Reykjavík Grapevine - Jul 2022, Qupperneq 12

12The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 07— 2022
A Crazy Microcosm On A Fjord
Art lovers unite in Seyðisfjörður—it’s LungA time
Words: Iryna Zubenko Photos: Provided by LungA
In the middle of July, people from
all over Iceland and beyond flock
to Seyðisfjörður, an East Iceland
fishing town that is unremarkable
at first sight. The reason for the
migration: LungA, an arts festi-
val like no other. We chatted with
Festival Director Björt Sigfinnsdót-
tir and Head of Music Simon Berg-
kjær about what makes the 2022
edition special. While the thing that
first caught our attention was the
waterfall gig, in reality, there’s so
much more.
The evolution of LungA
Björt has been running the festival
with her mother since she was 15.
In 22 extraordinary years, they have
witnessed LungA take on many
forms and evolve tremendously.
“When we started, it was just one
weekend with 20 participants,” she
shares. Today, it spans more than
a week and brings together 2000 to
3000 people. “We started out very,
very small, calling out to people
and begging them to participate.
And then in 2005 or 2006, it all of
a sudden exploded,” Björt recalls.
The festival is based on four
pillars: workshops, art-related
performances and exhibitions, a
youth exchange with Erasmus Plus,
and the music programme. “To us
this is kind of the big bang of the
whole thing,” says Björt.
Thinking deep
Every year, LungA picks up a socially
relevant topic as the main theme of
the festival. “A topic that we think
is needed to talk about in a bigger
setting from a social perspective,”
explains Björt.
In the past, the festival centred
on such topics as gender and empa-
thy, and this year it will revolve
around equality. “For most people,
the first thought is probably ‘whoa,
that's a big topic,’” Björt admits. But
the team chooses the main topic
with the intention that the artists
can take it in whatever direction
they want—whether it’s equality
for the LGBTQIA+, equality on the
dance floor or whatnot. “That has
not been decided beforehand, as
we don't want to direct the conver-
sation in a certain direction,” says
Björt.
Refuge for art lovers
The more we speak with Björt and
Simon, the more LungA starts to
sound like a utopian paradise. But
who is it for, exactly?
“I think we might represent a
crazy microcosm,” says Simon. “We
have almost the entire spectrum,”
Björt adds. “We have people who are
coming here to take the first steps
into any kind of art interest. And
we also have people who have done
masters and have long-term careers
in art.”
“I feel that as a festival in East
Iceland, we also represent some
sort of a cultural hub, a meeting
place for a lot of people who live
on opposite ends of a very large
geographic country,” Simon adds.
“It makes a lot of sense to talk about
differences and celebrate differ-
ences and maybe break down some
stereotypes. Seyðisfjörður and
LungA is a very good place to do
that.”
Embracing change
“In December 2020, a big mudslide
hit Seyðisfjörður which devastated
a lot of the town and affected every-
one living there,” recalls Simon. “It
rendered our festival site useless
for hosting LungA going forward.”
The situation, however, didn’t
leave the team disheartened.
Instead, it pushed them to explore
other options. “We kind of took it as
a gift that we were forced away from
one of the only obvious festival sites
in town,” Simon admits. “We sat
down and started to brainstorm
where we would like to take this.
What do we have that no one else
has? We found that what we have
is Seyðisfjörður.”
“Seyðisfjörður is a magical,
beautiful place. It's overwhelming
in its natural glory,”
continues Simon.
“We thought that
w e w a n t e d t o
utilise that more.”
For the 2022
edit ion, LungA
w i l l f e a t u r e
s m a l l er e v en t s
s p r e a d a r o u n d
t o w n — i n s i d e
the ecosystem of
Seyðisfjörður. “We
want to utilise the
waterfalls, we want
to have a concert in
the meadow, we want
to do a little party on the beach,”
shares Simon and you can feel his
palpable impatience for the festival
to kick off. “All these kinds of things
that were before restricted a little
bit to a more classical, one or two-
stage festival site.”
Final countdown to
LungA
“We have a high-quality interna-
tional event programme, where
most of the things that you will see
here for free, cost a lot of money if
you see them anywhere else,” says
Björt. “This has also been a part of
our philosophy—to keep the prices
down to a minimum to ensure
access to art and cultural experi-
ences for everybody, unrelated to
status or background.”
Björt recounts her personal
highlight at the upcoming festival:
“We're having a memorial exhibi-
tion for Tóta Van Helzing who was a
long-term LungA family member.”
Tóta, an Icelandic designer and
artist, died last year.
“This year, we're very happy
to bring an American ambient
producer called Huerco S—he
doesn't play a lot and he really
wants to come to LungA and play
one of his rare sets with a Scottish
electronic musician called Perko,”
adds Simon. “Those two are coming
up to make a completely unique
once-in-a-lifetime
l i v e s e t t h a t 's
going to take place
a little bit up the
mountain next to
a waterfall. We're
gonna use under-
water mics to mic
up the waterfall
and use nature as
part of the instru-
ments to create
this performance.”
As if the water-
fal l g ig wasn’t
enough to get us
excited, Simon adds:
“DJ Sexy laser is going to do a DJ
set—Saman Sauna—a beautiful
event down on the beach on the
Saturday.”
All roads East
“I think a lot of our audience
comes for an experience that
is a bit deeper than maybe most
festival experiences,” says Simon.
“Where you actually take time out
of your normal day to deep dive into
issues that maybe you've thought
a lot about—or maybe you haven't
thought a lot about before.”
Simon and Björt agree LungA
not only has a lot of good places
to see art, dance, but also “good
places to go sit quietly, in retro-
spect or in introspect and have a
think.” You can’t really plan how
your festival experience will turn
out—and that’s the beauty of it.
“The sky is pretty much the limit
in Seyðisfjörður and LungA,” Simon
concludes.
LungA takes place July 10th-17th in
Seyðisfjörður, East Iceland. Find out
more and buy tickets at lunga.is
“Seyðisfjörður
is a magical,
beautiful
place. We
thought that
we wanted
to utilise that
more.”
Culture
Wild wild east
Björt Sigfinnsdóttir, LungA director (Photo: Juliette Rowland)
Björt Sigfinnsdóttir
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