Letters: Why Is No One Critiquing Airwaves?

We at The Reykjavík Grapevine receive a lot of emails every day from readers expressing their feelings about one thing or another. Sometimes we publish them in our magazine and sometimes we throw them up online to platform an unsolicited hot take on something going on in Reykjavík or Iceland at large.

This is one such letter.

Hi There,

I just came back from your wonderful country but what bothers me is that no one is critical about this year’s Airwaves and its organization.

For me, coming from Belgium, it was the eleventh time I came to celebrate the Waves (for my brother the seventh time).

We were very excited because it was an anniversary as well: 25 years of Iceland Airwaves. Looking forward to it with a line up of new exciting bands from abroad like English Teacher, Cumgirl8… and interesting Icelandic artists like Kaktus Einarsson, lúpína…

BUT…

Actually, it started already before the festival began: we had tickets for Ham and Daughters of Reykjavik with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, and suddenly the tickets were refunded. Why? No comment, no communication.

Then at the Airwaves itself (one of the reasons we came): English Teacher was suddenly not scheduled anymore; gone without a trace from the official website. Communication: none!

The ticket upgrade:
We have bought upgrades for a few years. And in the beginning, you got a free goodie/tote bag. Oh yes, there was a special goodie/tote bag this year, only it was not for the ticket holders with the upgrade. No, it was for the conference people who are mainly people of the music industry themselves and talking about themes which are interesting for themselves but not for the common people. Plus you had to pay extra for those conferences as well.

Information about the benefits of the upgrade this year were traceless: we had to ask at the accreditation desk and nobody was informed about it. They had to phone someone to ask what the upgrade was. They didn’t even know what Airwaves merchandise was discounted. Why doesn’t the organization inform those people? Anyway it was to our great amusement that on the day we asked about the upgrade suddenly that evening the benefits appeared on the Airwaves website.

Oh, almost forgot: the priority access to venues was a joke. Two times we didn’t get in the venue because it was the smallest venue of the Airwaves (Gaukurinn) and we missed two bands. What’s the use of an upgrade? And why do you program popular bands in a small venue!?

We paid al lot of money for the upgrade but for what? A few discounts at the bar. Great!

What was to be a celebration has turned into a disillusion. It’s a pity.

It’s a shame that the Airwaves don’t respond to my mail.

Thank you for letting me vent.

Yours sincerely,

Eric Grossey

Do you have a compliment, a complaint or some general ramblings about Reykjavík that you’d like to share with the Grapevine? Hit us up at letters@grapevine.is.