Let’s talk about Iceland Airwaves 2019. The music festival has been an unmissable landmark in the country’s social season, the epitome of coolness and a cultural touchstone for the past 20 years. It’s brought bands such as Florence and the Machine, Coldplay, Kraftwerk, the Flaming Lips, and Fleet Foxes to the country, making international musicians accessible to this tiny island nation. Perhaps more importantly, it’s also brought some Icelandic musicians to the rest of the world, as the festival has attracted international attention to the unusually productive music scene. Icelandic music is by now an export bringing in serious currency, as well as probably the most successful tourism advertisement you could imagine. (If I had a dollar for every tourist that came here because they fell in love with Sigur Rós…)