Trooping the Colour Is a Go for June 15—Will Princess Kate Be Attending?

Though this year’s Trooping the Colour will certainly look quite different than it did last year, at least it’s happening at all—there was a moment where that was up in the air, as the royal family is scaling back events in the leadup to the U.K.’s general election on July 4. But Trooping the Colour is on, set for Saturday, June 15—it marks King Charles’ second birthday parade, and, as previously mentioned, will see significant changes than the year prior.

The Palace has confirmed that, perhaps not surprisingly, the Princess of Wales won’t be in attendance as she continues to receive treatment for cancer, which she announced to the world on March 22. Since then, Kate has kept an extremely low profile, though reports this week indicate that, thankfully, Kate seems to be responding to treatment and has turned a corner for the better. As can be expected, she will also not be present at the Colonel’s Review on June 8, one week prior; the Colonel’s Review is the traditional rehearsal for Trooping the Colour, and Kate will not be there to take the salute, as she typically would thanks to her role as Colonel of the Irish Guards. (In her place, The Mirror reports, Lieutenant General James Bucknall, KCB, CBE, will take the salute.)

Though news surrounding Kate’s health seems to all be positive—again, a blessing—and as Kate begins to emerge from behind the walls of Adelaide Cottage and Anmer Hall into public outings here and there, Kensington Palace continues to stress the need for “space and time” for Kate to recover. Her return to public life has been floated as being possibly in the fall at the absolute earliest, and possibly as far out as 2025. 

Though Charles’ birthday is in November (and Queen Elizabeth’s was in April) Trooping the Colour in June is the official birthday celebration of the monarch and dates all the way back to the 1700s. Last year, the King rode on horseback during the parade, a first since 1986, which was the last year Her late Majesty did so. From 1986 until her death in 2022, she traveled in a carriage, and this year—as the King, too, battles cancer, as his daughter-in-law Kate is—Charles will ride in a carriage alongside his wife, Queen Camilla. The Mirror reports the King and Queen will ride in an Ascot Landau carriage, the same type of carriage Prince Harry and Meghan Markle rode in through Windsor, waving at crowds following their 2018 wedding at St. George's Chapel. Prince William and Kate also rode in an Ascot Landau during their own carriage procession through London following their wedding at Westminster Abbey in 2011.

Also, interestingly, The Mirror reports that other members of the royal family are expected to attend outside of working royals; only working royals attended last year, providing another change from year to year. That could mean the appearance on the famed Buckingham Palace balcony of Princess Beatrice, Princess Eugenie, Zara Tindall, and Peter Phillips; all four supported their cousin William at his Buckingham Palace garden party earlier this month. Though they weren’t at the garden party, the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh’s children Lady Louise Windsor and James, the Earl of Wessex, might be there for the balcony appearance alongside the rest of their family. To this end, it has also been reported that Lady Gabriella Kingston—who earlier this year lost her husband, Thomas, suddenly and unexpectedly—has personally received an invitation from the King to join him and the family on the balcony.

“A full balcony would cheer the nation,” Richard Eden wrote in this column for The Daily Mail. “It would be a fillip to the monarchy at a difficult time. It would be a powerful display of unity and strength.”

It will be interesting to see if Prince George, Princess Charlotte, and Prince Louis will attend Trooping the Colour with just their father, the Prince of Wales; it would certainly be a breath of fresh air amid a tumultuous 2024 to see their faces again.

Trooping the Colour is one of the biggest military ceremonies of the year and features 1,600 parading soldiers, 400 musicians, and more than 200 horses, The Mirror reports. It usually concludes with a Royal Air Force flypast over Buckingham Palace, watched by members of the royal family from the Palace balcony. 

Different though it may be, it’s good news that Trooping the Colour is happening at all this year—amid not just the general election, but what can only be described as one of the most rollercoaster-type years the royal family has seen in a span of many rollercoaster-type years as of late.