Current Issue Articles

Celebrating a Sunny Century

by Ann Blumenthal and staff,
with photos by Wolcott Schley

Editors Note: The SYV Guest will have updates in each quarterly issue during the 2011 to keep our readers abreast of Solvang's latest exciting Centennial events.

Traditions are passed from the older generation to the youngest, as this Danish dancing girl gets some expert coaching from a seasoned Danish dancer.	One hundred years ago, 41 Danish-American families began building a community and a college next to the Old Mission Santa Inés in the heart of a quiet, out of the way river valley. They named their community Solvang, which means “sunny fields” in Danish. Solvang has grown and thrived, and is now celebrating its centennial with a commemorative explosion of cultural, educational, athletic and culinary events. Over two years in the making, the celebration and exploration of Solvang’s rich history and Danish culture will be a dazzling year-long gala. Signature Events The first signature events for 2011, an Opening Gala with dinner and entertainment, was held January 7 at the Hotel Corque. The guests enjoyed a lavish Danish dinner and were entertained by both Chumash (Somala) and Danish dancers, shown in these photos.
They also took a short stroll over to Solvang’s Annual Christmas Tree burning, shown on the facing page. The next signature event will be the American theatrical premier of the musical My Fairytale in August. The third will be a six day, San Francisco to Solvang bike ride in September. The rest of the year will be filled with lectures, performances, exhibits and events showcasing the rich history and serious purpose behind Solvang’s fairytale village atmosphere. The year will culminate in a grand fireworks display on New Years Eve of 2011.
Somola dancers demonstrated traditional dance and music of the Chumash culture at the Opening Gala.	Cultural Exchanges The celebration even started early with a visit by the Danish Ambassador, Friis Arne Petersen, in July, 2010. Further visits by Danish dignitaries, including numerous members of the Danish parliament and the mayor of Aalborg, Solvang’s sister city, are planned for the centennial year. Laurie Fulton, the U.S. ambassador to Denmark, has also been invited.
The Farstrup-Mortensen Lecture Series The founders of Solvang were inspired by the controversial Lutheran pastor, scholar, poet and historian N. F. S. Grundtvig, whose progressive ideas about ongoing education were the basis for the Atterdag Folk College. In honor of the centennial, the stimulating and highly regarded Farstrup-Mortensen Lecture Series returns to Bethania Lutheran Church on February 25-27 with two Grundtvig scholars: Professor S. A. J. Bradley from University of York, UK and Professor Marianne Stølen from University of Copenhagen, Denmark. In addition, Professor Phil Zuckerman from Claremont College will address the issue of secularism in our world.

Hans Skytt was one of the guests at the Opening Gala. The Skytt family were among the earliest Danish settlers in Solvang.	My Fairytale My Fairytale is a lush, magical musical by Stephen Schwartz, celebrating Hans Christian Andersen’s life and work. Schwartz wrote the music for Wicked and many Disney productions. At the PCPA website (pcpa.org) you can see a YouTube interview with Schwartz, as well as some scenes from the musical. The premier is at the PCPA Solvang Theaterfest on August 27th. This delightful frolic through the storyteller’s life and work was a sensation in Denmark as Mit Evantyr, and is eagerly anticipated here in America.
The Centennial Bike Ride On September 10th there is an invitation-only bike ride for 100 people that will cover the 2500 km from San Francisco to Solvang in six days. Rolf Sorensen, the former Captain of the Danish Rabo Bank Cycling Team and James P. Cain, the former U.S. Ambassador to Denmark, will be among the luminaries making the ride. The public is invited to ride along on the last day to arrive in Solvang at the opening of the 75th annual Danish Days. The Aalborg Police Band will perform that weekend in honor of the Centennial. To commemorate the Centennial ride, 100 special limited edition bikes have been built and are for sale at Dr. J’s on Mission Drive near the corner of Alisal.
Danish dancers bow goodbye, but Centennial Events will continue to delight and amuse Solvang's visitors throughout 2011.	Solvang Centennial Plaza and Heritage Trail The City of Solvang and the Elverhøj Museum have begun work on a Centennial Plaza next to the Solvang Bakery, which will be a tribute to the town fathers. A Solvang Heritage Trail walking tour starting at the plaza will wind through the village and connect the Danish roots of the community with the Chumash ruins and Old Mission Santa Inés, including the old Mission fulling (wool processing) and grist mills. Markers and plaques will line the route, and a series of themed educational events are planned along the trail throughout the year.

