Reykjavík Grapevine - 15.08.2008, Síða 58

Among the highlights of Reykjavík Culture
Night this year will be the grand outdoor
concert at Miklatún park, featuring some
of the country’s most popular bands for
more than a three-hour show. The park is
one of the largest outdoor concert venues
in the city, located only minutes away
from Hlemmur. This large-scale event is
organised by the Icelandic radio station
Rás 2 in collaboration with Landsbankinn
Bank, Culture Night’s biggest sponsor, and
is open for everyone free of charge.
This year’s concert features an eclectic
mix of some of Iceland’s most musically
diverse bands and musicians, bound to
rock your socks. From the West Fjords
comes Fjallabræður, a men’s choir of
sailors and farmers and other odd balls,
know for almost everything besides music.
Their performance at the 2007 Iceland
Airwaves festival was a great success and
they are rumoured to have put in quite a
few rehearsals since.
The dance-pop phenomenon Bloodgroup
has kept Iceland’s youth dancing since the
release of their album Sticky Situation last
year. Hjaltalín was selected as the bright-
est hope at last year’s Icelandic Music
Awards, and the success of their album
Sleepdrunk Season is well deserved.
The buzz on the street though has mainly
revolved around the reunion of musicians
Magnús Þór Sigmundsson and Jóhann
Helgason, one of the most successful
pop-duo collaboration of the ‘70s. Also
performing will be the rockers who ruled
the ‘90s, Jet Black Joe. The night will
be topped off by a performance by Ný
dönsk, one of the most popular groups in
Iceland’s history, but the band is celebrat-
ing its 20 year anniversary this year. The
concert is scheduled to end at 22:30, right
before the annual firework display which
will mark the end of Culture Night 2008.
Rás 2 has been an active participant in
Reykjavík Culture Night for years and has
great experience in organising concerts
of this size. In 2003, Rás 2 organised a
show at Reykjavík harbour, to which more
than 100,000 people flocked downtown
to watch, making it the biggest concert in
the country’s history. This year’s musical
event will attempt to recapture that same
excitement!
Icelanders are somewhat well known for go-
ing overboard on New Year’s Eve, you know,
with the fireworks. In recent years, govern-
ment and city officials have started putting
on ever more impressive organised fireworks
displays, raising the expectations of Reyk-
javík’s citizens even further when it comes
to pretty fire in the sky. The massive display
planned for Culture Night will take place
safely out at sea just off Sæbraut at 23:08
(the correlation with the date 23.08 is not by
chance). The colourful fireworks will be visible
for many kilometres and are unlikely to disap-
point anyone.
Some residents of the famously cosy
Þingholt neighbourhood in downtown
Reykjavík have made a conscious effort to
participate more actively in Culture Night
this year than previously. To that end,
there will be free home-made waffles on
offer for anyone passing by between 14:00
and 16:00. The leaders of the effort claim
it’s a way to show that Icelanders are
inherently a hospitable people and to bring
a more close knit and personal feel to the
quickly growing Icelandic society. Partici-
pating inhabitants are: Sveinn and Gréta,
Baldursgata 4, Ólöf, Gísli, Sigríður and
Páll, Freyjugata 28, Þóra and Guðríður, In-
gólfsstræti 21a, Ólöf Pétursdóttir, Þórsgata
29, The Nordic Association, Óðinsgata 7,
Auður and Ósk, Baldursgata 1, Guðlaugur,
Guðmundur and Jóna, Bergstaðastræti
29, Dagur Ólafsson, Þingholtsstræti 7 og
Dagur B. Eggertsson, Óðinsgata 8b.
REYKJAVÍK CULTURE NIGHT 2008 – AUGUST 23
Hitt Húsið Creative Summer Jobs – Back
to School Special. Hitt Húsið is one of the
cornerstones in Reykjavík youth culture.
This institution has allowed several creative
young artists to nourish their ideas for a
decent salary during the summer. But as
it usually is, salaries come with an obliga-
tion. Every Friday, Hitt Húsið’s beneficiaries
have to perform on the streets of down-
town Reykjavík, which surely makes a walk
downtown more colourful, and if you’re
lucky you might be entertained by the
smooth tones of one of Hitt Húsið house
bands while preparing for the weekend with
a refreshing beverage. The fun starts at
14:00 and their acts vary from rigorous clas-
sical trios to deviced theatre performances
by the Street Theatre, operated by Hitt
Húsið and a part of the Creative Summer
program. Here is your chance to immerse
yourself in Icelandic youth culture
Miklatún Park from 19:00 – 22:30
Pósthússtræti 3-5 from 14:00 – 18:00
Þingholt neighbourhood from 14:00 – 16:00
Concerts at Miklatún
Hitt Húsið
Free Waffles
Sæbraut at 23:08
Annual Fire-
works Display