You all know Verslunarmannahelgi (“Shopkeeper’s Weekend”). You’re going to get shitfaced in the Westman Islands and camp in the god-forsaken rain, while the wind blows the beer out of your hand. Doesn‘t sound like too much fun, does it?
The team behind the annual Innipúkinn Festival thought exactly the same. “Innipúkinn means ‘Indoor Demon,’” says says Ásgeir Guðmundsson, one of the festival’s three main organisers. “It was established 16 years ago to provide entertainment for people who didn’t want to go to the countryside for the long weekend.”
Musical variety
Since its inception, Innipúkinn has provided a diverse music schedule in some of Reykjavík’s greatest venues. This year, the line-up features well-known names such as Mugison, Sykur and Hatari, alongside bands from Reykjavík’s grassroots, like Ateria. For Ásgeir, who is also the CEO and one of the owners of Sónar Reykjavík, Innipúkinn is a platform to go crazy with booking bands.
“We usually just get a little bit drunk and think about what would be fun,” he laughs. “We allow ourselves to book acts we haven’t even seen live but we like what they are doing, and we would like to give them the opportunity to play a professional music festival where they have access to Iceland’s best sound engineers and stage hands.“
See you outside?
Even though Innipúkinn is mostly about being indoors and enjoying great music, the outside area, with food trucks, decorations and DJ sets, has become a beloved part of the festival. The small street where the festival’s venues—Húrra and Gaukurinn—are located will be closed to provide festival goers the greatest comfort imaginable. “We are really grateful to the city of Reykjavík and the contractors who made that possible by changing their construction schedule only for us,” says Ásgeir, emphasising Innipúkinn’s popularity among the city council, tourists and locals alike.
Realizing, however, that having an outside area is a contradiction to what the festival actually stands for, the focus lies on the festival’s inside schedule. “Of course, we want people to buy tickets and support the artists actually playing the festival,” the organiser underlines. The income is split equally among the bands performing.
Something for everybody
Innipúkinn Festival is something for people who want to enjoy good music in a comfortable environment. “It’s a simple and beautiful thing,” Ásgeir finishes. “Innipúkinn is a festival that owns itself, and that has been organized by interesting people in the music scene for 16 years. It is a festival that prides itself on being a good option for people to stay in Reykjavik, being a platform for new bands to show themselves and for us organizers to have a little bit of fun — and not to take ourselves too seriously.” It’s an ode to all the Inside Demons out there. You know who you are.
Info: Innipúkinn Festival will be held from August 3rd-6th. Tickets are on sale at tix.is.
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