Yesterday Airwaves, the annual 4-day Iceland music festival, announced that their November 2020 fest has been cancelled.
Even though Iceland is a relatively safe place to visit during the ongoing Pandemic, the style of the festival - cutting edge bands from Iceland, Europe, America and Canada performing in many small SRO halls and bars in and around Reykjavik - just can't be re-engineered, to safely accommodate a large number of out-of-country ticket holders this year.
Why? take a look at the pictures I took from the photographer's pit at the FM Belfast concert held inside the Reykjavik Art Gallery a couple of years ago. Lots of drinking, dancing and interacting with audience (one of their keynote songs is Dancing in My Underwear).
crowd surfing at AirWaves
Organizers wrote to ticket holders saying that new health measures make proceeding with this year’s "festival impossible".
"We reviewed many scenarios: with social distancing; with breaking the audience into separated groups, with lower attendance; with less venues. We returned to the same answer: there was no feasible solution to deliver the festival for 2020."
my view from the photographer's pit at Iceland festival
We booked five tickets, five airline tickets and the top floor of a downtown building for our annual family visit a couple months before the Virus hit. IcelandAir has promised to refund both the airfare and the festival passes. Will be talking to the owner of the apartment building where we were booked into. Pity, really nice 4-bedroom place overlooking the main drag (right beside the downtown Subway shop).
We have been going to Airwaves for over a decade and hope to go back one day. Airwaves is putting on a brave face and is already promoting Airwaves 2021. Hope it happens, but, are the popularity of festivals like this all of sudden yesterday's news?
Facebook posting by sweirsweir
