Dua Lipa and Callum Turner are following their modest registry-office wedding in London with a huge, street-blocking blowout in Palermo.

An Offer They’d Like to Refuse

Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s Sicilian wedding celebrations are bringing pop stars, private jets, and security cordons to Palermo—but some locals are fingering their knives

By Angela Giuffrida

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHOP CHOPPISH SHOP

Concetta Chillemi was chatting to friends outside her shop, next to Palermo’s gallery for modern art, which is housed in a sublime Baroque church in the city’s historic center. A few meters away, an Italian 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. They were preparing for the arrival of the British singer Dua Lipa and the actor Callum Turner, who over the next two days are celebrating their wedding in the Sicilian capital after exchanging vows in London last weekend.

Dua Lipa is one of the world’s biggest pop stars, but Chillemi admits she didn’t 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. Curious about all the fuss, Chillemi said she had familiarized herself with Dua Lipa’s music. “I got together with some of the other shop owners here and we listened to a few songs,” she said with a nonplussed shrug.