The Princess of Wales headed to Leicester as her husband, Prince William, had his own solo royal engagement
Credit: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
NEED TO KNOW
- Kate Middleton headed to the city of Leicester in a surprise visit on March 5
- The Princess of Wales was there to celebrate the vibrant South Asian culture in the English city
- She first visited the city in an official capacity with the late Queen Elizabeth on what was their first joint outing together
Kate Middleton is celebrating vibrant South Asian culture in a city she visited alongside the late Queen Elizabeth in her first year as a royal.
The Princess of Wales, 44, headed to Leicester in an unannounced visit on March 5, one day after the Hindu festival of Holi, a festival that celebrates spring, love, color and new life.
The city is known in the U.K. for being home to the South Asian diaspora. Around 43% of Leicester’s population is South Asian, with 34% of those having Indian heritage. Around 3.5% have Pakistani heritage, and 1.9% are Bangladeshi.
Princess Kate began her day at a dance company run by an award-winning choreographer Aakash Odedra and watched a rehearsal of his latest work, "Songs of the Bulbul," which is an interpretation of an ancient Sufi story about a captured songbird.
A student of a renowned Bollywood choreographer Shiamak Davar, Odedra set up his Aakash Odedra Company in Leicester in 2011 and works to help make art and culture accessible to all. More than 1,000 people take part in his lessons and participation programs each week.
Credit: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
Princess Kate then headed to the city’s "Golden Mile," a street of largely family-run businesses a number of family-run businesses. The area is known for having one of the highest concentrations of Indian jewelry, sari and fashion boutiques in the U.K. and is a colorful center for South Asian culture, featuring cuisine, candy stores and chai shops.
She first went to the city on an official visit alongside the late Queen Elizabeth almost exactly 14 years ago on March 8, 2012. The royal pair arrived by train, and it was the first outing of the monarch’s Diamond Jubilee tour of the country.
After the first stop at the local De Monfort University, where they watched a student fashion show, Lord Waheed Alli, chancellor of the university, told PEOPLE they appeared to be enjoying their outing together. “They were chatting away. Kate would ask me things and then tell the Queen.”
Dr. Julie King, head of the School of Fashion and Textiles, added, “The Queen has been doing this for so long and is so experienced and just seems to set everyone at ease. And Kate’s got that manner as well.”
Six years later, Kate joined Prince William on a poignant occasion in Nov. 2018, where they helped comfort those grieving the death of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, chairman of the city’s soccer club, who died along with four others in a helicopter crash in October that year.
Credit: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
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Kate's day out in Leicester came as her husband, Prince William, 43, headed to Cornwall on St. Piran’s Day, the county’s holiday that marks the heritage, identity and culture of the Cornish people in the south western tip of England.
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