While a petition urging the town council to resign is circulating in Akureyri, Mayor Sigrún Björk Jakobsdóttir defends her decision to ban young people from camping at the town’s campsites during the annual Merchants’ Weekend festival last weekend. She claims that the new age restriction is the best remedy to the problems Akureyri has faced during past Merchants’ Weekends, reports <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags” />Iceland’s National Broadcasting Service RÚV<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” />
In a written statement, Jakobsdóttir declares that this new measure was a great success and that many of the town citizens contacted her to express their approval. In addition, she points out that although many people blame this year’s relatively low attendance on the age restriction, the bad weather forecast for the north of Iceland was probably more important cause of the low turnout. Thus, another festival held in the north the same weekend also experienced a diminished attendance.
