Sweden celebrates birthday of King Carl Gustaf

Royals from Denmark, Norway and Belgium were among the guests who arrived to attend a gala dinner in the Royal Palace in Stockholm on Thursday (April 30) to mark the 80th birthday of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf.

The king himself arrived with members of the Swedish royal family ahead of the banquet, followed by guests including the Danish king and queen and Finland’s President Alexander Stubb.

The Swedish king is the official head of state but is largely confined to ceremonial and representative duties.

Carl Gustaf ascended to the throne when he was 27 years old on September 15, 1973, after the death of his grandfather Gustav VI Adolf. He was only nine months old when his father died in a plane crash.

In 1976, Carl Gustaf married German-born Silvia Sommerlath, whom he met at the Munich Olympics in 1972 and they have three children - Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl-Philip and Princess Madeleine.

-Production : Tom Little, Ilze Filks/Reuters