The royal court has announced the programme for the official celebrations of the King and Queen's eightieth birthdays, which will take place on 9 and 10 May.
On 9 May there will be some sort of entertainment in the Palace Square at 5.30 p.m. The King and Queen and their European guests will appear on the balcony at 6.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. there will be a gala banquet at the Royal Palace (which usually means white tie).
The next day the King and Queen will give a luncheon onboard the Royal Yacht "Norge" at 11 a.m., while the cabinet will host a dinner for 300 guests at the Opera House at 7 p.m. Government dinners usually take place at Akershus Castle, but this time it has been decided to hold it at the Opera as this will make it possible to seat all 300 guests in the same room, whereas they would have to be divided between several rooms at the old castle. While white tie in the twentieth century, government dinners for the royal family have been black tie affairs since the turn of the century.
Aftenposten reports that between 30 and 40 foreign royals are expected to attend, but contrary to what the newspaper claims this is neither a record nor the largest royal gathering in Norway since the Crown Prince and Crown Princess's wedding in 2001, as fifty foreign royals attended the celebrations of the King's seventieth birthday in 2007.
The Queen of Denmark will attend with her two sons and daughters-in-law, who will stay onboard the Royal Yacht "Dannebrog", while the King and Queen of Sweden will be accompanied by Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Daniel, Prince Carl Philip and Princess Sofia. Two of King Carl Gustaf's sister, Princesses Désirée and Christina, usually attend family events in Norway, but are unlikely to attend this time as Princess Christina is undergoing treatment for leukemia while the funeral of Princess Désirée's husband, Baron Niclas Silfverschiöld, takes place the day after the Norwegian celebrations come to an end. Other royal guests are yet to be announced.
The King was eighty on 21 February, but spent the day privately in South Africa together with his wife, children, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, while the Queen will be eighty on 4 July.
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