My Life Last Week: Nicky Digital Hits Reykjavik For Iceland Airwaves
We arrived at our hotel at around 8:50 am Iceland time after an overnight flight. Within minutes we were scooped up by our tour bus to go and see the Icelandic countryside for some photo ops with our buddies Vacationer & Blouse. This is Þingvellir, the site of Iceland's original government and also the site at which the North American tectonic plates meet Europe.
Scenic Iceland:
Charlie Hilton of Blouse de-bussing at Geysir, Iceland
Our tour guide, aka The Geysir Whisperer, convinced the Vacationer boys to climb over the "Do not walk past here" ropes and stand directly in the spray of Geysir! They claim it was an exhilarating experience but also mentioned that they wished they weren't soaking wet on a frigid 24-degree windy day! The Geysir Whisperer failed to mention that he was wearing a full waterproof outfit!
Every time Im in Iceland I try and go pay Litli-Geysir (The little geysir that can and does) a visit because its name is so cute!
The people at the parties:
Kenny Vasoli from Vacationer chilling out with some super fans at the Reyka X Filter Magazine Artist Appreciation party at the cozy Dolly in downtown Reykjavik The bartenders at Dolly made it very clear that they don't want to spend a lot of time making your drink.
This man introduced himself as Lion and this is amazing Min Pin wearing a traditional Icelandic sweater!
This is my dear friend Júlía & her band-mate Úlfur. They are in a local band called Oyama.
These were the sweetest concierge girls working at KEX, our favorite hotel in Reykjavick. KEX is known for it's non-stop music performances, parties for locals and tourists and its amazing cafe food. This is where I like to stay whenever I visit Reykjavik. Every year one of the highlights of the festival is the Blue Lagoon Chill Party. They have a handful of Iceland's best electronic musicians on hand to keep people dancin, splashin and drinking in the relaxing geothermal spa waters!
SRSLY how relaxed does Blouse look?
Tons of fashionable Icelandic locals come out to enjoy the festivities as well! These folks were all snapped at Harpa Concert Hall during Vacationers set.
Onesies. Yes onesies. People really like wearing onesies and dancing in them ... and really ... whats not to love?
The Music
Over 200+ acts are booked for each year's festival ranging from classical to EDM and playing in venues as small as a temporarily converted coffee shop to Reykjavik's largest concert halls. While we saw literally 48 hours + of live music while we were at the festival we'd like to share a few of the really standout acts that we caught. We've got a 216-track playlist that features a song from each artist who played that you can listen to here!
Oculus playing some super soulful house at the Rafwaves closing night party. Boogie Trouble great name! Great vibe! Who knew Icelandic disco would sound sooooo good!
GusGus one of our absolute favorite acts of the festival. Not only was the music incredible but the stage show, though minimal, was amazing.
Our buddies Vacationer were the winners of this year's Breakthrough at Iceland Airwaves contest and got to play one of the headlining sets at Reykjavik’s gorgeous Harpa Concert Hall. Airwaves just announced the dates for next years festival so that means you've got almost a full year to start a band and enter to win your free trip to Iceland courtesy of Reyka, Iceland’s first ever Vodka!
Rangleklods were one of the bands we were most excited to see at the festival and they did not disappoint. We caught 2 of their 7 shows during the festival. One of which was at a teeny coffee shop that was packed ... literally you could not fit another person in this place. People were standing in the street watching through the windows!
While the festival didn't have an official HEADLINER it's pretty safe to say that Sigur Ros' show was the place to be on the closing night of airwaves. 7,000 festivalgoers crowded into Laugardalshöll arena to enjoy the hometown hero’s sendoff show.
See all Nicky's photos of Iceland Airwaves.
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