Happy Birthday, Your Majesty

HM King Carl XVI Gustaf is celebrating his 70th birthday jubilee this week with lots of pomp and circumstance. 

  • The King and Queen at Tuesday evening's birthday concert in the royal chapel. Photo Kungahuset.se
  • A fantastic celebration is underway for HM King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 70th birthday. It may be the biggest royal party in modern history — rumored to be bigger than the Crown Princess's wedding in 2010. His actual birthday is April 30, when Swedes are otherwise celebrating Walpurgis Night, and the last night in a week-long celebration during which royals, politicians and personal friends from all over Europe will be in Stockholm. The week of special events in honor of the King starts on April 25 and goes full force through April 30, with events of various kinds throughout the city.

  • A royal portrait of H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf and H.M. Queen Silvia in honor of the King's 70th birthday. Photo Peter Knutson/Kungahuset.se
  • The King and his Chief of Staff Major General Hokan Peterson have organized the festivities, one of which includes renting the entire Nordic Museum — the King’s favored location — for one of the gala parties. On his 70th birthday itself, a public party in the castle garden will last all day with music, a Changing of the Guard ceremony, choral singing and salutes, only interrupted at 1 p.m. for a parade to City Hall in which scouts and armed forces march the route following the King’s cortege. There is a formal private party back at the Royal Palace in the evening.

  • Crown Prince Carl Gustaf. Photo archives Kungahuset.se
  • All week it is possible to offer written congratulations to the King at the Royal Palace or online at kungahuset.se. Those who wish to send a gift are encouraged to consider donations to the Foundation's Young Leadership or the Royal Academy College of Music. Other gifts can be brought to the Royal Palace, weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

  • The royal family at Drottningholm Castle in 1984. Photo archives Kungahuset.se
  • H.M. King Carl XVI Gustaf, King of Sweden, Duke of Jämtland, was born Carl Gustaf Folke Hubertus on April 30, 1946. His father, Crown Prince Gustaf Adolf, died in a plane crash in 1947, and his mother Princess Sibylla died in 1972. Carl Gustaf became Sweden's Head of State on September 15, 1973 at the age of 27, succeeding his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf. Carl Gustaf met Silvia Renate Sommerlath of Heidelberg, Germany at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and on June 19, 1976 they married in Stockholm Cathedral. They live at Drottningholm Palace, where they raised three children: Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Madeleine. His personal interests include vintage cars, sports, hunting and the outdoors, art, music, food and his five grandchildren.