The Solvang Danish Days Foundation is pleased to announce the 2024 Solvang Danish Days Grand Marshals, Max and Laura Hanberg. The Hanbergs will preside over this year’s Danish Days weekend, Friday through Sunday, Sept. 20-22.
Solvang Danish Days celebrates 87 returns in 2024, and marks Max Hanberg’s 55th year participating in the festival’s organization and operations. As a former and founding member of the Solvang Danish Days Foundation, Max has attended the annual event since he was a child, when his Danish immigrant parents, Paul and Asta Hanberg, moved Max and their family to the Santa Ynez Valley to settle in the Danish-American enclave of Solvang.
Max’s parents purchased the Solvang Shoe Store in 1965, rooting themselves in Solvang’s Danish community. Paul Hanberg even built a replica of Copenhagen’s Rundetårn (“Round Tower”), a lasting beacon of Solvang’s Danish heritage, which still stands tall at 436 Alisal Road.
Max began to work at his family’s shoe store in 1966, when he was in sixth grade. He went on to attend Hancock College, then worked in the shop again until he purchased and operated Lars Larsen’s Texaco station, which was previously located at Fifth Street and Mission Drive. Max operated the auto shop until 1985, continuing to work as a mechanic at the shop into the 1990s.
In 1996, Max bought the Solvang Shoe Store business from his parents as they prepared to retire. He and his wife of 38 years, Laura Hanberg, still own the store located at 1663 Copenhagen Drive, which is known for the iconic, oversized red clog that sits on the sidewalk in front of the shop.
“It’s been a pleasure to have worked on, and been co-chair of, the Danish Days Foundation Board for much of my life,” Max said. “I started to help with the event by moving picnic tables from Lake Cachuma and back in the 1970s, my early years with the festival. And I was honored to be asked to be on the founding Board in 1995.”
Max and Laura raised two children in the Santa Ynez Valley: Kristine (Hanberg) Ensign, and Jacob Hanberg. Kristine has followed in her parents’ footsteps as retail owners, now owner-operator of two downtown Solvang shops, Treats Women’s Boutique and the neighboring Atterdag Kids. Jacob took up his father’s passion for autos and mechanics. Kristine and Jacob have, similarly to their father, been involved with Danish Days since their childhoods, and Kristine reigned as the 2007 Solvang Danish Days Maid.
“Without the support of my wife, Laura, and our kids, I couldn’t have worked all of those years on Danish Days,” Max said. “And now, to be asked to be Grand Marshals, I am honored again. It takes a whole lot of people to produce the Danish Days festival, so I would also like to thank each and everyone from the past Board Members and volunteers to the new Board for their hard work and dedication to this beloved event.”
Max is a past chief of the Vikings of Solvang, chairman of the Viking Charities Committee, and currently sits on the Tourism and Marketing Advisory Committee (TMAC) for the city of Solvang.
Max’s participation in each year’s Danish Days festival continues, as he is heavily involved in the event’s infrastructure set-up and break-down, aiding in the production of the Aebleskiver Breakfasts, and judging for the Aebleskiver Eating Contests. Laura, Kristine and Jacob also assist with multiple facets of the event weekend, in varying hands-on capacities.
Parading through Solvang with the 2024 Danish Days Grand Marshals will be the 2024 Danish Maid, Kaeley Reid, the Solvang Village Band atop the Carlsberg Beer Wagon, a bevy of floats, equestrians, Village Dancers and more. The Danish Days Parade line-up starts at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 21, on First Street, between Molle Way and Oak Street; the Parade begins at 2:30, turning east on Copenhagen Drive, then north on Alisal Road, west on Mission Drive, south on Fourth Place, east on Copenhagen, south on Second Street, and finishes at the corner of Oak Street near Solvang City Hall.
Participation in the Solvang Danish Days Parade is free, and parade applications are available at www.solvangdanishdays.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SDDF-Parade-app-2024.pdf. Volunteers for any portion of Danish Days weekend are always welcome; a sign-up form is located here: www.solvangdanishdays.org/event-schedule/volunteer-sign-up.
The preliminary 2024 Solvang Danish Days event weekend schedule is available on-line, at www.solvangdanishdays.org. Aebleskiver Breakfast tickets are available for advance, on-line purchase, here: solvang-danish-days-2024.eventbrite.com.
More information about Solvang Danish Days, including the event’s history and complete contact information, is also available at www.solvangdanishdays.org. Solvang Danish Days is on Facebook and Instagram at facebook.com/SolvangDanishDays and @DanishDays.
Solvang Danish Days 2024 is sponsored in part by the City of Solvang, Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, Visit the Santa Ynez Valley, Toyota of Lompoc, Rio Vista Chevrolet, Montecito Bank & Trust, Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital, the Red Viking Restaurant and Olsen’s Danish Village Bakery, Coast Hills Credit Union, and My Electric Vehicle Experience (Solvang). Additional sponsors will be announced during the event weekend.
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 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.