Solvang Speaks
The Solvang Library and the Elverhøj Museum are offering Solvang Speaks, a series of oral history lectures by the local notables who lived it, telling tales of the Solvang that was. There will also be lectures by distinguished guests from Denmark.

The Elverhøj Museum
Solvang’s Elverhøj Museum has published a “Historical Commemorative Centennial Calendar” for 2011 with over 60 fascinating photos, documenting the evolution of the village from the sleepy “Sunny Fields” it was named after, to the vibrant, sophisticated community and tourist destination it is today.
The museum’s director, Esther Jacobsen Bates, says they are also producing the first definitive history of Solvang to mark the occasion. All of the Elverhøj Museum’s exhibitions in 2011 will be infused with Solvang history and Danish culture.
The inaugural exhibit, “The Spirit of Solvang,” displays photos from the museum’s extensive historic collection. The photos have been meticulously rstored, enlarged and printed. A book of the same title by Paul Roark is available at the museum’s gift shop. Danish and Danish-American artists will be featured all year, including a show called Danish by Design by valley resident Rick James Marzullo.

National Recognition
In 2009 Solvang was honored as a National Preserve America Community, recognized by the White House for “heralding its authentic traditional character and keeping its unique culture alive through education and heritage tourism programs.” This centennial year the city will go all out to let people know, at home and abroad, what a special place Solvang is and how much it has to offer the discerning visitor.

Community Support
Everyone is getting into the spirit. Valley school’s Third and Fourth grades will add the Heritage Trail to their usual California Mission studies. Local residents such as Bent and Susie Olsen of Olsen’s Bakery have hosted Danish journalists to get the word out. The Solvang Centennial Committee has an open blog at their website http://solvang100.blogspot.com
inviting people to share their stories about Solvang. At the end of the year a time capsule containing commemorative mementos from throughout the year will be buried for 50 years.

Solvang resident and business owner, Linda Johansen, greeted guests in a beautiful Danish costume at the Gala.

All of this community effort pays tribute to the idealistic and ambitious Danish-American educators who built Solvang. This “Can-Do” attitude is what has made Solvang into the thriving community it is today. Visitors sometimes wonder what it is like to live in this gingerbread town. This year, more than ever, they’ll have a chance to see what Solvang is all about—fun and educational to visit, wholesome and pleasant to live in. While Solvang celebrates and preserves the past, it embraces the future, looking forward to its next century. As Tracy Farhad, the executive director of the Solvang Conference and Visitors Bureau says of Solvang, “It is a little bit of Denmark, with a big American heart.”
The general public, as well as the attendees of the Opening Gala, enjoyed Solvang's annual Christmas Tree Burning.	Atterdag College A contemporary of Kierkegaard and Hans Christian Andersen, Nikolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872), helped to define what it was to be Danish. He advocated “schools for life” that taught Danish culture to people of all ages. In 1914, the educators and pastors who founded Solvang built such a folk school that became Atterdag College. It offered classes for young adults in folk dancing, Danish arts and crafts, singing, and gymnastics, in addition to bookkeeping, history, English and Danish.
Until it was torn down in 1968, Atterdag College was the beating heart of Solvang. At various times it was a folk school, community meeting hall, theater, summer school and boarding house. Longtime local residents have fond memories of childhood summers attending the wood working, gymnastics and other special programs offered there. Centennial Events-Continuing Coverage To keep up with all the festivities surrounding Solvang’s Centennial year, you can check the following websites for updates: www.solvangUSA.com www.solvang100.com www.syvguest.com www.elverhoj.org www.cityofsolvang.com www.santaynezvalleyvisit.com www.santaynezmuseum.org www.solvangchamber.com Also, each issue of the Santa Ynez Valley Guest magazine will have photos and coverage of the events as they take place.