New Music Festival Hits Reykjavik

Reykjavik welcomes a new music festival this month called, BERGEN-REYKJAVIK-NUUK, which celebrates the relationship between Norway, Iceland, and Greenland.
The festival will be held at the Norðurpóllin theatre on February 24 and 25, and the acts will span a range of musical genres, which will be performed in Norwegian, Icelandic, Greenlandic, and English.
Búi Bjarmar Aðalsteinsson, co-owner of Norðurpóllin and one of the festival’s organizers, says this festival is the long-time dream of his Norwegian girlfriend. But it wasn’t until last fall, after he opened the theatre, that he started making the dream a reality.
Búi says the goal of the festival is to bring the Nordic community together through music, and hopes the festival will become an annual tradition. “We are already looking to expand next year.”
After months of planning, the festival is becoming about more than just music. “We really encouraged the bands to have a lot of visual input,” says Búi. “We are really excited about John Olav Nilsen & Gjengen”, a Norwegian band that won a prestigious Spellemannsprisen award last year.
Also on the programme are Icelandic acts, Samuel Jon Samuelsson Big Band and electronica artist Mr. Silla.
BERGEN-REYKJAVIK-NUUK is sponsored by the Nordic Culture Fund. For the full programme, check out the festival’s website at www.bergen-reykjavik-nuuk.com.
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When: February 24 – 25
Where: Norðurpóllin Theatre, Sefgörðum 3, 170 Seltjarnarnesi