Reykjavík Grapevine - aug. 2023, Side 18

The Reykjavík Grapevine 12 / 23 18Culture
WORDS Catharine Fulton
IMAGES Roman Gerasymenko,
culturenight.is
August is a wild month in Rey-
kjavík. Unlike the rest of the world,
August is when Iceland revels in all
the rainbow-hued glory of queer cel-
ebration and love in its annual week-
long Pride celebration. But the fun
doesn’t end there. Oh no! Because
just one week after the Pride Parade,
when Reykjavík is still finding confet-
ti in every crack and crevice, the city
becomes one massive stage for its
annual Menningarnótt festival.
Culture Night in English, the festival
is a huge city-wide one-day cele-
bration of Reykjavík life and culture.
In fact, it’s held to mark Reykjavík’s
birthday. You see, it was a glorious
summer day in 1786 that is consid-
ered the date the city was formally
founded. Sorry, Ingólfr Arnarson,
your arrival in 874 pales in compar-
ison to the Danish king granting
Reykjavík a trading charter.
So on Saturday, August 19, Reykjavík
will celebrate its 237th birthday – we
don’t think it looks a year over 220
– and the party will be as big and
bombastic as ever.
“Menningarnótt is a celebration of
Reykjavík,” says Guðmundur Birgir
Halldórsson, a project manager of
events with the City of Reykjavík.
“We celebrate the birthday the first
Saturday after the 18th – or on the
18th if that’s the case – and we do
it with this participatory festival. So
we try to invite city inhabitants and
other guests to put on their own
shows or events and we try to help
them do that.”
“So, basically the stage is the city
centre and people apply to get a
little part of the city to put on their
event.”
BIG TIME PARTICIPATION
While Landsbankinn furnishes
grants for roughly 20 inhabitant-run
events each year, public interest
in contributing to the party atmos-
phere around the city on Mennin-
garnótt is such that Guðmundur and
his team are continuously updating
the online agenda almost right up
until the morning of the festival, as
submissions for more and more
self-funded happenings land in their
inboxes.
“We are very open to applications,”
says Guðmundur. “We try to not have
it too commercial. We think culture
should reflect the inhabitants of
Reykjavík. So, we aim for diversi-
ty and an expression of culture in
many senses.”
“Sometimes it’s just somebody who
has just started playing the violin
and wants to show it off and then
also it could be an artist who’s been
at it for many years,” he continues.
And that mishmash of production
values and cultural expressions on
display is just what makes Mennin-
garnótt such a special day for the
city centre. Whether you check the
event schedule and plan your day
meticulously down to the minute to
hit all the most interesting happen-
ings or you simply go for a wander
and stumble across something
charming or crazy or hilarious, you’re
sure to have a good time.
PLUS, WAFFLES
And then there’s the waffles. The
humble waffle, with its heart-shaped
segments, is the unofficial symbol
of Menningarnótt, with households
lugging their dining tables into their
front yards, tethered to their homes
with extension cords to run their
waffle makers and feed hungry pas-
sersby.
It’s a real treat, and Guðmundur es-
timates tens of thousands of waffles
– with jam and whipped cream, of
course – are devoured each year to
mark the city’s birthday.
“I think it started way back when
the festival started in maybe 1996,”
Guðmundur says when asked about
how waffles became so synony-
mous with Menningarnótt. “The
Culture Galore Happy Birthday, Reykjavík!
The annual Culture Night celebration is ready to party