Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.05.2017, Blaðsíða 16

What It
Means To Be A
“Music City”
And how the tourism industry needs to catch up

Words: Paul Fontaine
Photo: Jói Kjartans/Art Bicnick
CULTURE Sigtryggur Baldurs-
son is a quintessential musi-
cian. Although he first came to
international attention as the
drummer for the Sugarcubes,
he’s been active in Reykjavík’s
music scene since long before
the band formed, and long after
the band split up. He’s still ac-
tive today, in fact, not least of
all in the effort to try and make
Reykjavík a “music city.”
In our prev ious issue, we
touched on how Reykjavík and the
tourism industry have sometimes
been at odds with one another
(“Tourism Vs. The Music Scene”),
and considered how the tourism
industry and Reykjavík’s music
scene could get along better. The
problem goes deeper than just
noise levels of gigs near hotels,
though. As we discovered, it also
concerns how the tourism indus-
try markets Iceland: what is em-
phasises, and what it ignores or
underplays.
"Music city programmes are, in
essence, where the city supports
music within the city on different
levels," Sigtryggur tells us. This
means music education—not just
of children but also of musicians
themselves—and "the city adapt-
ing its laws to be more positive
towards music venues and such."
It might seem like a given that
Reykjavík, a city known interna-
tionally for its music, would be ac-
commodating of the music scene,
but that hasn’t always been the
case.
More than just
noise levels
"The venues have always been
an issue in Reykjavík,” Sigtryg-
gur says. “There are more venues
now than there were before, but
the problem is the tourism indus-
try has had a negative impact on
music venues, in general.
That said, this is a common
problem in city centres
anywhere."
Sigtryggur draws inspi-
ration from how cities like
Toronto and Seattle have
handled their music scenes,
and has spoken with Reyk-
javík mayor Dagur B. Eg-
gertsson on the subject. As
it is, the tourism industry
and the music scene can be
at odds with one another,
as complementary as they
might seem to be. Now,
that’s starting to change.
"Usually you can't have a mu-
sic venue close to apartments and
other populated areas,” Sigtryg-
gur explains. “And if venues are
making noise, they're always on
the wrong end. Now, we’re flipping
that around and saying, 'There's
a music venue here, if you want
to build a hotel, you have to do
certain things to protect your ho-
tel guests [from noise],' basically
moving the obligation from the
music venue to the hotels. This is
within the city’s powers. This also
helps musicians stay within the
city limits with their studios and
practice spaces. So in effect, being
a music city means giving support
to music-related work within the
boundaries of the city."
Sigtryggur has been working
with Promote Iceland to help mar-
ket the city abroad as a cultural
destination, because, as he says,
“we need to brand Iceland as more
of a creative hub, rather than just
a scenic place to go to.” He points
out that not only does the Iceland
Airwaves music festival bring in
several thousand music lovers who
arrive for the sole purpose of at-
tending—those visitors also tend
to spend a lot more money than
the average tourist. Nonetheless,
the tourism industry has been
slow to catch up.
Not just geysers
and glaciers
"Over the last few years, the tour-
ism industry is constantly com-
plaining about a lack of cultural
activity geared towards tourism
in Iceland,” Sigtryggur says, “but
at the same time, they completely
fail to interact with any of the fes-
tivals. So part of our goal is to cre-
ate better communication where
that's concerned."
The tourism industry is in
"survival mode," as it were. The
focus has been, Sigtryggur says,
to "make the infrastructure cope
with increasing tourists, rather
than creating more interactive
programmes with the creative
industry to better that tourism."
He sees great potential in Reyk-
javík starting to market itself as
more of a music town. “Reykjavík
hasn't really been actively market-
ing itself as a city of music and
culture,” he adds. “I
think the people in-
volved in the tour-
ism industry just
haven't been very
actively aware of
that. They're aware
of it, but they don't
know how to inter-
act with it."
T h i s i s
starting to change.
A s coord i nat ion
between Reykjavík
and the tourism
industry increas-
es, Sigtryggur is optimistic that
people will increasingly come to
Iceland for the culture; not just for
the geysers and glaciers.
16 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 08 — 2017
From Kex
“We need
to brand
Iceland as
more of a
creative
hub, rather
than just a
scenic place
to go to.”
4.8
4.9