Excellency, the Lieutenant Governor Mr Adam Wood.

The garden party will take place on Sunday July 1st and begin at 2.30pm. Invitations to guests, drawn largely from the Isle of Man community, will be issued shortly together with a map indicating the gardens’ location.

This year’s Tynwald Day ceremony on Thursday July 5th, which will be distinguished by being the first at which a female Presiding Officer will officiate, offers the people of the Isle of Man the opportunity to join together in a spirit of national pride to celebrate the Island’s unique parliamentary democracy, at the heart of which lies Tynwald, the oldest parliament in the world in continuous existence.

The formal proceedings of the open-air Tynwald ceremony on Tynwald Hill will be followed by a programme of events celebrating Manx heritage, together with a number of new family-friendly creative arts and carnival-style attractions, details of which will be released in due course.

Grandstand seat tickets, priced ?4 to include a programme, may be purchased by contacting the Tynwald administration office, telephone 685500.

Tickets and programmes are also available for collection in person from the Tynwald Library, Legislative Buildings, Finch Road, up to three weeks before the ceremony and from the ticket kiosk at St John’s on Tynwald Day.

BBC TV will be streaming live coverage of Tynwald Day. Visit www.bbc.co.uk.

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