The popular north Icelandic music festival is facing organisation troubles that could spell its demise.
Vísir reports that there might not even be a festival this Easter. Ísafjörður native, musician and festival organizer Mugison told reporters, “There’s a lot of exhaustion in this big group. There are people who’ve worked for free [organizing the festival] for eight years.”
Essentially, the organizers want to spend more time with their family and friends, and the work and stress involved in organizing the festival each year is starting to take its toll.
However, there have been a couple of tentative ideas on how to make the festival work better. One would be to bring participating musicians further into the actual planning and organization of the festival itself. Another would be to appeal for more involvement from the town council of Ísafjörður.
A recent master’s paper from Hera Brá Guðmundsdóttir shed light on the fact that the festival has had a positive effect on the town. “The report says that the population of the town has doubled or tripled,” Mugison said. “It’s good that that happens, but there’s a lot of work that goes into that.”
Mugison said he intends to speak with town council, in the hopes of getting city workers to replace some of the volunteers. But as it stands, the future of the festival remains uncertain.
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