Kate back for Trooping the Colour parade
The Princess of Wales will make her first public appearance of the year by participating in the annual Trooping the Colour parade.
Catherine will join a carriage procession with her children as the Royal Family parades along the Mall.
She will also appear on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
These plans were announced in a health update from the princess, who is continuing her chemotherapy treatment.
This marks Catherine’s first step back into public life on one of the year’s most significant royal events.
The King’s birthday parade, traditionally held in the summer instead of his actual birthday in November, features a military parade and inspection with music and pageantry.
Following his cancer diagnosis, the King will ride in a carriage rather than on horseback during the procession and inspection at Horse Guards Parade.
According to a Buckingham Palace spokesman, King Charles is “delighted” that the Princess of Wales will attend the ceremony.
In a personal message, the princess stated she is “not out of the woods yet,” experiencing “good days and bad days,” but is “looking forward to attending the King’s birthday parade this weekend with my family.”
During the parade, a regimental flag is “trooped” through the ranks of soldiers, rotating among the five regiments of Foot Guards.
This year, the Irish Guards will take the lead, featuring some Irish music and their mascot, an Irish wolfhound.
Gun salutes will be fired in nearby Green Park, and when the royals gather on the palace balcony, a flypast usually thunders overhead.
While these events are steeped in tradition, there are some changes, such as allowing soldiers to have beards this year, provided there are “no exaggerated colours.”
Also making a return will be three of the horses of the household cavalry which ran away and were injured during a rehearsal.
Ahead of this year’s Trooping the Colour there had been a dispute over a planned protest by anti-monarchists.
Graham Smith of the Republic group criticised the expense of the parade and said: “The feudal tradition of royal pageants needs to stop.”
The protest will go ahead but with a requirement not to use amplified sound.
