Reykjavík Grapevine - 21.06.2013, Page 40

All Tommorrow’s Parties
40The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 8 — 2013 Music
February’s Sónar festivities at Harpa were apparently success-
ful enough that tickets are already being sold for a 2014 edition,
and if the upcoming All Tomorrow’s Parties: Keflavík does well,
the event is set to become a regular one. This is, of course, great
news! We spoke to ATP founder Barry Hogan and Tómas Young,
the festival’s local promoter, to learn more.
Thank u based party
The first ATP was staged in England in 1999, as an alternative
to the UK’s more ‘mainstream’ music festivals. It quickly grew
into a successful brand, spawning versions in the US and else-
where, cultivating a reputation for having significant alt. artists
curate the line-up. ATP Iceland will take place on June 28 and 29
in an abandoned NATO base right outside Keflavík, called Ásbrú.
It features a slew of acclaimed international and local acts very
much in the ATP aesthetic—these include The Fall, new Thurston
Moore project Chelsea Light Moving, Nick Cave, Thee Oh Sees,
múm, Mugison and Dead Skeletons—performing at two venues.
Festival founder Barry Hogan tells us that he’s been working
on the project pretty much since 1996, when an early incarna-
tion of ATP took place as the Bowlie Weekender. That first event
was curated by twee legends Belle and Sebastian and took place
at Pontin’s Holiday Camp in Camber Sands, Sussex, which has
acted as venue for the festival ever since.
Just getting started
Barry tells us the festival’s Icelandic expedition has been com-
ing along well so far. “It's been good, we came here a few days
ago to meet with Tómas and check on Ásbrú,” Barry says. “The
festival is a lot like the one we have in England, except of course
that it’s in Iceland, and the landscape makes it look like ATP has
landed on the moon. It’s all coming together at this point, we’re
at the crunch time when final schedules are made and everything
is coming together.”
The Tómas that Barry refers to is the aforementioned Tómas
Young, an Icelandic entrepreneur who has worked for the Iceland
Music Export and the Iceland Airwaves festival, and has been
Roskilde Festival’s long time Icelandic representative. As the
main instigator behind ATP Iceland, he tells us that he came up
with the idea two years ago in a think-tank session on the former
NATO-base, which was planned by Keflavík airport’s develop-
ment company, Kadeco.
Think tank
“Several people, musicians and music industry people with con-
nections to the area were gathered for the session, which had the
aim of coming up with music related activities for Ásbrú,” Tómas
continues. The base, left behind by US Armed Forces in 2006,
is rather large, with housing for more than 6,000 persons. The
site, once the workplace and residency of thousands, was aban-
doned so quickly that it presented a problem for the municipality
of Reykjanesbær, mostly in the form of a growing unemployment
rate. But, as crisis is wont, it also presented opportunity, which
the think tank session was meant to address.
“Many quirky ideas came up at the meeting, like founding an
instrument museum, hosting choir-gatherings on site, creating
studio-facilities for local and international bands that wanted to
get away and record albums in peace, and so on,” he says. “The
group I sat with came up with the idea of doing a festival based
on All Tomorrow's Parties, where guests could attend the event
but also stay on-site, like at ATP. I can't remember if it was me or
somebody else who brought up the name of ATP but that's where
the idea came from.”
Barry explains to us how the young Icelander approached
them with the idea. “We had some affiliation with Icelandic music
before, and we were the first to bring Sigur Rós over to England
when we booked them for one of our earlier events. So we have
always had a healthy interest in Icelandic music. But it was Tómas
who started it all, because he really wanted to do some kind of
festival at the base. He contacted us and he was VERY persistent
in his presentation. He finally got us to the point where we de-
cided to come over here and have a look at everything, and we
just thought: ‘this is magical’! We were only in Iceland for about
24 hours on our first visit in August of 2012, but we realised we
just had to do this.”
The democratic party
Every international iteration of ATP shares a similarity, faithful to
the original ATP idea, Barry says. “We kind of had the same for-
mula as when we did New Zealand or Tokyo, but we try to slightly
tailor every event to its particular region. But what I think is the
great thing about this base is that it’s a lot like Camber Sands has
been moved to Iceland.”
He further describes the original idea behind the festival and
its sleep-away camp form: “It references those holiday camps
everyone went to as a kid, places you wouldn't really want to go
now, but likely attended if you were young in the ‘70s and maybe
feel a sense of nostalgia for. The NATO base also adds something
extra to this appeal.”
The festival optionally provides accommodations for its visi-
tors, and the artists are housed on-site as well. This is all a huge
part of the ATP experience, as Barry tells us. “We have a very set
way of doing things, and we always like to treat everyone like it’s
a democracy. We want our fans to feel important—for instance
there is no VIP area at this festival. There are no girls in tracksuits
going ‘oh no you can’t go in this here area’ or stuff like that. Every-
one just comes to see the music and hang out.”
Carving a niche for the alternative
ATP has always had a great reputation for creating alternative
events. The festival’s name is a promise that the line-up compris-
es high quality up and comers along with scene legends. On top
of this, Barry tells us ATP is trying to establish a special meaning
in Iceland. “I always thought that the music that we were working
with at the festival 14 years ago wasn't very popular, but I thought
that eventually it would become what most people listen to. Actu-
ally, if you look at what was on then and what is on now, most of
these original groups are the biggest bands going on nowadays,”
Barry says.
“But we also have something for everyone. For example, Nick
Cave, I have seen him around 20 to 25 times over the last 25 years
and the band he has right now is the best one he has ever played
with—they are on fire. Thee Oh Sees are the best band happen-
ing now on the planet. Seriously if people don’t come and see
this shit, they are going to regret it—there are some great bands
going on here, but these two are worth the entry fee alone. We
also have great local bands playing, like kimono, múm and Ghos-
tigital, who have played ATP before. There's something here for
every type of music fan, even the casual listener is going to find
some gems in there.”
ATP comes to Iceland
By Ragnar Jón Hrólfsson
Tomorrow’s Party
WELCOME TO OUR TRULY SPECIAL WORLD Book your ticket online & save
time for relaxing
The idea of Iceland as a music lover’s utopia is a recent one to surface, mostly inspired by an impressive run of internationally
successful artists and propagated by the ever-increasing profile of the Iceland Airwaves festival. Perhaps drawn to the nation’s
growing reputation, major international festivals like Sónar and, now, All Tomorrow’s Parties are putting Iceland on their map,
both staging iterations in 2013.
There are no girls in tracksuits
going ‘oh no you can’t go in
this here area’ or stuff like that.
Everyone just comes to see the
music and hang out.