On Friday, Princess Marie, Prince Joachim and their children, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena visited Tonder Festival.
The Tonder Festival is a well-known folk music festival in Europe. The festival was founded in 1975 and this year’s headliners included Lukas Graham, Tami Neilson, and The Mavericks.
Princess Marie has been patron since 2009, and she has attended every year since then, except for last year’s edition as she had to pull out because of Prince Nikolai’s 18th birthday. Since 2013, Joachim, Henrik, and Athena join Marie at the event. Next year will be Princess Marie’s 10th visit to the Festival as patron, and she said that there might be a special event to commemorate this: “I do not know. Perhaps something special must happen. I enjoy being here.”
After the official welcome, they visited the new children area. Prince Henrik and Princess Athena were pleased with all the new activities, and they asked to stay for longer than planned, so the family had to miss their next event, a visit to the Wadden Sea area of the festival.
Afterwards, they attended Vishtèn’s show before visiting the Outlaw Village Area. During the Canadian band’s show, Prince Henrik and Princess Athena were sitting on Prince Joachim and Mayor Henrik Frandsen ‘s shoulders because they couldn’t see the stage just like in 2016.
Before heading backstage to enjoy drinks and food as well as some private time, Princess Marie talked to the reporters about the development of the Festival since her first visit back in 2009: “A big development, I think. Now it’s bigger, and it gets bigger and bigger. There are a lot of different activities for children too. They have actually gotten a whole new area here for children and families. And there are really many places to eat and have fun. And more and more musicians come from all over the world. From Ireland, USA, Canada and they are really skilled. It’s really a pleasure to be here.”
