Santa Ynez High junior to preside over 87th Annual Solvang Danish Days in September
The nonprofit Solvang Danish Days Foundation has officially announced the festival’s 2024 Danish Maid, Kaeley Reid, who is set to preside over this year’s 87th Solvang Danish Days (SolvangDanishDays.org), Friday through Sunday, September 20 through 22.
Kaeley, 16, is currently a junior at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School. She has enjoyed cheerleading for the football team and stays busy with her classes, the majority of which are honors and AP classes.
She has spent most of her life in Valley, attending Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Preschool, moving on to Solvang Elementary and, after a brief time living in South San Francisco and attending elementary and middle schools there, returning to the Valley and attended Jonata Middle School.
“As this year’s Danish Maid, I can’t wait to represent Solvang and present our Danish history and culture to both locals and visitors, some of which travel from all over the world to join in our annual Danish Days festivities,” Kaeley said.
“I am happy to give back to the community I hold so dear and most importantly, I will be honoring the memory of my grandparents, who left me too soon. I know they will be smiling down on me.”
Kaeley’s Danish roots stem from her maternal grandfather, Hans “Farfar” Birkholm (1946-2019), who was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hans moved to Solvang with his family in 1957, and while attending Santa Ynez High School, he met his future wife and Kaeley’s grandmother, Denise “Nisie” Birkholm (1951-2018). Hans and Denise raised three children in Solvang, including Kaeley’s mother, Karine Birkholm-Reid, who was the 1998 Danish Days Maid.
Kaeley’s grandparents were instrumental in the organization and growth of Solvang Danish Days. Hans was one of the original Solvang Danish Days Foundation Board members, and Denise was credited with numerous duties which kept the festival running each year, until she passed away in 2018. Kaeley’s family has been involved in Danish Days weekend for decades, and she experienced her very first Danish Days festival when she was just nine months old.
As she got older, on Saturday and Sunday mornings of the festival weekend, Kaeley would help her grandfather and her father in the breakfast tents, learning how to make the ever-popular aebleskiver, while Kaeley’s dad, Peter Reid, would help with the early morning tasks in the tents.
“Once we were done with breakfast duties, I would gather with all of the event workers for lunch in the Solvang Festival Theater garden, and dance with my friends before getting to participate in the Danish Days Parade on my Farfar’s golf cart,” Kaeley reminisced. “On Sundays, I would walk in the Children’s Parade, tossing candy from the back of a cart that was usually driven by my mother.”
Kaeley noted that her mother, Karine, has always held the family’s Danish traditions and culture near and dear, and that after her mother graduated from high school, she moved to Denmark for a year to attend a Danish folk school in Helsingør.
“Having the honor of being this year’s Danish Days Maid means the world to me. I would love to carry on the family tradition, and follow in my mom’s footsteps,” Kaeley said. “My parents have always encouraged me to follow my dreams, and this is a big one.”
Solvang Danish Days, California’s premier Danish culture and heritage festival, has grown and evolved since its humble beginnings in 1936, when a one-day celebration commemorating the 25th anniversary of Solvang’s 1911 founding was first conceived. Solvang Danish Days is now a weekend-long event that includes authentic food, music, dancing, parades, live entertainment, and family activities. The 2024 Solvang Danish Days theme, “Det Dansk, Det Dejligt” (“It’s Danish, it’s delightful!”), will be highlighted during this year’s returning event weekend.
More information about Solvang Danish Days including a brief history of the event, 2024 event weekend schedule and details, parade applications, and contact information, is or will be available at SolvangDanishDays.org. Solvang Danish Days is also on Facebook and Instagram at facebook.com/SolvangDanishDays and @DanishDays. Aebleskiver Breakfast tickets and “Dane For A Day” ticket bundles for the 2024 event weekend are currently on sale at solvang-danish-days-2024.eventbrite.com.
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 nonprofit 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 foundation members meet throughout the year to ready each year’s celebration. Donations and volunteers for the event are always welcome; go to SolvangDanishDays.org. for more information.
