Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
Most presidents aren’t too knowledgeable on their countries’ music scenes, but most countries aren’t Iceland. To celebrate 20 years (!!!) of Iceland Airwaves, the nation’s foremost new music festival for both domestic and international acts, Iceland’s Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has personally curated a Spotify playlist chock full of Icelandic artists (and some others). Today’s most […]
Nordic Spotlight is now podcasting! Today we inaugurate our new podcast Nordic Spotlight Monthly, which will arrive in the world on the last Wednesday of every month. And for our first episode, we are putting the spotlight back on the 2015 Iceland Airwaves festival and the wealth of homegrown talent on the island nation. We’re […]
As I was paying for my purchases as the charmingly cramped Geisladiskabúð Valda record shop, the owner asked (as most every local did) if I was here for Iceland Airwaves. Once that was established, I asked him if he had any designs on seeing any concerts that week. “No,” he answered, “I’m more of a […]
You can start to pick out the locals from those folks who are not from around Reykjavik pretty easily as you start to reach the end of a multi-day, multi-venue music festival. The tourists, especially the Americans, are the ones that have a glaze slowly coming over their eyes. Between the shows and attractions and […]
Chatting with another American who made the trek across the Atlantic for Iceland Airwaves, my new friend commented that he had yet to have an actual sit down meal over the few days that he had been in Reykjavik. And why would he venture into a restaurant (other than maybe to try some whale or […]
I’m going to start off today’s installment with: Travel Tip #4. If you’re coming to Reykjavik for Iceland Airwaves, remember one simple thing: it’s November in Iceland. Dress accordingly. There’s a very good reason why nearly all the tourist shops here in the city sell scarves, sweaters, and hats. Yes, the Icelandic wool is lovely, but […]
The savvy traveler that she is, our beloved majordomo of this site Michelle was kind enough to ply with me all kinds of information about the best places to go during my stay in Reykjavik, and one of them was this charming little cafe called Grái Kötturinn, or the “Grey Cat.” Her main selling point: […]
On the way to @icelandairwaves #airwaves15 A photo posted by Nordic Spotlight (@nordicspotlight) on Nov 3, 2015 at 5:32am PSTi I’ll admit to anyone that I’m not a seasoned traveler by any means. Like all of us, I’ve done my fair share of weekend jaunts into some deeper portion of my home state of Oregon […]
Is it November yet? With each one of these posts that we do, our excitement about the upcoming Iceland Airwaves fest only grows stronger. If you’re flying over there for the event as well, hopefully you’re feeling the same. And even if you’re not, we can only hope that you’re enjoying checking out some our […]
We’re continuing our work going through the huge list of Nordic artists that will be descending upon Reykjavik this November to perform at the 2015 Iceland Airwaves festival this week. We’ve updated our Spotify playlist with 20 more artists for you to check out, and we’re going to highlight some of our favorites right here. […]