The city of Solvang took a step toward rebranding itself by drawing national attention with the drone show that was part of Julefest 2019.
The show drew roughly 1,500 ticket purchasers but was seen from miles away on Dec 21. It was one of the city’s “show stopper” events, designed to broaden Solvang’s profile, draw in overnight guests, and flood the streets with tourists and locals.
“The goal is to bring people in during the off-season, in the winter months and during the week,” said Kady Fleckenstein, the city’s contracted spokesperson.
But perhaps the biggest goal is to draw free advertising. Fleckenstein said national outlets like the Los Angeles Times and Fox Business covered the drone show. CBS This Morning also sent out a crew to interview the drone show operator contracted by IDK Events and the city mayor, Ryan Toussaint.
Toussaint ate doughnuts and described the city’s long celebrated Christmas tradition on the nationally televised show.
The push to bring new shows and different events to Julefest has been directed by Toussaint and the City Council. It’s part of an effort to grow Julefest into a season, its own time of year that can be used as a marketing vehicle for various promotional opportunities for businesses like those in the city’s hospitality industry.
“When you have a show stopper event like the drone show, you give people an incentive to come and visit in the off season,” Fleckenstein said. “Each weekend throughout Julefest more businesses were open later. As businesses were able to see the traffic coming in and see the business their neighbors were getting, they saw it was worth staying open.”
Fleckenstein, who also contributes to the city’s tourism and event planning, said Solvang conducted a survey of local business owners and found many were willing to stay open later if their neighbors would as well.
Many businesses, she said, are closed by 5 or 6 p.m. during the week with some restaurants staying open a bit later.
The drone show featured 100 buzzing quad copters, taking off and landing from a series of plywood platforms in a field. Conducted by one operator, they flew into the sky, changing colors and flying around into shapes, like the leg lamp made famous by the film, A Christmas Story.
Once the show was complete, visitors made their way onto the Danish town’s streets to businesses with their doors propped open.
“It was truly incredible to see Solvang hopping in the middle of the night,” Fleckenstein said. m
This article appears in Jan 2-9, 2020.