Victoriadagen (Victoria Day in Swedish) is the traditional festivity celebrating Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden’s birthday. It falls every year on the 14th of July, the day the Crown Princess was born, and has been celebrated since 1979.
It is usually celebrated on the island of Öland, where Solliden Palace is located – the Palace is usually the background for the main part of the festivities and the place of residence of the Royal Family for the summer.
In years in which Crown Princess Victoria turns ages that are significant (like, most recently, on her 40th birthday), the celebrations can be extended over multiple days.
The basic format of Victoriadagen begins with Crown Princess Victoria, accompanied by members of her family (generally the King, Queen, Prince Daniel, Princess Estelle and Prince Oscar), greeting the crowd waiting for her on the lawn of Solliden Palace. They sing “Happy Birthday,” and then His Majesty leads the crowd in offering the Crown Princess four “hurras.” The Royal Family then proceeds to do a walkabout, in which they thank members of the public for their presence and collect all the flowers, cards and presents the Crown Princess receives.
There is then a gun salute, generally fired at 1pm, from Stockholm.
The second part of the festivities takes part a little later in the afternoon when the Crown Princess and her family members watch a concert, which typically takes place in Borgholm, the main city on the island of Öland. There are usually many big names of the Swedish musical panorama performing on stage – for example, in 2013, pop singer Zara Larsson performed for the concert.
In combination with the celebrations, Crown Princess Victoria hands out a scholarship to a Swedish sports person who achieved a particularly important objective during the year. The prize covers all types of sports, from swimming to alpine skiing, from biathlon to wrestling. The first-ever Victoria Award went to alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark in 1979, while the last went to pole vaulter Armand Duplantis in 2020.
