Reykjavík Grapevine - 20.05.2011, Qupperneq 35

breakfast
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dinner
drinks
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gata
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reykjavík´s best kept secret
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35
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 6 — 2011
www.banthai.name
Smaralind
5544-633
and
Hverfisgata
# 123
588-2121
-The three great places for Thai food
www.yummiyummi.net
BanThai
The best ThaiFood
2009, 2010
yummi yummi you have to try
There are a lot of positive
reviews about BanThai
that we are
the best thai restaurant
Authentic Thai cuisine
served in elegant surroundings
with Spicy, Very Delicious
and reasonable prices.
Private rooms on the 2nd floor.
Open Hours
18.00–22.00. Every day.
Tel; 692-0564, 5522-444
Licensing and
registration of travel-
related services
The Icelandic Tourist Board issues licences to tour operators and travel agents,
as well as issuing registration to booking services and information centres.
Tour operators and travel agents are required to use a special logo approved
by the Icelandic Tourist Board on all their advertisements and on their Internet
website.
Booking services and information centres are entitled to use a Tourist
Board logo on all their material. The logos below are recognised by the
Icelandic Tourist Board.
List of licenced Tour
Operators and Travel
Agencies on:
visiticeland.com
caused our bodies to desire the waking
life. We soon discovered that our host,
who fed us breakfast alongside their
children, was the cook of the fish stew
and seafood soup of the evening be-
fore. Food, I've begun to realise, is the
language of hospitality. And at no point
in Ísafjörður did I go hungry.

LABOUR OF LOVE
On the second night of concerts, rain
joined the celebration, but the crowd of
hundreds of people remained unboth-
ered. This year, AFÉS is said to have
around 3.000 attendants, and I couldn't
help but notice how many children
were in the audience that night, sitting
atop their father's shoulders. There is
something strangely beautiful about
a festival where old men drunk off of
cheap vodka can peacefully teeter next
to excited little girls waiting in line for
Icelandic pop star Páll Óskar's signa-
ture. Even these drunken old men grew
endearing in my eyes, especially as they
danced with us to a metal band of teen-
age Ísafjörður natives.
For the musicians and festival or-
ganisers, the party continued through
Sunday. In the morning all the musicians
went to Sunday mass with the town's
residents. In the afternoon they took a
bus together to the pool in Bolungarvík,
a tiny town that neighbours Ísafjörður,
where impromptu water yoga ensued.
The day ended with a huge Easter din-
ner and improvised concerts.
On Sunday, I witnessed Icelandic
singer Lára Rúnars serve drinks at din-
ner, Borko massage FM Belfast's Árni
Vilhjálmsson in the sauna, a busload of
Icelandic musicians sing 'Kumbaya, my
Lord' together in perfect key, and town
residents clean up after the crowd.
These moments can't be measured
in currency, but money never really
factored into the equation in the first
place: no one, not even the performers,
are paid (other than in food and beer).
Anything that does need buying is paid
for by sponsors like Landsbanki and
Hertz, though advertisement remains
minimal. Even with a speedy growth in
attendance, the festival has remained
an intimate, labour of love endeavour.
VANESSA SCHIPANI
ALISA KALYANOVA
“As the Brennivín began
to take hold, the concerts
started to blend together”