Crowds thronged along Front Street on Saturday to enjoy the pomp and ceremony of the Queen's birthday parade. Marching units included the Bermuda Regiment, Fire Service, Department of Corrections, Cadet Corp and Sea Cadet Corps, with the Regiment firing a feu-de-joie gun salute to Her Majesty.

Neil and Julie Goodwin, from Peterborough in England came to watch the ceremony during their first vacation in Bermuda. They thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle. "I think it's wonderful. It's a great thing and I wish we did things like this more in the UK," said Mr. Goodwin.

A law passed by the House of Assembly on Friday means that – if passed by the Senate – this year's Queen's Birthday was the last that will be celebrated with a public holiday. The popular parade will still be celebrated on the Saturday before the Queen's birthday, which falls on the third Monday of June.

However, the public holiday has been moved to October instead to celebrate National Heroes Day, with the inaugural one this year held in memory of pioneering politician and lawyer Dame Lois Browne-Evans.

Sherry Axelrod, from California, who is on vacation visiting daughter Tina McGuire, said: "I think the idea of National Heroes Day is OK, but I think they maybe could've waited until Monday to have the parade this year. I think more people would have turned up. Some of the gals in the stores said they weren't able to see it because they had to work."

A lady from Pembroke, who declined to give her name, said she approved of the decision to abolish the holiday. "We've got to have our culture, not the Queen. No disrespect to her but we've got to have us," she commented, but added that she too believed more people would have been able to enjoy the ceremony if it had been held yesterday.