Hundreds of spectators put up with the rain to watch the Coronation live on a big screen in front of Wembley Stadium — only to see it go black at the crowning moment.
They had huddled under umbrellas for an hour waiting for the moment the Archbishop of Canterbury was to place the State Crown on King Charles’s head.
Then blank! The screen went black at 12 noon with a message “can’t find this page”.
People sat bemused on their rain-soaked deckchairs.
The live feed from Westminster Abbey was finally restored at 12.10pm — but too late!
That historic moment with Charles III being crowned was lost.
One family managed to catch that moment, however.
Mum-of-two Laura Kilvington was also watching live coverage on her mobile phone and had recorded it.
“We were lucky I had my mobile with me,” she said.
“It was disappointing when the big screen went blank just as Charles was about to be crowned. But at least I got it on my phone.”
Laura, 38, was down from Yorkshire with husband Chris and two children specially for the Coronation.
They booked into a hotel in Wembley Park for two nights hoping for good weather.
Chris, 65, a manager for transport haulage depot in Hull, said: “We were hoping to join the crowds in the Mall.
“But the rain has put us off. So we decided to stay in Wembley and watch the Coronation live feed on the big screen.
“A shame that it went blank just as Charles was being crowned.”
The hitch wasn’t enough to spoil the celebration laid on by Wembley Park as a free public festival.
You could hear a gentle applause from the crowd when the live feed from Westminster Abbey was restored.
It was just in time to see Camilla being crowned Queen — as she nervously adjusted her crown once it had been placed on her head.
Among the crowd was Ukraine refugee Iryna Donenko, 43, who fled to London eight months ago with her young son to escape Putin’s Russian invasion.
“We don’t have royalty in Ukraine,” she said. “I’ve never experienced what it’s like having a king as head of state.
“The British Royalty is so democratic. I am so grateful to be in a democracy like Britain.”
But the festive Coronation doesn’t stop her fears for her homeland. Her husband is still in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital.
“The Russian invasion is terrible,” she adds. “There are war crimes being committed.
“Putin is acting like Stalin and Hitler, like communism and fascism combined. He could go on to invade other parts of Europe.”
The Coronation festivity offers a brief respite from war at home. At least Iryna has her expatriate Ukraine community in west London, based in Holland Park
The crowds start thinning out around 1pm, when the pubs and restaurants around Wembley Park start filling up.
The Olympic Way, leading to the iconic stadium from Wembley Park Underground station, has temporarily reverted to its original name, King’s Way, for the whole month of May to celebrate Chales III's accession.
The free festival continued with an open -air concert on the sound stage next to the stadium with street food vendors and family activities.
Coronation revellers, however, had to put up with the constant drizzling rain — just like they did 70 years ago for the late Queen’s coronation in 1953.
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