Iceland Festival Frenzy

It’s sheep-gathering season in Iceland, an annual spectacle that brings clued-up tourists flocking to the nation’s more scenic farms. In the capital city, meanwhile, a trio of interlinked festivals, You Are in Control, Réttir (aka Reykjavik Round Up) and the Reykjavik International Film Festival, are having a similar effect on creative souls from home and abroad: film types, musicians, and Clash. It’s a good few days to be in Reykjavik.

Thursday

You Are in Control is the glue that binds the three events together. This two-day conference used to be all about the music but now encompasses other creative industries, particularly film, which is handy given the varied talents who’ve pitched up for the city’s film festival. Hosting one particularly popular seminar (on getting your music into movies, hence Nordic songwriters of several generations listening intently) is film producer Chris Roberts, who has a finger in all three fests.

As well as YAIC he’s here to promote the debut feature by Jesse Hartman, whose name might ring a bell. Back in the mid-nineties he appeared on infamous Channel 4 show The Word with his band Sammy, before forming a well-liked outfit called Laptop, then going solo. Now Hartman has directed a hugely enjoyable, semi-autobiographical movie called 'House of Satisfaction' and wound up starring in it too, which has its drawbacks. “Now everyone thinks I really was a junkie,” he smiles ruefully, while loitering outside the film fest office.
After a combined screening/Q&A on Thursday evening Hartman moves on to the music festival, Réttir, and plays a rip-roaring set at a bar called Battery, with a co-star drafted in on harmonica. The struggle he encounters overpowering a few strident voices in the audience fits nicely with the movie’s washed-up rock star ambience, although we are a little concerned for the next performer. The wonderfully talented Olof Arnalds is, it’s been said, Iceland’s answer to Joanna Newsome, so not the loudest act about.

We needn’t have worried. Most of the audience are captivated, as indeed they had been during a brief performance at the YAIC conference earlier in the day. There she persuaded a roomful of delegates to stop networking for a minute and do the harmonies on a song called ‘Crazy Car,’ which we thought might be about her good friend Bjork but actually concerns Animal Collective affiliate Kristin Anna Valtysdottir. Everyone on the Icelandic music scene knows everyone else on the Icelandic Music Scene. Fact.

Friday

The very relaxed Reykjavik often runs about an hour later than advertised – ‘Iceland time’ - which can make life interesting. Having turned up to watch a short about an Icelandic reggae band as part of the film festival’s music-based ‘Sound on Screen’ strand, we actually come across an enlightening documentary about Olof’s cousin, the classical/electronica prodigy Olafur Arnalds. 'The Sky May Be Falling But the Stars Look Good on You' gets off to a cracking start, as a quote from Clash is emblazoned in enormous letters across the screen. Cue a tiny cheer from one corner of the cinema, confusing everyone else.

From here on we’re in full-on music-fest mode, and it’s a good one. Réttir is named after the sheep-gathering season and performs a similar function, bringing the best local talent together, across various venues. The large (apparently endangered) NASA features the bigger names, and the country’s ultra-creative cross-pollination occurs before your very eyes on Friday night.

Again running very much to Iceland Time, the youthful Retro Stefson’s set is suddenly gatecrashed by bonkers dance outfit FM Belfast, one of the many side-projects of múm’s Örvar Smárason, and the mutant combo launch into a spirited rendition of Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name Of’ before Belfast fully take over, remove their trousers and cause a well-mannered riot. Reykjavik may be wonderfully peaceful by day, but after midnight it’s the wildest party in Europe. Think Gremlins, but with beautiful people rather than green ones.

Saturday

Saturday is freezing but refreshing (a quick burst of icy rain certainly clears away the cobwebs) as is tonight’s line-up - refreshing, that is, not freezing. Upstairs at Grand Rokk are Rökkurró, who were also selected to serenade the delegates at You Are in Control, have a cello-playing frontwoman with a lovely voice and songs to match. Like Clash, she also pops up in Olafur Arnalds’ documentary, having toured the UK with him last year.
They’re followed by the altogether livelier Ljósvaki, a fresh-faced one-man soul machine who came to prominence via an Icelandic Battle of the Bands competition and does a mean version of Snoop Dogg’s 'Sexual Eruption', which is tempting fate a bit given that we’re in active-volcano land.

Back to NASA and they’ve tightened up on times, Danish rockers The State, The Market & The DJ having to curtail their entertaining set to make way for the most eagerly-awaited outfit of the whole event. Apparat Organ Quartet are Kraftwerk with an Icelandic twist: lots of hair, messy keyboards and a drummer. They’ve reformed specially for Rettir, ram the hall and rock the joint.
Still, the night is young – Reykjavik keeps on rocking til the break of dawn, particularly in summer when it never actually gets dark – and over in the intriguingly named Sódóma the catchiest band in the world are tuning up.

Denmark’s Bodebrixen certainly look innocent enough: all smiley faces, stripy t-shirts and a couple of impossibly attractive frontpeople, Andreas and Marie Louise. But be warned, their pop is the purest, uncut, grade-A Scandinavian, and just the mildest exposure to it can render even the hardiest souls completely helpless. The kids down the front are going bananas, and even the rockier punters up the back are doing a bit of secret dancing. There are even balloons.
That seems a suitably sugary final course but one extra act has been hastily scrawled onto the line-up: Bloodgroup, a sibling-based outfit who whip the crowd into a further frenzy with their dirty-disco grooves and enthusiastic rabble-rousing. They even slip in a bit of Muse. Ones to watch.

And then it’s back to the splendid new Downtown Hostel
(http://tiny.cc/hostel), a funky little hang-out and occasional venue
where various film people and musicians spend much of the night locked into a wine-fuelled conversation about Sigur Ros’ lyrics. Next morning, the girl who checks us out turns out to be Olof Arnalds’ sister. It’s a small world, Reykjavik. Small but perfectly formed.

Words by Si Hawkins

Iceland Express is a proud sponsor of the Reykjavik International Film Festival, and flies daily to Reykjavik from London Gatwick, London Stanstead, and, from summer 2010, twice weekly from Birmingham International Airport. Prices start from £69.00. For reservations go to www.icelandexpress.com or call 0118 321 8384