Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s luxury Sicily wedding may be over, but the backlash in Palermo is still getting louder.
The couple celebrated their marriage with a three-day event in Sicily after officially tying the knot in a smaller London ceremony at Old Marylebone Town Hall. The Palermo celebration reportedly cost around $1.73 million and brought heavy security, blocked streets, closed squares, no-drone restrictions, and angry local reaction.
For fans, it looked like a glamorous celebrity wedding weekend.
For some residents, it felt like their city had been rented out.
Locals Protested The Wedding Shutdown
Photos showed heavy police presence outside Palazzo Valguarnera-Gangi in Palermo, where Lipa and Turner were expected to host part of their wedding celebration.
Authorities reportedly set up security barriers around several town squares, including Piazza Sant’Anna and Piazza Croce dei Vespri. Those areas were closed to the public during the wedding weekend.
Roads were also shut down, no-drone zones were enforced, and some residents were reportedly asked to sign non-disclosure agreements.
That did not sit well with locals.
Posters appeared around the town squares in both English and Italian. Some read, “Palermo is not for rent.” Others said, “Our square is not your living room,” and “Palermo is not for the rich.” After organizers reportedly removed the posters, protesters responded by writing similar messages on walls.
Residents Said The City Felt Like A Theme Park
Local business owners also spoke out about how the wedding affected daily life.
Concetta Chillemi, who owns a shop in Palermo, said the city felt like “a theme park” because of the event.
Another local business owner, Clarissa, said the celebration created problems for people trying to work. “For example, for three days we’ve been forced to park miles away and walk to work,” she said. “It’s not right to block the city. I could understand if it was for the pope, but not for a singer.”
The reaction turned the wedding into a larger argument about celebrity access, wealth, and whether public spaces should be restricted for private events.
Social Media Split Over The Backlash
The criticism did not stop with local posters.
Online, people quickly turned the wedding into a debate about celebrity wealth and public space. One person wrote, “This is exactly why normal people are getting fed up with the out-of-touch celebrity class treating everywhere like their personal playground. Pay your staff properly and stay out of the way next time.” Another person asked, “What happened to renting out farmhouses or lakehouses? What’s the logic and psychology behind renting/buying whole cities?”
Someone else said the anger made sense if residents had lost access to public areas for days. “That’s actually really controversial. You can understand the frustration if public spaces were fully closed off for days like that, locals would definitely feel pushed out of their own city,” the person wrote.
Another critic called the situation “Peak elite hypocrisy,” accusing Lipa and her wealthy guests of shutting down public streets in Palermo for a lavish wedding while locals were left to deal with the disruption.
Others defended the event and argued that Palermo likely benefited from the money and attention. One person wrote, “Palermo locals crying over a few closed squares for a £1.5m celeb wedding are just poor and jealous. They took the cash compensation, the city got paid, businesses got exposure from A-listers and Versace-level guests, but still whine, ‘not for rent.’ Grow up, this is how rich people flex in broke tourist traps. If you can’t handle it, don’t sell your public spaces next time.”
The split reaction showed why the story kept spreading. Some saw the wedding as a rich celebrity takeover. Others saw it as a high-profile event that brought money and attention to the city.
The Couple Had A Major Sicily Celebration
Lipa, 30, and Turner, 36, reportedly held their main celebration at Villa Valguarnera in Bagheria, near Palermo.
The event was described as an ultra-luxury affair, with guests staying together privately and celebrating across the weekend. Elton John’s name was also linked to the celebration as a possible performer.
Lipa and Turner first sparked romance talk in early 2024 and went public at an Apple TV+ after-party that January.
Now, their wedding weekend has ended with two very different reactions. Celebrity fans focused on the romance. Palermo locals and online critics focused on the shutdown.
For a wedding built around privacy and luxury, the public argument may be the part people remember most.
