The 2011 Winter Festival is coming up in Reykjavík. It begins with an open Museum Night on February 11, during which more than 30 museums and galleries in the capital region invite visitors to enjoy varied programs until midnight. Admission is free.
Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
A special Museum Night Bus will take museum guests between places and enable them to visit as many museums as they please, as stated on the festival’s website. Here is a list of participating museums and events taking place during the Museum Night.
At 8:30 pm on Museum Night, Reykjavík City Library will hold the annual Ljódaslamm, a poetry performance act contest for young people (14+) where participants compete in unorthodox poetry readings of their own poems, where the performance has more weight than the poem itself.
This year’s theme is ‘independence’. The winning acts will be posted on ljodaslamm.is.
The Winter Festival also includes a celebration of the International Children’s Day in the culture center Gerduberg and leisure center Midberg in Reykjavík’s Breidholt district on February 12 from 1 pm to 5 pm, during which children can make various creations based on both Norse mythology and also legends from other cultures.
On the last day of the festival, February 13, Kaerleikar, a celebration of love, will take place in the heart of Reykjavík on Austurvöllur square from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm.
The program includes music, theater, speeches and a march with torches around the Reykjavík pond. People are asked to wear red for the occasion.
