A new wrinkle in the Julefest calendar, afternoon event and concert draws a sizable crowd at Solvang Park
Santa Ynez Valley residents and tourists got an early start to 2025 on the afternoon of Dec. 31, as a big crowd filled up Solvang Park at an afternoon New Year’s bash.
For the first time, the City of Solvang put together a New Year’s Eve party as part of its Julefest celebration. However, instead of staying up and counting down until midnight in U.S., the attendees celebrated with the county of Solvang’s founders: The countdown came at 3 p.m., when the clock struck 12 in Denmark.
Solvang’s first New Year’s Eve celebration came out of a desire for a post-Christmas activity to bridge the gap between Dec. 25 and the Solvang Tree Burn, according to Candice Libera, the marketing and events coordinator for Solvang’s Parks and Rec Department.
“We have over a month of stuff going on for the Christmas season, and we always end it with the tree burn in early January,” Libera said. “But we found that the schedule was kind of bare between Christmas and the tree burn, and just wanted something else to fill in the gap. And having something to do with New Year’s Eve was an obvious choice.”
And, of course, Solvang is known for being founded by Danish immigrants, and conveniently, Denmark is nine hours ahead, so the folks at Solvang Park were able to ring in 2025 at a decent hour.
“It’s great because we can bring in the families, and everyone’s fresh,” Libera said. “And we were able to get a great band (The Molly Ringwald Project), and Whiskey and Rye were able to bring their food truck in and have their own space.”
In addition, there were activities like (toy) ax throwing, cornhole and other games, as well as a booth offering face painting and henna tattoos from Buzzle Bee, a Los Olivos business.
However, the real focal point was The Molly Ringwald Project, the popular local band belting out some of the 1980s’ most memorable hits such as “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” and “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.”
The band was met with an enthusiastic crowd. One of the audience members, Wendy Demandante, was one of the first to start dancing in front of the stage, but eventually, the makeshift dance floor filled up leading to the countdown.
“This was really a great event, and I’m having a good time,” Demandante, who’s from Colorado but has family in the area, said. “It’s one of the reasons I like coming back here.”
Over to the side of the stage, Rashaad Jones and Amanda York, from Monterey, were showing some fine dance moves of their own.
“We do a lot of ballroom dancing so whenever we can get some live music we like to practice,” Jones said.
The couple said they were visiting Santa Barbara and decided to drive up to Solvang for the event before spending New Year’s Eve back down there.
“We heard about this thing they were having and decided to check it out,” Jones said.
“That’s the good thing about coming up here; there’s always something going on,” York added.
Meanwhile, over at the Whiskey ‘N Rye truck, Director of Operations Matthew Negrete was busy taking and getting out orders on the new vehicle.
“We just got this truck about two and half months ago, so we can get into some catering,” said Negrete, whose restaurant is on Atterdag Road. “When we found out they were doing this, we were able to contact the city and get the chance to set up here. We’ve been doing great today, and it’s great way to get our name out to the community and serve it.”
Eventually, the time came for the countdown to the “New Year,” as The Molly Ringwald Project’s singer Roxy counted down to 3 p.m. to loud cheers from the audience.
Also, in attendance was Solvang City Manager Randy Murphy, and he and Libera both agreed the event was a success, and could lead to more things added to future Julefests.
“This has been great, and it’s just shows what kind of community this is,” Murphy said. “I don’t remember how this idea came about, but we had people that saw an opportunity and made this happen.
“I think there are more possibilities for next year; we’ve been talking about setting up an ice skating rink somewhere, and thinking of other stuff to fill the gap until the tree burn, so we’ll see.”
So, until the next New Year’s afternoon party, cheers!
