William and Catherine plan to cover a lot of ground in three days, first meeting with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday to kick off the countdown to the Earthshot prize awards ceremony. The royal couple’s itinerary also includes stops in Somerville, Cambridge and Chelsea.
A-list celebrities are headed to Boston this week to join William and Kate, the Prince and Princess of Wales, at the 2022 Earthshot Prize Awards.
Billie Eilish is among the singers who will take the stage at the MGM Music Hall in Fenway on Friday for the awards show, at which five people will receive $1 million for their environmental projects. Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek will be presenting one of the awards, along with Princess Catherine and other stars.
Inspired by President John F. Kennedy's Moonshot, which sent man to the moon, the Earthshot Prize was founded by Prince William to honor groundbreaking solutions to environmental issues. The British royals will be in town through Friday, when the awards ceremony will take place.
The awards show will be co-hosted by actor Daniel Dae Kim and British TV presenter Clara Amfo, which won't air in the U.S. until Monday.
Performing along with Eilish and her brother, Finneas, will be Annie Lennox, Chloe x Halle and Ellie Goulding, according to a news release. Other celebrities presenting awards include actors Catherine O’Hara and Shailene Woodley.
Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and documentary filmmaker behind shows like "Planet Earth," will appear in the ceremony, and Prince William will give a speech closing out the show.
Many of the participants released statements about their participation in the Earthshot Prize Awards.
Malek: “The fifteen Finalists of this year's Earthshot Prize are deeply inspiring. They are dedicating their lives to building solutions that will repair our planet, and I can’t wait to present an award to one of the incredible Winners for 2022.”
Woodley: “It is an honour to be a presenter at this year’s Earthshot Prize Awards. The Finalists are extraordinary, and I am thrilled to play a part in helping to spotlight their incredible solutions and the inspiring work they do every day.”
Lennox: "The urgent need to protect and restore our Earth’s damaged environmental systems is essential for future survival. The objective of The Earthshot Prize is powerful in terms of building a ‘Waste-Free World’ and ‘Reviving Our Oceans.’ I’m therefore honoured to lend my voice in support of this ambitious mission.”
Prince William and Princess Catherine had announced last summer that they would be coming to Boston in December for the Earthshot ceremony, and confirmed the date earlier this month. The original announcement included a video from Boston Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts, standing in the outfield at Fenway Park.
The Earthshot prize was founded by Prince William and The Royal Foundation in 2020. It was inspired by and with a name echoing President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to America to land a man on the moon by that decade’s end, and aims to “discover and scale the best solutions to help repair our planet within the next decade,” according to a release.
The second annual awards show will celebrate this year’s cohort of 15 global finalists before awarding the five winners of The Earthshot Prize. Last year’s first-ever awards ceremony took place in London.
The royals will be in Boston starting Wednesday, and they'll be welcomed by Mayor Michelle Wu at an event that's open to the public at City Hall Plaza.
During the visit, William and Kate will attend other events around the city, including a visit to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum with Ambassador Caroline Kennedy. The itinerary will also include a visit with Wu to discuss climate change and the work the city is doing to combat the crisis and a visit to Greentown Labs in Somerville, the largest climate technology startup incubator in North America, where they will learn more about the work being done there.
Other events on the schedule include visiting Roca Inc., a nonprofit in Chelsea that works with at-risk young people to combat urban violence and create stronger public systems of support, and a visit to the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, where the Princess will hear more about the advances in science that might help us create better futures as part of a child's early development. The Harvard Center has a long relationship with The Royal Foundation and The Royal Foundation Centre for Early Childhood.
"It's very exciting," Wu said during an appearance on WBUR's "Radio Boston" on Monday. "This is their first trip to the U.S. in eight years and the first royal visit Boston will have had from the Royal Family since 1976 when Queen Elizabeth came."
