Iceland Roundup: Airwaves, Time, Racism, Lava Bailouts, Mexican Standoff & Listener’s Questions

The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin editor Aðalsteinn Kjartansson and Grapevine friend and contributor Sindri Eldon to round up the stories making headlines in recent weeks.

On the docket this week:

Our “producer” forgot to turn on the video cameras for this recording, so only audio is available. Sorry about that.

Iceland Airwaves 2025 took place last weekend, with hundreds of artists performing over three days across eight venues in downtown Reykjavík. The Reykjavík Grapevine reviewed every single show. Check out the coverage here.

Our neighbours in Greenland are changing their clocks to squeeze more sunlight out of the day. This has reawakened the debate in Iceland, dormant for some years: should we move the clock or not?

Iceland’s SAR teams have been doing their annual fundraising rounds selling the so-called “Neyðarkall”, or “Emergency Man”. This year the figure is brown, in memory of Sigurður Kristofer, who tragically died in an accident last year while training with SAR. According to the father of a 19-year-old SAR volunteer, this has sparked some negative discussion. No official reports of complaints about the colour have surfaced, but the supposed controversy has propelled sales to record levels.

Iceland’s Minister of Finance has floated the idea that the privately owned energy company HS Orka, whose Svartsengi power plant has been saved from lava by State-funded berms, should contribute to the costs. The CEO of HS Orka has found this suggestion “surprising”.

Last week, we reported on questionable and costly outsourcing by the National Police Commissioner. What followed was a tense stand-off in which the Minister of Justice appeared to hope the Commissioner would resign. This actually happened while we were recording the show, with the National Police Commissioner stepping down or, depending on your perspective, failing upwards.