Princess of Wales' Impromptu Night Out
Spicy margaritas and dessert at the Houston Festival
What William and Kate do in their private time is always a bit of a mystery. The couple have been very good about sharing very minimal bits of their personal lives while shrouding the majority of it from public view. This month, we got a little peek into the kinds of things they get up to, though, especially while on summer holiday.
Richard Eden and the Daily Mail reported that earlier this month Kate went to dinner at Houghton Hall—the stately home of the Cholmondeleys. Houghton Hall sits on a 1,000-acre estate that hosts a variety of events, including the Houghton Horse Trials, which Kate has been pictured attending in the past. On this particular night, while the Cholmondeleys were hosting their dinner party, a music festival was underway on their grounds. According to the Daily Mail:
Billed as Britain's only 24-hour music festival, [Houghton Festival] is the brainchild of DJ Craig Richards, who launched the event in 2017. More than 200 artists performed across 13 stages from last Thursday to Sunday with music playing somewhere on the Houghton Estate site at all times. More than 12,000 revellers were expected to attend.
On another website, the festival is described in more detail:
Surrounded by wild deer and well-manicured gardens, most of the festival takes place in the woodlands next to a large lake. With no map to guide you, the various stages have to be discovered in clearings and inside yurts by following the music. In the evening, visual projections light up the sky above the lake and reflect off the various sculptures scattered around the grounds: This is no ordinary muddy field with just a couple of loud speakers and a stage.
The sublime location was accompanied by non-existent phone signal or wifi, forcing festivalgoers into a much-needed digital detox (though it did make things tricky if you lost your friends). Switching off and surrounding yourself with good music and great company made for lots of smiling sweaty faces in the crowds.
It sounds like a rock version of Chateau de Versailles’ Night Fountains Show, which, by the way, if you are ever in the area, is an absolutely magical summer evening event. But back to Kate the Great.