Iceland Airwaves Countdown #6

16 Days!

They posted the schedule for the official Airwaves venues last Sunday so I spent the afternoon parsing the variables and putting the somewhat confusing schedule (as pictured above) into an edited and more digestible form:


It looks like it will be a most interesting festival, with plenty of acts I want to see. Saturday night at Harpa looks to be exceptionally strong, starting with Eivør (from the Faroes), the Icelandic super-group Team Dreams, and peaking with JFDR. The other nights have at least three or four strong acts, all the venues are within a 7 minute walk of each other and our apartment. The off-venues are spread out quite a bit, that schedule has yet to be released. DJ Cousin Mary and her husband Ken will be there as well, the Weaver and I are looking forward to having breakfast with them.

On a more serious note, Iceland Airwaves has had some financial difficulties recently, it has a new, more professional, management now—which brings its own set of problems. The earlier Airwaves I attended (in 2006 and 2009) were decidedly on the DIY-side of things, and some of the more charming venues of that era have been torn down to make way for new antiseptic hotels, especially so in the case of off-venue sites. On the plus side the Nordic House will host its own mini-festival with ten acts over two days—many of whom aren’t in the regular one.

Here is another off-venue that also looks intriguing.