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The 11th annual Night of Lights festival begins today in Reykjanesbaer municipality in southwest Iceland. Tomorrow and Saturday night, many of the country’s best bands will play in Reykjanesbaer and on Sunday local choirs will entertain guests.
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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of a hike to Hraunsvatn lake in Öxnadalur valley in north Iceland, which lies at a height of 490 meters, interlocked between two steep mountains and a small glacier with a view of the majestic Hraundrangar peaks.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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Antony and the Johnsons came to town this weekend, for the second time this year. The mellow, ethereal band from the US played in Frikirkja, a century old church on the lake in the middle of Reykjavík.
I got to the show well into the opening act, and walking in mid-performance was like interrupting midnight mass. The heavy church door banged shut behind us, and organizers told us in exagerated whispers to find a place to sit upstairs by the church organ. I had to go to the bathroom, but I didn’t want to flush the toilet for all 250 people present.
Frikirkja is a fairly typical small Scandinavian Protestant church, though a little more ornate than some of the very austere churches around the country. It was mostly dark inside – only a few standing candleabras lit up the flaking mural of Jesus above the pulpit. The gray wooden pews were packed, and people were crouching along the railing upstairs to get a clear view of Antony’s piano, hanging their arms out over the edge like little kids. Which, to be fair, some of them were.
The concert itself felt like some kind of service. Antony has a tremendously strange and lovely voice that I think is more beautiful and impressive live than it is on album. It seemed to have cast some kind of spell on the crowd which, in most of my other experiences going to see bands with the younger part of the city, can be rowdy, to put it mildly. The last big show I went to, I stood next to a guy bathed in glitter and wearing blinky lights who, though standing, was hovering between concious and un. Antony got his audience to sing in harmony while he crooned about loving your mother.
This was a welcome change, to say the least. Maybe getting away from the regular smoke and beer infused venue made people focus. Maybe everyone is half-hibernating, mellowed out by the dark streets and ubiquitous Christmas lights that light the way around town. Or maybe I’m getting too hold to sweat in a mosh pit and would rather sit in a church pew these days.
Need some mellowing out yourself? Have a listen.
KLM
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book 2010 Eruptions as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Dadi Gudbjörnsson's art with its smiley faces, Aladdin's lamps, gleaming hearts, blue mountains and psychedelic flora of unearthly origin reminds me of the cheesy R.E.M. song “Shiny Happy People”. The sugar-sweet naivety fails to amuse me but I must admit it infects my mood with delirious joy.
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Former President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir turned 80 on 15 April this year and Mayor Hanna Birna Kristjánsdóttir—in making her an Honorary Citizen of Reykjavík to mark the occasion—observed that Finnbogadóttir’s life was interwoven with that of Reykjavík. In June 1980 Finnbogadóttir made history when she became the world’s first democratically elected female head of state.
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Today, August 30, and tomorrow is your last chance to visit the exhibition “Eau De Parfum” by Andrea Maack at the Spark Design Space in Reykjavík. In the exhibition space, Maack introduces three perfumes that are the result of her collaboration with French perfumery apf aromes & parfums.
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