The celebration of Culture Night will be spread out over ten days due to the COVID-19 pandemic, RÚV reports. It will be held from the 13th to the 23rd of August.
The City of Reykjavik stated in an announcement that the change in the event’s scheduling is consistent with guidance by public health officials to not encourage too many people to gather together in the same place due to the pandemic.
The City of Reykjavik is searching for submissions of ideas for events to be held during the festival. All are welcome to apply for grants ranging from 100,000 to 500,000 ISK. According to City of Reykjavik public relations officer Elfa Björk Ellertsdóttir the grants are twice as high as those available last year.
The festivities for Icelandic National Day this past week were also held differently than usual. Event locations were only announced in advance to a limited extent in order to prevent crowds.
Elfa says that this route will not be taken on Culture Night, and the program will be announced later. It is unknown how many events there will be each day. According to Elfa this will be announced when it is known how many people have been awarded grants this year.
“It will be exciting to see who applies; we encourage anyone interested in performing arts, dancing, karaoke, or anything else to apply,” she says.
Elfa was not able to provide any information when asked about the annual fireworks show.
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