Culture Night Canceled Due To COVID-19

Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and rising cases in Iceland, Culture Night in Reykjavík has been canceled this year.

In a meeting of the city’s emergency board this morning, first reported on by Fréttablaðið, the unanimous decision was deemed the most responsible given the current situation and stricter gathering rules.

Mayor Dagur B. Eggertsson was quoted as saying, “Of course this is a pity, but we must all show responsibility and minimize the risk of infection in the community.”

This was also stated in a Facebook post by Reykjavíkurborg regarding this year’s Culture Night.

Previously there had been ideas to change the format of the festival in order to lessen the number of attending people, like spreading it out over ten days from the 13th to the 23rd of August. In light of the recent developments of the past days and weeks, however, the board decided it was appropriate to cancel the event all together.

This is the first time since the festival’s launch in 1996 that it had to be canceled. It’s usually held on the first Saturday after August 18th (the city’s birthday) and in recent years it’s become one of the largest festivals in Iceland.

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