King Harald and Queen Son­ja in Lon­gye­ar­by­en

Some­thing com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent – a roy­al visit to Sval­bard: King Harald V and Queen Son­ja are pay­ing a visit to Lon­gye­ar­by­en today (Mon­day, 16th of June) and tomor­row. The roy­al cou­ple and their entou­ra­ge arri­ved on the roy­al yacht Nor­ge, having alre­a­dy visi­ted the wea­ther sta­ti­on on Bjørnøya and the still inha­bi­ted Fang­s­tas­jon Farm­ham­na en rou­te.

The roy­al yacht ‘Nor­ge’ with escort at the ent­rance to the Advent­fjord.

After arri­ving in Lon­gye­ar­by­en, the­re was a public arran­ge­ment on the ‘mar­ket squa­re’ in the mor­ning. As expec­ted, the­re were various spee­ches, inclu­ding King Harald, Mayor Ter­je Aune­vik and youth repre­sen­ta­ti­ve Auro­ra Nord­tøm­me Uhlen (18). The­re were also acro­ba­tics from cir­cus Sval­nar­do, dancing and various musi­cal con­tri­bu­ti­ons from Longyearbyen’s two kin­der­gar­tens, talen­ted sin­gers such as Mia Eke­blad Eggen­fell­ner (19), Eivind Older­nes Hoem (16), Ida Marie Mau­dal (15) and Fio­na Lucil­le Caru­ban­ga (9), and of cour­se the Stor­band (‘Big Band’) with lots of brass and drums and the natio­nal anthem at the end.

Front row from left to right:
Mayor Ter­je Aune­vik, King Harald, Queen Son­ja, Sys­sel­mes­ter Lars Fau­se (part­ly hid­den).

Of cour­se, the­re will also be an exten­si­ve pro­gram­me of visits with various offi­ci­al events until Tues­day.

Even the reinde­er had come for this spe­cial occa­si­on, but their exci­te­ment see­med to be limi­t­ed.

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

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