Reykjavík Grapevine - 09.09.2016, Qupperneq 36

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It’s 4:30 in the afternoon and Prikið
is packed. Really packed—the bar
lights are swinging, there are MCs
on the counter, and you have to wait
your turn on the stairs. The smell of
hamburgers drifts above a thickly
bobbing crowd and people chew
the free meat while leaning to the
sounds of Logi Pedro, Cyber, and
Emmsjé Gauti.
The occasion is the announce-
ment of the final lineup for Ice-
land Airwaves 2016. Behind the
live performers, a screen flashes
up the names of 128 acts set to play
this year. Stormzy is up when I
walk in. He’s one of the foreign acts
that Grímur Atlason, the festival’s
booking manager, is most looking
forward to, along with: “PJ Harvey,
Santigold, Kano, Lush…” Grímur
trails off. With close to 70 foreign
acts coming in, it’s hard for him to
focus on just a few.
First-timers
It is no accident that every one of
the 70 foreign acts scheduled to
play this year is an Airwaves first-
timer. “We really want to promote
our local music, so what do we get by
flying in these big names over and
over?” he asks me. It’s hard to say.
“We’ve made only three exceptions
to this rule [in the past]: Hot Chip,
Flaming Lips, and Beach House.
John Grant doesn’t count, because
he’s basically Icelandic. He has an
Icelandic kennitala and all that.”
What’s even harder to tell is
which Icelandic acts Grímur is most
excited about. “I don’t know, there
are so many. There are some new
bands like RUGL that I’m really ex-
cited about, and Mammút, HAM…”
Again he trails off. Emmsjé Gauti
has gotten down from the bar down-
stairs and the crowd has made its
way upstairs for chocolate cake and
a 6pm afterparty. The noise drowns
out his concentration. Or maybe it’s
the swarming responsibilities of
planning one of the world’s most
respected music festivals.
“We have three major tenets we
stick to in this festival,” Grímur
tells me. “To create a festival that
is recognised worldwide, to pro-
mote tourism during the off-season,
and to export the Icelandic music
scene.” While points one and two
gain from having instantly recog-
nisable names, it’s the third that
the festival was really founded on,
and one that Grímur holds most in
mind when booking the lineup.
The big draw
With a core dedication to promot-
ing underrepresented acts to the
world, Airwaves has always had an
alternative spirit about it. Part of the
draw is the underdog spirit. Over a
quarter of this year’s lineup consists
of all-female acts, not including
mixed-gender acts. To some, that
representation might not seem a
big enough number to write home
about. But consider this: an article
published earlier this year in The
Huffington Post examined gender
representation at ten of the world’s
major music festivals. San Fran-
cisco’s Outside Lands Festival came
out on top, with a whopping 19%.
When you compare Iceland’s 26%
with the global representation of
all-female acts, Iceland’s gem of a
festival insists, in yet another way,
that it has something to prove.
LISTEN AND SHARE:
gpv.is/air14
Music Festival
There’s A
Stormzy
Coming
Iceland Airwaves
Finalises Lineup
Words
PARKER YAMASAKI
Photo
ÓMAR SVERRISSON
36The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 14 — 2016
Emmsjé Gauti doing what
Emmsjé Gauti does at Prikið