Solvang Danish Days

California’s premier Danish heritage festival, “Solvang Danish Days” (www.SolvangDanishDays.org), returns with a three-day event weekend lineup Friday through Sunday, September 19, 20, and 21, 2025. The 2025 Solvang Danish Days theme – “Be Happy – Vær Glæde!” – will be celebrated during this year’s event which honors the 1911 establishment of Solvang by Danish-Americans.

The 2025 edition of Solvang Danish Days will once again offer attendees a Danish immersion experience – without the flight to Europe – while helping to preserve Solvang’s authentic Danish heritage. Danish Days guests looking to “live like Vikings” throughout the event weekend have the opportunity to purchase a “Dane For A Day” VIP ticket bundle (only available online), while those looking to gain quicker entrance to the Saturday and/or Sunday Æbleskiver Breakfasts may purchase online tickets for the Breakfasts in advance. ***Advance, online tickets for the 2025 Æbleskiver Breakfasts and Dane For A Day ticket packages are currently on sale.***

Since Solvang Danish Days’ modest beginnings in 1936 when the festival debuted to commemorate the village’s 25th anniversary, the event has set out to celebrate Solvang’s Danish heritage with authentic food, music, dancing, parades, live entertainment, and family activities. Solvang Danish Days, now 87 annual celebrations deep, continues to mix “old country charm and customs” with a more modern “way of life” through its varied activities that blend Danish-American traditions with present-day festival highlights, while showcasing everything “Solvang.”

The weekend’s array of offerings includes activities for all ages ranging from fan-following food events surrounding Æbleskiver, the iconic Danish pastry rounds; to a Danish-style beer and wine garden serving Danish import, Carlsberg beer, alongside local brews, wines and festival foods; to an axe throwing arena; a Viking “camp” and presentations; interactive history lessons at the Elverhøj Museum of History & Art; story time sessions with fairytale favorite, Hans Christian Andersen; to a future-telling rune reader; and, an Old World artisanal crafts marketplace.

Solvang Danish Days boasts a full weekend of entertainment with multiple parades, Danish folk dancers and musicians performing at locations all over town, plus afternoons and evenings of free, live concerts on the Midgaard Pavilion Stage in the middle of downtown Solvang, adjacent to the Viking Beer & Wine Garden. Solvang Danish Days 2025 will, once again, also offer family-friendly pastimes including the popular, and shaded, LEGO tents in Solvang Park, and an expanded Kid’s Korner with face painting, activities, and games.

The preliminary 2025 Solvang Danish Days event weekend schedule is available online at www.SolvangDanishDays.org. More information about Solvang Danish Days including a brief history of the event, parade applications, and contact information, is also available at www.SolvangDanishDays.org. Solvang Danish Days is also on Facebook (facebook.com/SolvangDanishDays) and Instagram (@DanishDays).

About the Solvang Danish Days Foundation

In early 1995, the Solvang City Council approached Santa Ynez Valley residents from long-established, local Danish families and other interested groups about possibly setting up a non-profit foundation – Solvang Danish Days Foundation – to formally plan and organize the increasingly popular, annual Danish Days festivities. The original Solvang Danish Days Foundation board members were Ken Andersen, Brenda Anderson, Hans Birkholm, Max Hanberg, Howard Petersen, David Rasmussen, and Henry Skytt. The current Foundation members meet throughout the year to ready each year’s celebration. Sponsors and volunteers for the event are always welcome; please contact the Foundation for more information.