Solvang celebrates Danish Days for 89th time

By Mike Chaldu · Fri Oct 09 2026

Kentucky family, formerly SYV residents, among the visitors enjoying city's annual festival

An annual tradition returned on Sept. 18 through 20 (Friday through Sunday) as Solvang's Danish Days was held for the 89th time since the city first did in 1936 to celebrate the village's 25th anniversary.

Like every year, there were thousands of visitors, many Santa Ynez Valley residents, others from surrounding areas of the Central Coast, and still more who traveled far and wide to experience this bit of the town's Danish culture.

Then there's the Hanrahan family who could fall into at least two of the above categories.

"We lived in California for years and liked to come here for the Danish Days, but then we moved to Kentucky a couple of years ago," said Jennifer Hanrahan, who was at this year's celebration with husband Brian, and their children Saren, Hawken, and Soleil. "This was the first year we were able to make it back, so we're trying to experience all this has to offer."

On Saturday, Sept. 19, the family was getting ready to compete in the aebleskiver eating contest, a popular part of Danish Days. The rules have varied over the years, but mostly the contest goes under "no-hands" rules, which means contestants have to bend down and grab the round pancake balls with their teeth, usually getting a bunch of the requisite jam on their faces.

In the 14 and under category, sibling Hawken and Soleil competed as they sat next to each other, and Hawken defeated seven other competitors by downing seven aebleskiver.

Then, in the adult category Saren, who's actually still 14, decided to compete there along with her mother.

"Since she's 14, she could have competed with the kids, but she can down a lot of those and decided to test herself against the grown-ups," Jennifer said.

And Saren passed her test: She won the adult competition by eating 14 aebleskiver.

When asked what her secret was, Saren said, "I just really love eating. I do cross country back home, so I can eat a lot and burn it off."

The Hanrahans were planning to enjoy all the aspects of Danish Days during the weekend, and after the eating contest were planning to check out a couple of the city's famous bakeries.

"Saren's like, 'I want to go to every bakery while we're here,'" said Jennifer. Saren added, "Yeah, I love it you know. I actually want to get over to Mortensen's next."

Later on Saturday, Danish Days attendees lined up along downtown streets to see the afternoon Danish Days parade.

The event had all the usual aspect that make a Solvang parade great. Among the first few were vehicles carrying the parade Grand Marshals Roberta (seamstress for the Danish Days events) and her husband Kevin Skidmore, this year's Danish Maid Ainsley Haws, Solvang Mayor David Brown, and Denise El-Amin, who's challenging Brown for the mayoral seat in the Nov. 3 election.

Parade viewers also saw the Carlsberg Pilsner bandwagon, Hans Christian Andersen portrayer John Clark, the Nordhoff High marching band from Ojai, and, of course, the Viking ship from the Vikings of Solvang.

Before, during, and after the parade there were countless activities, including a tent and tables where families could build with Legos, a trailer set up for axe throwing, supervised by members of Scouting America's (formerly Boy Scouts) Troop 41 in Solvang, as well as live band in and around Solvang Park.

And on Copenhagen Drive, the Solvang Village Folk Dancers spent the day showing off their traditional dances to curious onlookers, some of whom eventually took part.

"It's really neat to see the people come over and watch us, and then they go 'oh, can I do that with you guys.'" said Paula Albrecht, a member of the dance group. "We just pull them out of the crowd, give them a leader to show them what to do. Then they like to take pictures with us. That's really great."

After riding in the parade, Danish Maid Ainsley Haws, in the middle of a very busy day, recounted her experiences.

"I did the parade and before that helped out with the aebleskiver contest," Haws said. "Also, handing out lunch tickets and buttons, and talking to people — a lot of people — and inviting them to come on Sunday."

Among recent Danish Maids, Haws is a little different in that she didn't have relatives who held that distinction, as many have.

"It's crazy, but I didn't know I could apply for this," she said. "Then they were looking for someone and asked me to apply, and I was like, 'I didn't even know that was an option.'"

For now, Haws can look forward to more things to do as the ambassador for Danish Days.

"So, I have the December parade, I'll be going to the Atterdag Village senior center, and then selling raffle tickets for a trip to Denmark, and then drawing that ticket in December," she said.

It's a lot work, but Haws is enjoying it very much.

"I love meeting people here, and we get them from all over, and I love getting pictures taken with them," she said. "I met someone from Germany, and another from Jerusalem. It's so cool that there are people from so many different places just sitting here today."

Another Danish Days weekend has come and gone, but residents and out-of-towners can plan for the next one, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 17-19, 2027.