1000 Parking Fines On Culture Night

Over 1000 parking tickets were issued on Reykjavík’s annual Culture Night (Menningarnótt) Saturday, reports DV.

Culture Night- which saw roughly 100,000 people flock to the city centre to enjoy music, dance and art events – turned out to be a busy night for the Metropolitan Police.

Outside dealing with the occasional drunken partier vomiting wrecklessly in the street, police issued 1092 tickets to badly or illegally parked cars. The cost of the tickets are 5000 ISK though a discounted price of 3750 ISK is granted if the ticket is paid quickly.

“Once it was all said and done though the traffic was alright on Culture Night,” read a statement from the police. “Not least when the time came to usher traffic out of the city after the fireworks show.”

Additionally 4 people were stopped for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics, 10 minor assaults were reported and one theft.

Despite the parking tickets, this year’s Culture Night is being considered a great success.

“We are really happy with how it’s gone and the weather has cooperated too,” said Culture Night Communications Manager Sigríður Dögg Guðmundsdóttir. “A new development this year is how well the crowd has spread itself across the city [which meant less concentrated crowds, a better experience for guests who opted to stay in town longer] and that was exactly what we were hoping for. We had more events on offer this year than before and really put emphasis on Hverfisgata.”

“[The Culture Night] was just wonderful,” Einar Bárðarson, Director of Visit Reykjavík told RÚV. “I want to express my deep gratitude for everyone who turned up and made the whole thing so much fun, and all the hundreds of emergency response staff, police officers, city employees and others who worked so hard to make this awesome. It was like a great big family reunion in a way, everyone was just in such good spirits. People showed up happy and left happy and some even went home together happy, so it was just a great joy from morning to night.”