Princess Kate Reportedly Took a Trip to a 24-Hour Dance Music Festival

Though Princess Kate and Prince William no longer count Anmer Hall, their Norfolk country home on the royal family’s Sandringham Estate, as their primary residence, they have apparently still been making visits to the rural area where they count a handful of close friends among their neighbors. According to the Daily Mail, Kate was in Norfolk over the weekend for a dinner party with her friends, the David and Rose, the Marquess and Marchioness of Cholmondeley, at their nearby Houghton Hall estate. Following the dinner, a source told the tabloid, Kate made a trip to a music festival that was being hosted on the estate at the time.

“After dinner, one of the guests suggested that Catherine go to the festival,” a source told the Mail. “Catherine was nervous about the idea, but, after much discussion with her protection officers, she went with lots of security. William wasn’t there.” (Kensington Palace declined to comment on the report when reached by Vanity Fair.)

The Houghton Festival, which ran from August 10–13 this year, is a 24-hour-a-day dance music festival where artists perform on 16 stages tucked into the Norfolk countryside next to campgrounds. Founded in 2017 by Craig Richards, a DJ who performed as a resident at the famous London club Fabric for nearly two decades, the bill mainly featured artists who make electronic music but also included art installations, a yoga session, and a set from Late Late Show comedian Reggie Watts. 

There’s no word if Kate enjoyed the more experimental music she was exposed to during her visit to the festival with a seemingly rave-like atmosphere, as her taste traditionally tends towards pop. But she and William were both fixtures in the London club scene back in the mid-2000s, so it probably wasn’t the first time that Kate has gotten down to some EDM. Her presence at the dinner party with the Cholmondeleys is a sign that she remains friends with the couple despite a report in 2019, which suggested that they had a falling out. 

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