In a bid to stem the excitement of my forthcoming trip to Iceland for another round of the eclectic music festival that is Iceland Airwaves, it’s another airwaves themed post from me.
If you’ve not been to the festival before, off-venue is the name to a weeklong series of gigs in various venues throughout the day, that are free for anyone to attend, not just those with a festival wristband. In most cases the off-venue program tends to finish around 7-8pm as the official venue events start up for the evening. In the past there has been as many as 60 different venues, but this year, with the festival’s new owners allegedly cutting costs to recoup losses from previous years festival, it’s down to 25 venues for 2018.
Obviously a lot of airwaves fans are disappointed, as for many of us this is an integral part of the festival, a chance to see bands pared down, in intimate venues. Some of our personal favourites have been Ægisgarður (home to the Viking Brewery with their colourful stage area, and kegs that acted as instrument stands), Reykjavik Letterpress who also plied the audience with free chocolate bars, Eymundsson book store on Austurstræti, and Lucky Records (who are staying with the program this year)… it’s all so very different to anything else I’ve ever been to.
It was also reported by Iceland Review that another reason for so few off-venues was that the costs of taking part in the off-venue program had skyrocketed – an increase of over 730% for venues taking part for the whole week! Of course for smaller venues the cost is prohibitive, and it seems there is rebellion with unofficial off-venue shows taking place which I will list below and update with any new info I receive (many thanks to the wonderful people of the Airwaves FB group for social travellers for hunting this info out!).
Vinyl Reykjavik
T 6/11 – DJ Pussy Valore
W 7/11 – BERNDSEN @9pm with others, doors at 6PM
T 8/11 – Yagya, Skurken – Downtempo electronica
F 9/11 – Elves and Dragons night with Sturle Dagsland and some other wizard people.
S 10/11 – S. Hel and some other ambient DJs.
Bókabúð Máls og menningar
10/11- 18:00 Sturle Dagsland
Sólsetrið (Skrauthólar), Grundarhverfi
10/11 – 22:00 Sturle Dagsland
Why not? Plötur
6/11 – 19:00 – Sólveig Matthildur, IDK IDA, asdfhg, Bömmer
9/11 – 16:00 – FINISHED BEFORE 20:00. Skátar, Grit Teeth, :mikilsorg
10/11 – Sideproject, Celestine, xGaddavírx, Man Kind, Laura Secord
KAFFIBARINN
4/11 – DJ Pilsner
5/11 – Sonur Saell
6/11 – Arni Vector
7/11 – Hunk of a Man
8/11 – Black Loops / Introbeatz
9/11 – FM BELFAST DJ SET
10/11 – DJ Margeir / Ieynigestur
Aurora House
10/11 17:00 Svavar Knútur
One perk of being a wristband holder this year, is that you get 10% off food and drink at the off-venues that serve.
Culturenator 