Prince George misses Festival of Remembrance a year after his first visit
Prince George did not attend this year's Festival of Remembrance, a year after he made his first appearance at the event. The festival is the Royal British Legion's annual evening of music, readings and tributes to members of the armed forces and their families. Hello! Magazine reported the absence on 8 November.
This year's festival took place at the Royal Albert Hall in London on Saturday 7 November, the evening before Remembrance Sunday. Remembrance Sunday falls on the second Sunday of November, and it is when the King leads the nation in remembering people who have died in world wars and other conflicts. The festival was broadcast on BBC One and BBC iPlayer at 9pm.
The King and Queen attended, and the Prince and Princess of Wales joined them. Princess Anne was also there. She had missed last year's ceremony while in Australia for the centenary of the Royal Australia Corps of Signals, the army's communications corps.
George's 2025 visit was a family occasion. He went with his mother, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and stood in for his father, Prince William, who missed that evening. William was travelling home commercially from Belém in Brazil, where he had attended an Earthshot Prize event. Earthshot is the environmental awards programme William founded. At the 2025 festival, George sat with King Charles III, Queen Camilla and his mother. The line-up included Sir Rod Stewart, and the evening featured emotional videos of veterans talking about their experiences.
The 2026 absence comes shortly after a trip the family made together. On 3 November, William and George travelled to Barcelona to watch Aston Villa play FC Barcelona. George is now 13.
The festival has been a royal fixture for years. The Prince and Princess of Wales took part in the 2020 festival, which was pre-recorded that year rather than staged live, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Royal attendance has varied from year to year, with family members often taking on different events as diaries allow.
The Legion's wider programme continues this month. Remembrance Sunday events are held across the country, and many local branches run their own county festivals. For anyone wanting to see the national event, the BBC broadcast was the main way to watch it at home.
