Welcome To Iceland Airwaves, Guys!

Guys—great to meet you all! You have travelled all to way from Breiðholt and Australia and everywhere in between to enjoy this festival and spend some time with the rest of us. That’s pretty cool! Thank you!

Over 240 bands and artists have spent days, weeks, months and years preparing themselves for your arrival, so they can make this time and place as spectacular as possible. The artists’ era is upon us, they are all around, for us to enjoy and engage with, and to help us recharge those dopamine batteries before winter really hits.

Here’s some advice: Do the swimming pools. Drop by at some of the off-venue locations that are spread out all over the city—there are over 50 of them. Take the “Wall Poetry” tour, and be sure to download the accompanying playlist from our website. Study our Prime Minister, whom The Financial Times has denoted as one of the world’s leading feminists (is that true? You’re in Reykjavík—why not try and find out for yourself!). Visit Breiðholt and Grafarvogur—spend some time in exotic postal codes like 109 and 113.

This is the seventeenth time we celebrate Iceland Airwaves—and we’ve come a long way baby. Steini Steph, Magnús Steph, Guðmundur Sesar and many others worked tirelessly on the idea and its execution to create the Iceland Airwaves we all love. From an airport hangar in 1999, where six bands played their hearts out, to this, here, now—fuck yeah, those guys who started it all back then should be proud, and know that those of us who followed in their footsteps are extremely grateful.

Iceland Airwaves rules—Skál, you guys!