'Pass the Bolly, Harry...'
As the Queen turns 90, we wonder how she'll be celebrating one of her two birthdays of the year (yes the Queen gets two birthdays - we're pretty jealous of her for that)
Queen Liz will of course mark the occasion publically with a traditional gun salute and some bowing and scraping from her subjects, but how will HRH celebrate in private?
Will Prince Philip bake her a Victoria sponge to enjoy with Charles, Camilla and the corgis? Or will she follow by her grand-children’s example and throw a huge party with her butlers serving bacon butties at dawn? Probably not the latter, but even Royals have to let their hair down every once in a while.
In honour of HRH turning 90, we look back at some of the best royal birthday parties, giving us birthday bash goals for life.
Princess Eugenie Princess Eugenie set the party goal bar pretty high last year, celebrating her 25th birthday with an 11-hour fancy dress do at Royal Lodge. Princess Beatrice dressed up as Ariel and Prince Harry turned up as Super Mario, but it was the birthday girl herself who pulled out all the stops, dressing up as Snow White and arriving with seven dancing dwarfs in fancy dress, hired for the occasion.
Guests had to bring their passports to prove their identity and were even issued with a party passport to grant them entry. The event went so well that her mother Fergie supposedly sent the coaches away at 2am so the guests could party on till 5am and enjoy the enormous chocolate cake. If that’s not the sign of a great party we don’t know what is.
Prince Harry Our favourite party-loving royal is proven to be the life and soul of a knees-up, whether clubbing at Bouja Bouja till the early hours or playing strip billiards in Vegas.
To mark his 30th birthday, the Prince hosted a St Moritz themed birthday bash at Kensington Palace, decorating his brother’s pad to look like a chic Swiss chalet and nightclub. Prince Charles sent over boxes of Claret and Highgrove champagne for the occasion and Harry’s favourite food was on the menu: Beef wellington, fish pie and Eton Mess. If the party didn’t sound cool enough already, it also featured a concert from Ellie Goulding.
Princess Beatrice In 2006 Princess Beatrice celebrated her 18th birthday party with a Victorian masked ball at Windsor Castle. Her £10,000 dress was flown in from New York and her chosen menu was tarte tatin and fillet d’angeau.
The 500 lucky guests (including Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, the Osbourne offspring and Pixie Geldof) enjoyed a night of tarot card readings, contortionists and rap music until 3am, with the Queen’s butlers serving bacon and sausage butties at dawn.
Prince William Prince William is one of the best behaved royals, affectionately referred to as the golden boy, but it was his 21st birthday bash at Windsor Castle in 2003 that got people talking for all the wrong reasons. For those of you who don’t remember, comedy artist Aaron Barschak gate-crashed and jumped on the stage dressed as Osama Bin Laden. Yes we’re serious.
The publicity stunt involved the comedian (dressed as a terrorist) taking the microphone from Prince William mid-speech, shouting as he was taken off the stage ‘You can see me next Monday!’ Luckily Wills was a pro, joking after the man had been removed ‘I didn’t know my brother could do an accent like that.’
Other than the royal security breach, the ‘Out of Africa’ fancy dress party – inspired by his gap year ('or gap yaaaah') - was a huge success, with the costumes ranging from Tarzan and a furry lion to a banana. We seriously hope that was the Queen, Philip and Charles.
