Crown Prince Haakon turned 40

OHMYGOSSIP — Crown Prince Haakon, who turned 40 on Saturday (20 July) by parachuting into his own party at the royal estate west of Oslo, spent the weekend mingling and even sleeping outdoors with more than 200 guests.

The invited guests were all asked to help pay for the artists performing. That put the Royal Palace in a royally awkward position, with the event itself highly unconventional in royal circles.

It appeared to be an effort on the young Norwegian royals’ part to recreate their own sort of mini-Roskilde or Woodstock festival. Both the crown prince and his wife, a former waitress and young single mother, are interested in music.

Norwegian media had speculated over how Haakon planned to celebrate his 40th birthday, with reports emerging last week that local police were complaining about the need for a major security operation around the party in the middle of  Norway’s traditional summer holiday period.

Newspaper FinansAvisen reported that security alone for the party would cost NOK 20 million. That was quickly refuted by police officials themselves, who said it would “only” cost NOK 3 million, and that they’d be reimbursed by the state.

The performers, according to reports after the party, included Norwegian musicians Lars Lillo-Stenberg, Thomas Dybdahl, Solveig Slettahjell and Anne Grete Preus. The crown prince joined some of them on stage, both singing and playing guitar.

King Harald and Queen Sonja also attended the party, which began Saturday afternoon and continued on Sunday, but the palace said they would stay at their summer mansion on Oslo’s Bygdøy Peninsula, not in tents in “the festival area.”