Noise Complaints Against Noise Festival

FALCONFEST brought two days of noise to LEMMY, despite obstructions

In the past year, the elusive and provocative collective Spider Network has thrown several festivals with thrilling lineups, all focused on platforming noise music. In the first weekend of October, Spider Network organised FALCONFEST, a collaborative event to fundraise for activist collective No Borders.

As they set up for the festival in LEMMY’s beer garden — which is technically outside, yet walled-in and tarp-roofed — members Yuki Mik and Yulia Vasilieva take a coffee break to speak with me. In the area, there’s a red crochet project sprawling the ceiling like a spider web, a large doll dangles in the air, and they’re covering windows and walls in tin foil. Yuki tells me she was working until three in the morning. The energy is excited and a little frenzied; musicians will start performing in just a few hours.

Asked about Spider Network’s name, the two describe a spider weaving its web, “taking everyone with us, absorbing more and more people, taking over Reykjavík,” laughs Yuki. Spider Network has been constructing concerts for over two years but began publicising them on social media around a year ago.

“I think one very important element was the development in Reykjavík’s past years, of more and more venues shutting down because of noise complaints,” Yuki explains of the collective’s inception. “I think it’s just been very damaging for the nightlife, and experimental music, and the cultural scene,” she adds.
“I think it’s just been very damaging for the nightlife, and experimental music, and the cultural scene.”

We speak more about what draws them to noise, and Yuki explains, “Really, noise is so many things. It’s very free and experimental. I think it’s really a bit of a protest against things getting more regulated, less space to experiment and explore and go until late.” She adds, “This idea of noise festival came from playing with this idea of noise complaints.”

Noise complaints

We wrap up our interview, and we part ways as I find some lunch before FALCONFEST begins. Sooner than I expected, I get an Instagram message from Yuki — something’s happened, and I should come back to LEMMY.

I rush over, and Ronja Jóhannsdóttir, another member, explains to me what’s going on. They’ve received a noise complaint. Someone living in the apartments behind LEMMY heard the concert happening the night before, and noticed they were setting up for another night outside. “The manager [at LEMMY] whisks her away and chats with her privately, off to the side, and they come back half an hour later, saying that she was apparently a head official at [Reykjavík Public Health], as I understand it, and we have to move everything indoors,” she explains. Ronja also notes that she spoke with the woman, because the woman first refused to speak with a different Spider Network member who speaks Icelandic not as their first language.

“Just to give context, the health inspection authority is also the same battery that shut down post-húsið,” she adds. The now-defunct post-húsið was a venue, stewarded by impactful DIY/DIT collective post-dreifing, ultimately shut down in September 2022. The existence of Spider Network is intimately linked with post-dreifing — in our first interview, Yuki claimed that, “Spider Network is kind of the evil child of post-dreifing.”

Both in the moment and afterwards, LEMMY declined to comment on the situation. As I chatted with the Spider Network folks, their friends were cleaning up the area, taking down the decorations they spent all night putting up. It was almost eerie how the group faced a noise complaint, having just emphasised their antipathy towards the idea an hour before.

“It’s just, shutting down a grassroots fundraising concert because you can’t hear the TV in your luxury flat? It’s insane,” Ronja concludes.

Noise festival

Nevertheless, Spider Network pivots quickly. I come back an hour later, and they’ve already moved everything from outside to inside the venue. They’ve tweaked the schedule, rethought their stage design, and are ready to carry on with the festival.

Earlier, Yulia reflected on the performers taking the stage that weekend, sharing, “I think we hadn’t noticed ourselves in the beginning, but then it became kind of obvious that our lineup consists of people from everywhere, from different backgrounds.” This rings true throughout the festival; there’s a zine workshop and a noise workshop, No Borders tables the entire night, there are established musicians alongside ones just starting out, artists from Iceland alongside artists new to Iceland.

One of the most extreme and exciting performances of the festival involves the two organisers I spoke to, Yuki and Yulia, alongside performance artist Michael Richardt. In the performance, which is a fashion show with garments and sounds by Pussy Riot member Diana Burkot, the three begin by stomping into the room, chanting, “Matriarchy for the next two thousand years! Matriarchy!” Then, one by one, each performs on top of a table-sized platform with conductors taped to it. Noise screeches and wavers as each dances atop the platform, the performer connected to the conductors themselves with an electrode plugged into their hand from the platform.

As the night progresses, another standout is playful electronic musician Knackered. The last time I saw her perform was for the SLEIKUR rave in August, and although the crowd here is smaller by a factor of 10, Knackered’s joyous beats mobilise the same jumping energy at the front.

Reconciling noise differences

At the beginning of the day, we briefly discussed the weekend this past April when Spider Network threw Frog Fest. It was a quickly organised festival, timed exactly during Reykjavík Noise Festival (which may or may not have been catalysed by comments in a Grapevine article). As we talk a little about what happened, Yulia states, “There were two noise festivals at the same time! And we think there should be three and four and five on the same day, exactly like there are five rock shows on the same day. Why can’t there be five noise concerts?”

Could there be five noise concerts around Reykjavík in a day? There’s no doubt that Spider Network, and other like-minded organisers, could make that happen. But given our city’s lack of venues, along with limitations on how late performances can go and how loud they can be, we’re honestly not sure if they’d all get to continue without getting shut down. As if they can hear my thoughts, the group chimes in, “I really hope that we can be friends in 2026 and just destroy the neighbours. More noise than neighbours.”

Keep updated on Spider Network’s happenings by following them on Instagram or Facebook, and check out No Borders (or continuing the fundraising) at nobordersiceland.org