King Charles Celebrates Birthday Eve at Highgrove Tea Party with Special Guest List

The monarch playfully tried to see what flavor the crown-topped cake was

King Charles has already started the party for his banner 75th birthday.

On Monday afternoon, the 74-year-old monarch stopped by the birthday party organized by The Prince's Foundation at Highgrove Gardens. The King turns 75 on Tuesday and his educational charity previously revealed that it would mark the milestone for fellow members of his generation turning 75 this year with celebratory events at Highgrove in Gloucestershire, England, and Dumfries House in Cumnock, Scotland. The festivities also mark the 75th anniversary of the arrival of the HMT Empire Windrush to London and of the National Health Service (NHS).

King Charles was all smiles while making the rounds at the Orchard Room and mingled with his fellow guests over tea and live music from a local rock choir.

As seen in a video shared to X by Victoria Ward of The Telegraph, well-wishers joined together for a “Happy Birthday” serenade and the King playfully raised a knife before slicing into a layered cake topped with a crown.

“It's always fun to have a look,” Charles joked as he checked out the filling, according to the Daily Mail. “Who can I donate it to? Can we get rid of it? We need to give you doggie bags."

Related: King Charles and Queen Camilla Unveil New Statues of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip on Remembrance Day

The Highgrove Garden party welcomed local residents nominated by family and friends for doing good in the community, or for the chance to socialize and make new connections, Buckingham Palace said. The final guest list was chosen by ballot, and the festive event was inspired by the Prince’s Foundation’s health and wellbeing program, which throws monthly tea dances at Dumfries House to bring together those at risk of loneliness and social isolation.

The celebration also welcomed TV presenter and The Prince’s Foundation Ambassador Jay Blades (who hosted Charles on The Repair Shop last year!) and sitters from King Charles’ Windrush: Portraits of a Pioneering Generation project, which Charles commissioned as the Prince of Wales in 2022.

The royal tapped ten artists from around the world to capture portraits of ten pioneering members of the Windrush Generation, which became shorthand for those who relocated to the United Kingdom between 1948 and 1973, especially from Caribbean countries. In 2018, the U.K. government made Windrush Day (June 22) a holiday to celebrate the contributions of the Windrush Generation and their descendants to national life.

While a similar get-together will be held at Dumfries House tomorrow, the King might be busy with other plans! On Tuesday, King Charles and Queen Camilla will spend part of his birthday launching the Coronation Food Project — named because of its launch during the same year as the crowning ceremony — by touring a surplus food distribution center outside London. The royal couple will meet staff and volunteers and hear about “the ways food waste can be used for social good."

Related: King Charles Covers Magazine Ahead of 75th Birthday — and Photographer Has Close Tie to Queen Elizabeth

Timed to the project, Charles is also featured on the front page of the Big Issue. The image was captured by world-renowned photographer John Waddell Rankin, better known as Rankin, in the gardens of Clarence House, King Charles and Queen Camilla's main residence in London, in October.

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The Big Issue article, which was published on Monday, dives into the launch of the Coronation Food Project. Big Issue spoke to Baroness Louise Casey and Dame Martina Milburn, both co-chairs of the new initiative, to highlight the issue of food insecurity across the U.K.

King Charles said in the special, “Food need is as real and urgent a problem as food waste — and if a way could be found to bridge the gap between them, then it would address two problems in one. It is my great hope that this Coronation Food Project will find practical ways to do just that — rescuing more surplus food, and distributing it to those who need it most.”

On the same day, Piccadilly Circus (and other digital sites across the U.K.) will display a 10-minute animation featuring the Coronation Food Project.

Also on the royal calendar, King Charles will host a reception to celebrate nurses and midwives working in the U.K. for the 75th anniversary of the NHS on Tuesday.

It's also expected that members of the royal family will gather for a private birthday celebration, which will be Charles’ second as sovereign.

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