Reykjavik Folk Festival is an annual music festival, now in it’s fourth consecutive year dedicated to folk music and all of it’s various offsprings. The festival seeks to portray a wide selection of icelandic musicians from different generations and from different sections within the icelandic music community.
The founder of the festival was Ólafur Þórðarson, a well known musician in Iceland, especially with his band, Folk ensemble Río Trío. After he passed away local musician Snorri Helgason took the reins and now oversees and manages the festival.
Quiet and cozy are the order of the day as electric instruments are put aside for acoustic ones. A small, dimly lit ballroom inside Kex Hostel creates the perfect setting for the festival. Performers are very close to the audience which creates a certain intimacy which can sometimes be very hard to obtain. Artists exchanged jokes and banter with the audience and at times it felt like they were performing right in your own sitting room.
Thursday
On the first of three nights it was bass-guitar player Skúli Sverrisson who opened the proceedings. He has been a big player in the experimental jazz world for the better part of two decades now and has collaborated with everyone from free jazz legends to rock and roll icons like Lou Reed. He was accompanied by singer/guitar player Ólof Arnalds and saxophone player Óskar Guðjónsson. They played a powerful set of folk tinged experimental jazz where Ólöf’s powerful vocals interplayed wonderfully with Óskar’s saxophone, all held together by Skúli’s airtight guitar playing.
Next up was singer/songwriter Elin Ey. With only one album to her name she has been making headways both domestically and abroad with relentless gigging. She delivered a great performance and her lo-fi, folk-tinged indie pop connected well with the audience. Between songs, she was soft spoken and shy but delivered each song with intensity and passion. She even threw in a great rendition of the Fleetwood Mac’s classic Dreams. One of the first magical performances of the weekend
Kristín Á. Ólafsdóttir was next on the stage. She was well known in the seventies as a part of what is called Generation ‘68 which would transcribe to the hippie and free love generation in Iceland. She was accompanied by guitarist Páll Eyjólfsson. Kristín is great storyteller and her set was very informative. We got to hear the stories behind the songs and how they came about. Her set mostly consisted of traditional folk songs from Iceland and the other Scandinavian countries.
It was up to super group Drangar to close the night. The band consists of three musicians, Jónas Sigurðsson, Mugison and Ómar Guðjónsson, all of whom are successful solo artists in Iceland. Drangar stood out a little bit on the night as they were the only band not relying solely on acoustics. Their music had more in common with seventies classic rock than folk music but that didn’t matter at all. They delivered an energetic set which got the crowd bobbing their heads and closed out the first night with a bang.
Friday
The crowd seemed more in to it right from the start. Maybe because it was Friday people found it easier to relax and enjoy the music.
Kristjana Arngrímsdóttir got things rolling. Her traditional, slightly jazzy folk music was a perfect fit for the festival and the crowd really got into it, so much that she even got an encore.
Next up were newcomers Hymnalaya who have been making waves in the Icelandic indie music scene despite only having one album to their name. The band was quite an ensemble, made up of at least dozen people. Their music was pretty straightforward with obvious influences from bands like Arcade Fire and Bon Iver but very sincere and intimate. A band to watch closely.
Bjartmar Guðlaugsson has been a household name in Icelandic music for many years. His working class anthems about average Joe’s and Mary’s are well known in most Icelandic households. He had the crowd singing and clapping along from the very start. Bjartmar is a very fun performer to watch. Between songs he shared anecdotes and stories on everything from politics to true love and had the crowd rolling on the floor laughing. A brilliant performance from one of Iceland’s finest.
Icelandic music icon Bubbi Morthens closed out the night but he might be one of very few superstars in Iceland. Bubbi has enjoyed a multi-platinum selling career for nearly three decades and experimented with various music genres, including folk, rock, punk, reggae and world music. In his later years, Morthens has enjoyed a career in radio and television and most recently as a judge on reality Tv show Iceland Got Talent. Despite his impressive repertoire of songs, Bubbi decided to go for some of his lesser known songs. Most of it had a slight country or bluegrass feeling to it. He is also a great storyteller and shared with the audience how drug abuse affected his early years as a musician. His band was very tight and every song was executed flawlessly. A great ending to a slightly more eclectic night than the one before.
Saturday
First up was troubadour extraordinaire and all around nice guy KK. He performed a great set comprised of his best known songs. Between songs he exchanged banter and jokes with audience. Like having a chat with your favorite uncle.
Newcomer Soffía Björg took the stage next. Her lo-fi, jazzy music was great and wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a Tarantino movie. Some influence from bands like The National were prominent. She’s one to watch for the future.
Next was up rhyme chanter Steindór Andersen. Rhyme chanting is very big part of Icelandic cultural heritage so having Steindór perform at the festival was precious. Rhyme chanting could be described as a way to give poetry and written word more life by singing a very vague tune over it. Steindór delivered a great set which especially older sections of the crowd seemed to really get into.
To close out the festival was up to it’s caretaker and manager Snorri Helgason along with his band. His folk-tinged bluegrass music went down well with the audience. With a couple albums out, Snorri is quickly establishing himself as a big player on the Icelandic indie scene. A great end to the weekend
The festival was overall a success and slowly taking its place in the Icelandic festival scene. It’s a very intimate and personal experience, like having the biggest names in the Icelandic folk music scene play next to your bonfire when you go camping.
Sigurður Marteinsson
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