On 1 January 1973, the six countries of the European Economic Community (EEC) were joined by three more: Denmark, the Republic of Ireland and the UK. To mark this auspicious occasion, Britain staged a great cultural festival. “Fanfare for Europe” incorporated more than 300 events, ranging from a performance by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall to Slade playing at the London Palladium. Elsewhere, the Royal Court Theatre presented Billie Whitelaw in the European premiere of Samuel Beckett's drama Not I. ITV contributed a beauty contest – Miss TV Europe –and a special international edition of Hughie Green's talent show Opportunity Knocks. Preston hosted a show of contemporary Belgian art, and Hull featured Yorkshire artists in an exhibition titled Hull: Gateway to Europe.
The festival wasn't a great success. It didn't really hang together, and little of it found favour with the public; too much seemed peripheral, at best. In sport, Great Britain played the EEC at table tennis in Bolton, and took on France in karate at Crystal Palace. More credible was a football match at Wembley, billed as The Six vs The Three, pitting existing EEC member nations against a combined British, Irish and Danish team. It was the biggest sporting event of the festival, but the crowd of 36,500 wasn't big (60,000 more had watched England beat West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final) – though that figure doesn't include the anti-Europe demonstrators protesting outside
