{"id":521581,"date":"2026-06-06T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/521581\/"},"modified":"2026-06-06T10:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-06T10:48:13","slug":"dua-lipa-and-callum-turner-wedding-divides-palermo-i-could-understand-if-it-was-for-the-pope-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/521581\/","title":{"rendered":"Dua Lipa and Callum Turner wedding divides Palermo: \u2018I could understand if it was for the pope\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop next to Palermo\u2019s gallery for modern art housed in a sublime baroque church in the city\u2019s historic centre. A few metres away, an Italian<\/a> TV crew had its camera trained on the tiny square in front of the church where event staff in black T-shirts scurried around in the heat.<\/p>\n

They were preparing for the arrival of the British singer Dua Lipa<\/a> and the actor Callum Turner, who over the next two days are celebrating their wedding in the Sicilian<\/a> capital after exchanging vows in London<\/a> last weekend.<\/p>\n

Dua Lipa is one of the world\u2019s biggest pop stars, but Chillemi admits she didn\u2019t know who she was until last summer, when the couple holidayed in Palermo soon after their engagement and shared photos on Instagram, including one taken during an aperitivo at a nearby bar.<\/p>\n

Curious about all the fuss, Chillemi said she had familiarised herself with Dua Lipa\u2019s music. \u201cI got together with some of the other shop owners here and we listened to a few songs,\u201d she said with a nonplussed shrug.<\/p>\n

Late on Friday afternoon, the newlyweds are expected to be given a private tour of the Galleria d\u2019Arte Moderna di Palermo, whose collection includes more than 200 19th- and 20th-century masterpieces, before joining their guests in the cordoned-off square. The details are closely guarded and everyone involved is tight-lipped owing to strict confidentiality agreements, but a council worker hinted that a sort-of \u201cbuffet\u201d would be laid on \u2013 and perhaps Elton John will play the piano.<\/p>\n

The couple arrived in Palermo by private jet on Thursday night. They are staying at Villa Igiea, a five-star art nouveau hotel where an entire floor of suites has been booked to host guests who, alongside Elton John, reportedly include Kylie Minogue, Donatella Versace, Harry Styles, Charli xcx \u2013 another British pop star who tied the knot in Sicily last September \u2013 and possibly Robbie Williams.<\/p>\n

The Italian media has spent weeks building anticipation, hailing the celebrations as the wedding of the year.<\/p>\n

The mood on the ground in Palermo, however, is somewhat ambivalent. While some residents are proud that Dua Lipa has chosen the city to mark her nuptials, others lament the road closures, security cordons and general disruption to daily life. Chillemi counts herself as among those viewing the excitement with a degree of scepticism.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Dua Lipa and Callum Turner married in London ceremony \u2013 reportsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it feels as though the city is becoming a theme park,\u201d she said, echoing concerns about mass tourism and the high-profile occasions that intensify it.<\/p>\n

Clarissa, who didn\u2019t want to give her surname, works in a bar close to Chillemi\u2019s shop. \u201cI really like Dua Lipa\u2019s music and admire her for all the activism she does,\u201d she said. \u201cBut while it\u2019s a pleasure to hold the celebrations in Palermo, it has brought a lot of problems \u2013 for example, for three days we\u2019ve been forced to park miles away and walk to work. It\u2019s not right to block the city \u2013 I could understand if it was for the pope, but not for a singer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Sometimes it feels as though the city is becoming a theme park<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Concetta Chillemi, Palermo<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Concetta Picciuca, a hotel worker and a Dua Lipa fan, didn\u2019t mind at all. \u201cI\u2019m always listening to her music, it helps me to relax,\u201d she said. \u201cThere are people who complain, but I think the event is a good thing because it\u2019s good for the economy \u2026 Perhaps, like me, they should come to work by bike instead of by car.\u201d<\/p>\n

Picciuca used to live in Bagheria, a town close to central Palermo where the wedding celebrations will move to on Saturday. The evening venue is an 18th-century palace called Villa Valguarnera, which is owned by a descendant of Sicilian aristocracy and was one of the locations used in the Netflix miniseries, Il Gattopardo (The Leopard), an adaptation of Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa\u2019s 1860s novel.<\/p>\n

Bagheria was once a stronghold of Sicily\u2019s mafia, the Cosa Nostra, but Picciuca said the main thing Dua Lipa will have to worry about these days is being doused with water. \u201cPeople there have a habit of chucking dirty water over their balconies instead of down the sink \u2026 the amount of times I got soaked.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Guardian ventured to Bagheria to gauge sentiment about the celebrations. While Bagheria\u2019s mayor, Filippo Tripoli, is pleased the town will get some global \u201cvisibility\u201d, there are groans here too. Maria Aiello, who owns a clothes shop, said: \u201cI like Dua Lipa but what will we get out of all this disruption? It\u2019s not as if she\u2019s going to come and buy anything from my shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers clean window shutters as preparations are underway for the wedding celebrations of Dua Lipa and Callum Turner in Bagheria, near Palermo. Photograph: Alessandro Fucarini\/AFP\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

Francesco, who each evening congregates with his pensioner friends on a bench close to Villa Valguarnera, said he was excited about celebrities descending on Bagheria and even claimed to have insider knowledge about what they would be eating. \u201cThe menu will be completely Sicilian \u2013 arancini, pasta alla norma, cannoli, the works,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Dua Lipa\u2019s connection with Palermo, a city that has undergone a radical transformation over the last decade or so, appears to have begun in 2023 when Foot Locker Europe released a series of images of her wearing the pink shirt of Palermo football club to promote the Puma Palermo trainers.<\/p>\n

\n

Palermo is popular for weddings, whether among famous people or not, because it is a welcoming city<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Roberto Lagalla, Mayor of Palermo<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Palermo\u2019s mayor, Roberto Lagalla, said that while he could empathise with residents\u2019 complaints about the disruption, it was a \u201csmall sacrifice\u201d to make. \u201cIt will achieve an important result in promoting visibility and, above all, boosting the often-suffering economy of a city which, thanks to tourism, is starting to breathe easier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Lagalla, who hopes to meet the newlyweds, dismissed concerns about such events intensifying tourism and the associated problems. \u201cWe\u2019re getting more culture tourism and higher-spending visitors,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is important. Yes, Palermo is popular for weddings, whether among famous people or not, because it is a welcoming city.\u201d – The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop next to Palermo\u2019s gallery for modern art housed in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":521582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[69610,1957,18,117,19,17,371,12903],"class_list":["post-521581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-callum-turner","tag-dua-lipa","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-italy","tag-sicily"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116702773566145577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/521582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}