The Fourth of July has come and gone. But, events for America’s two hundred and fiftieth are still going on. Earlier this month on APR, our special correspondent James Niiler brought us the story of the annual Rebild Festival in Denmark. It’s an event that celebrates the democratic connection between the Danish and the United States. Political tensions between the two nations helped make this year’s celebration a little tricky. James’ original story was the lead up to this year’s Rebild Festival. He attended this year’s event to see how it would go.
It's Fourth of July, and I'm here in the beautiful heather-covered hills of Rayfield National Park in North Jutland, Denmark. My destination is what's often been billed as the world's oldest and largest july 4 celebration outside the United States. The Rebild Festival has been going on since 1912, bringing together Danes, Americans, and friends of both countries for an afternoon of speeches, song, and all things USA.
“Especially after the Second World War, it was huge. Maybe 40,000 people came to celebrate the liberation from the Nazis,” said Sude Frederiksen. He works with the Rebild National Park Society. We spoke with him last time for APR.
“Only the Second World War and the First World War and COVID made a stop to it for a short while,” he said. “I would say 10 years ago we might have been four or 5000 people, and today we might be 1200 people.”
Sude is a Danish native. He lives in Kentucky, but he's traveled back to his homeland to celebrate the Fourth in Rebild. Sude says the men who founded Rebild National Park donated the land to the Danish government for one very important reason.
“There was one condition,” he observed. “And it was that they wanted to take advantage of using the facility here once a year.”
The Rebild Festival format is simple. It starts with a lunch of classic Danish cuisine in a big tent. Then the two hours. two-hour event, free and open to the public. Spectators sit in the hills surrounding the stage, watching the speeches and music below. Here at APR, we've previously reported on President Donald Trump's ambitions toward the Danish territory of Greenland. Danish public opinion toward Trump and the U.S. hasn't exactly been positive for this reason, but Sude believes the personal ties between Danes and Americans have allowed the festival to transcend politics, especially this year.
“I feel people feel liberated that we we are actually doing it. There have been some pressure on from political sides and so on, but we are here for the the right reasons. It is to build bridges and friendships,” he said.
Some of this pressure has been coming from within Rebild itself. One symbol of this is a gold statue about the familiar subject.
“He’s (President Trump) against nearly everything we believe on in Europe and Denmark,” said Jens Galsichot is an artist based in the city of Odense. He came to the festival with a portable statue of President Trump. He built the statue depicts Trump as a massive golden figure sitting on the back of a poor, helpless man.
“Like a statement about the United States going away from the climate change agreement,” the artist said.
The statue's name? It's called the Orange Plague. Jens said the statue was built in protest of Trump's policies and is inspired by the Danish fairy tale *The Emperor's New Clothes. The statue has traveled in protest of Trump's policy positions many times before.
“Then we have put in the Greenland demonstration because of what Trump is doing in Greenland, and now we are here,” Galsichot t said.
Jens almost wasn't let in the festival, but says the police allowed him access because of his right as a citizen to engage in protest. Jens says he has no intention of disrupting the celebration, but wants his art installation to serve as a reminder to festival attendees.
Finally, we contacted the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen, as well as the White House Press Office, for comment on the Rebild Festival, we didn't hear back.
Despite the statue sitting outside the festival tent, Sude believes the Rebild Festival still holds a lot of significance for how Denmark approaches its relationship with the U.S.
“I think there are people in this society who will be strong enough to carry it on, but sitting next to one another in here, that matters,” he said.
“In 2025, it's bigger than ever,” said Jørgen Bech Madsen. He’s president of the Rebild National Park Society.
“It's more than 20% of our international trade. Flights to the U.S. from Denmark are full, so you could say even with the tariffs and what's going on, the normal life is just working positively. You have to distinguish between what is geopolitics and what is actually how people are working together,” he observed.
Jørgen is also CEO of Fibertex Nonwovens. That's a company operating in both Denmark and the U.S. We also spoke with him last time for APR, like Sude, he remains highly upbeat not only about the future of Rebild but the U.S.-Danish relationship, especially from a business perspective. Jørgen may think everything is okay between the U.S. and Denmark, but artist Jens Galsichot isn't convinced.
“If you have damaged it once, it's difficult to repair,” he said.
Even if commercial relations between Denmark and the U.S. remain strong, Jens believes something has shifted in the cultural relationship for the worse.
“And I think it's it's really sad for the relationship,” he said. “I think Europe and United States is in a way we are closing historical. We are closing, and I think the most of our life together will have the same value, but I'm not quite sure we have it anymore.
But what do Rebild Festival attendees think about the event?
“It felt like they were kind of like pushing the whole like Trump/Greenland issue a little bit under the rug,” said Daniel Walus. He’s a language teacher from Aarhus who shared his perspective with me. Full disclosure-- he's a friend of mine and traveled with me to the Rebild Festival.
“But ultimately,” he continued. “It was kind of wholesome, and it was nice that these people they were there to kind of like celebrate a tradition that they hold very dear.”
At the conclusion of the festival speeches, everyone in the Heather Hills joins in singing the old Scottish song "Auld Lang Syne. The song is a celebration of friendship, asking if we'll forget our old acquaintances. For Rebild Festival attendees during the Trump Presidency, it's hard to say whether Denmark's old acquaintance with the U.S. will indeed be remembered or forgotten.
