Reykjavík Grapevine - 03.07.2015, Page 32

32 The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 9— 2015MUSIC
In the winter of 2005, headbanging gym
teacher Stefán “Stebbi” Magnússon
and his wife and co-conspirator, Cam-
pari-swigging nurse Hrefna Húgósdót-
tir, relocated to the beautiful backwater
town of Neskaupstaður (pop. 1150),
a tiny fishing hamlet perched on the
shores of stunning Norðfjörður on the
eastern edge of Iceland, more than
700 kilometres removed from bustling
Reykjavík.
“It’s pretty funny how it all came
about”, Stebbi tells me. “We were look-
ing for a town that needed both a nurse
and gym teacher. After considering
several options, we wound up in Nes-
kaupstaður.”
Prior to the move, Stebbi had been
an avid Reykjavík scenester, eagerly
attending shows and playing in bands.
Perhaps missing that aspect of city liv-
ing, he on a whim convinced a small
cast of his favourite Icelandic metal and
hardcore acts to come play a show in
Neskaupstaður that summer. That first
edition was funded in part by a local
cultural grant, which went towards
paying for the musicians’ cross-country
bus ride.
“Our goal in those first years was
just to throw a party and bring metal
music to an area sorely deprived of it,”
Stebbi tells me, speaking of the motives
that drive him. “Later our motivation
turned towards trying to make some
sort of living from this, and perhaps to
try and compete on the international
metal festival market. But that was far
from anyone’s mind in the beginning.”
Eistnaflug 2005 took place in front
of handful of dedicated metalheads
at the Egilsbúð community centre in
downtown Neskaupstaður. The gig was
a major success, in the sense that ev-
eryone who made it had a great time
and wowed to return next year. The
seeds were sown.
Growing pains
Since the beginning, Eistnaflug has pri-
marily been a labour of love, run on a
bottomless tank of goodwill and char-
ity, with all involved continuously volun-
teering work, equipment, and services
(in its first years, performers would get
paid in beer, gas money and accommo-
dation).
Still, it grew at the pace of a Pig
Destroyer track, and the fourth edi-
tion saw the first international act,
Germany’s Contradiction, take stage
alongside festival mainstays like Sólsta-
fir, Momentum, Innvortis, Changer and
Denver. “They had heard about the our
festival somewhere and got in touch
with us directly, asking if they could
come play. Which, of course they were
welcome to do,” Stebbi recalls. Thus a
crucial step towards today’s blastrava-
ganza was taken.
The festival’s next milestone was
in 2010, when the festival booked leg-
endary UK grind ensemble Napalm
Death, who performed a “brutal” set,
as Grapevine music writer Bob Cluness
puts it, and lent the bash an aura of au-
thenticity internationally through their
stature and reputation.
Through its rapid growth, Eistna-
flug experienced some setbacks. The
2011 edition saw revenues fall and the
number visitors dwindle noticeably, to
the point where less than 800 tickets
were sold (compared with over 1,200
in 2010). The main culprit was thought
to be the concurrent outdoor festival
Besta útihátíðin festival, scheduled on
the same weekend in a more accessi-
ble location, with a line-up consisting
of acts such as Agent
Fresco, The Vintage
Caravan and Legend
that poached some of
the fairweather demo-
graphic.
“The attendance
drop that we experi-
enced in 2011 was re-
ally hard on us,” Stebbi
recalls. “The accident
that happened in 2010
[a young festivalgoer
fell to her death from
the top of a seaside
cliff] was just horrible—
those two years really
took their toll.”
The 2012 edition,
however, saw a solid re-
turn to form, in part due
to a comeback show
by lauded hardcore scene legends I
Adapt. The bill was further enhanced
by a gravity-defying performance from
post-metal mavens Celestine, and
Rocky Mountain hydro-grind outfit
Cephalic Carnage ripping through a
THC-fuelled set that dwarfed every Ei-
stnaflug performance before or since.
Recalling his band’s
time at Eistnaflug, Ce-
phalic Carnage’s Steve
Goldberg chimes in
via Facebook from his
Rocky Mountainside
meadow smoke hut:
“It took us forever to
finally play in Iceland,
and Eistnaflug was definitely worth the
wait. The festival was packed, filled
with the best in Icelandic metal, and the
best fans in the world. It was an hon-
our to play, and hang out with all the
great people. This year’s line up looks
insane, I wish I could come out just for
the party!”
Booking bangers
Assembling a great festival bill is both
an art and a science. In 2010, Guðný
Lára Thorarensen, respected Reykjavík
promoter and concert photographer,
assumed a role as the festival’s book-
er, steering it towards further glories.
“Guðný did really good things for the
festival, a fact that can’t be emphasized
enough. She took us to previously un-
achieved heights,” Stefán says.
From a sumptuous balcony atop
the CCP headquarters on the docks of
downtown Reykjavík, where she’s now
Since kicking off a decade ago, the Eistnaflug festival has slowly cemented its place as
the most beloved, most important phenomenon in the world of Icelandic metal. And it
all started as a hobby project, a way to pass the time and have some fun.
Photo
From The Grapevine Archives
Words
Bogi Bjarnason
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Take a step back in time
and enjoy modern Icelandic & international
cuisine in a setting rich with history...
This Festival
Goes Up To 11!
Eistnaflug:
The Past, present and
future of the world’s
friendliest metal festival
“Our goal in those
first years was just
to throw a party and
bring metal music to
an area sorely de-
prived of it,”
8-11 July NeskaupsstaðEistnaflug