Hvide Sande
Hvide Sande is one of the youngest towns in Denmark, created in the wake of the construction of the drainage sluice, which was inaugurated on August 30, 1931.
When the Danish Coastal Authority, which was responsible for building the sluice, had to name the construction project, it was only natural to choose the name Hvide Sande—a name that for many years had been used by local fjord fishermen as a landmark for the pale sand banks by Østergade, which can still be seen today from both Ringkøbing and Stauning, on the opposite side of Ringkøbing Fjord.
A temporary harbor was built around the lock, and within a few years, a small Klondyke-like community emerged, which grew to several thousand inhabitants in the 50s and 60s. When fishing peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, Hvide Sande was rich in both money and initiative—and holiday home tourism also began to bring in good income.
Although fishing is no longer the main industry in Hvide Sande today, you can still feel the town’s DNA: the pioneering spirit and the defiance that created the small coastal community between the North Sea and Ringkøbing Fjord. Hvide Sande is still full of initiative, and the town has a relatively large number of self-employed business owners, both in retail and in services.
Volunteering and community life
The fact that Hvide Sande emerged as a small, close-knit community on the edge of the North Sea is undoubtedly also the main reason why the town today has a diverse, active community and club life. People in Hvide Sande have not only been used to—but to a large extent also had to—help each other and pull together.
As such, almost all the events you can experience as a guest in Hvide Sande are created by local associations—often with the participation of both the local residents’ and tourist associations, as well as several of the local sports clubs. The many volunteers create life and activity in the city, which secures the financial basis of the associations, which in turn creates fertile ground and scope for the local community in the future.
This portal was actually created through local association efforts too: hvidesande.by is the name of the association of local businesses in the town that was previously known as Foreningen Havnen. You can learn more about the association’s work and see a presentation of most of its member businesses via the links to the various categories in the main menu or at the bottom of the page.