Royal bash guests asked to help pay for music

The Verdens Gang (VG) newspaper reported on Tuesday that a friend of the couple, Morten Andreassen, had sent bank account details off to guests on the invite list. The cost of the party has already made the rounds of Norwegian headlines, with claims Oslo police were grumbling about the expense and staffing the security detail would entail. 

Andreassen reportedly wrote to the guests comparing the bash to a festival, due to the musical acts drafted in to provide entertainment.

"Like all festivals without financial management, we have bought first and resolved to fix the money problem later… which makes this a desperate email from a man who has serious money problems," Andreassen wrote. 

The contributions to the musical entertainment were to be considered a gift to the prince and princess.

Royal court head of communications Marianne Hagen said that all expenses connected to the party will be covered by the palace, and were unrelated to any outlays  by the couple's friends. 

The music festival was apparently the idea of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, whose 200 guests will be invited to stay in a tent erected in the grounds of her and her husband's Skaugum estate.