King Charles Makes Surprise Appearance at SXSW London

King Charles made a surprise appearance at SXSW London on Thursday in a big show of support for the festival’s inaugural edition in the city.

Upon entering the festival grounds in Shoreditch, the King was greeted with a performance by the Kingdom Choir before being met by U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and SXSW London organizers. He then viewed Damian Roach’s immersive art installation “Grounding,” which uses AI and data to create landscape images that are continuously changing, and discussed it with the artist.

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King Charles also met with Julian Lennon, Mo Brings Plenty, Jean-Paul Martinez and Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, after their panel on their new animated series “Love the Earth.” He then visited another one of SXSW London’s venues, Christ Church Spitalfields, to view the Caribbean art exhibition “Beautiful Collisions” and attended a reception with artists, local residents, SXSW London speakers and the festival’s advisory council and staff.

“In the inaugural year of South by South West London we are honored to welcome His Majesty the King to Shoreditch,” SXSW London CEO Max Alexander said in a statement. “The festival is a profound acknowledgment of the strength of the United Kingdom’s broad cultural and business landscape, its artists and entrepreneurs and the importance of breaking down the silos that separate those domains.”

SXSW London is in its fourth day of programming, with highlights so far including panels on “A Minecraft Movie,” “Downton Abbey” and “Industry,” speakers like Idris Elba and ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and the premiere of “Deep Cover” starring Orlando Bloom and Bryce Dallas Howard.

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