Sweden: Princess Estelle stole the show on her granddad's birthday

Around 2000 people gathered at the Outer Courtyard of the Royal Palace in Stockholm when the public celebration of King Carl XVI Gustaf's 66th birthday took place today. According to the Royal Court's website as well as The Local/TT), the band of the Royal Swedish Navy played among others several marches as well as a medley of the glamrock group The Ark's songs and also the pop group Abba's "The winner takes it all". The traditional 21-gun salute from Skeppsholmen and the change of the guards also took place. The king took the time to receive flowers and drawings from many children.

Later the king appeared on one of the palace balconies, where he was joined by Prince Carl Philip, Queen Silvia and eventually also Crown Prince Victoria and Prince Daniel with their 2 months' old daughter Princess Estelle. This was of course received very well by the crowd, and has also made headlines in the Swedish newspapers. See for instance Aftonbladet.se and Expressen.se in addition to the links made above. A direct link to Expressen's TV coverage can be viwed here.

The then Princess Victoria also made a similar public appearance on the balcony on the king's 32nd birthday in 1978 when she was 9 months old. We will not have to wait so long for Princess Estelle's next public appearance, as her christening will take place on Tuesday 22 May at the Palace Church in Stockholm.