Editorial: Squeezing Summer For All It’s Got

Even though the weather in the first week of June has tried its best to make us forget it, summer is finally here. For another three weeks, the days will continue to get longer until it will eventually feel like the sun never sets — even though it technically does. Past solstice, we can start looking forward to the next winter, as the days get shorter again.

Icelanders try to make the most of summer. For most of our time inhabiting this island, we worked from dusk to dawn in the summer, bringing in enough stuff to be able to more or less hibernate during the rest of the year. In the 20th century, this hypo-manic lifestyle was turned on its head for the majority of the population who didn’t subsist on farming anymore.

Now we work in the winter and are supposed to relax in the summer. But after the long cold, snowy season of boredom and desk jobs (same thing) we don’t look forward to summer as a time of relaxation, but as a time to be enjoyed at all costs. This sends us collectively in hot pursuit of the things we want out of summer: love, light, a buzz and a tan; a sense of feeling alive after all the darkness. While the unreliable weather will do its best to restrain us, and the newly introduced midge flies do bite us, we shall persist.

In our cover article, we try to explain this national pursuit of summer. And we’ll also give you the soundtrack to go with it in the same feature. Enjoy the ride and the music. Enjoy the Icelandic summer, weather and all.