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Solvang Danish Days 2021 canceled for second year in a row due to COVID-19 uncertainty

Courtesy: Rick Ineman
Solvang Danish Days 2019

This year’s Solvang Danish Days celebration is officially canceled, as the organizers felt uncertain about the state of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The festival was also canceled last year due to the pandemic. The Solvang Danish Days Foundation expected to be able to hold the event this year and even announced its return last month.

It was planned in-person for September 17 and 18 with live entertainment and food stands.

But after seeing a spike in COVID cases and new facemask mandates set by California and Santa Barbara County, Danish Days co-founder Max Hanberg said they couldn’t risk hosting the festival.

“We were concerned that it could go the other way and get a lot worse,” Hanberg said. “So we felt, for the local people and the tourists, the safest thing was to not do Danish Days this year.”

Hanberg said the festival draws thousands of attendees each year, and some hotels have already booked rooms for the event weekend.

He said he expects some people will still come, despite the cancellation. He said local museums and restaurants will still be open for visitors.

“Solvang will still be open, come Danish Days.” Hanberg said. “People are coming anyway, but we just couldn’t put the cooks and servers out there in that position.”

Hanberg said the cancellation could mean less money coming into the area, although he’s not sure how much.

“It’s really hard to gauge what kind of impact it’s going to have, except for a lot of disappointed people that really miss the event, the eating contests and seeing the Danish Folk Dancers dance around,” Hanberg said.

A representative of Elverhøj Museum of History & Art told KCBX News they aren’t concerned about seeing less visitors as a result of the cancellation. They said the museum is seeing more visitors than they had by this time in 2019.

Solvang Danish Days traditionally honors the 1911 establishment of Solvang by Danish-Americans. This year’s event would have been the festival’s 85th anniversary, according to the foundation.

Hanberg said he is confident the festival will be held next year.

Rachel Showalter first joined KCBX as an intern from Cal Poly in 2017. During her time in college, she anchored and reported for Mustang News at Cal Poly's radio station, KCPR. After graduating, she took her first job as a Producer at KSBY-TV. She returned to the KCBX team in October 2020, reporting daily for KCBX News until she moved to the Pacific Northwest in July of 2022. Rachel spends her off-days climbing rocks, cooking artichokes and fighting crosswords with friends.