Icelandair backs online festival from “the top of the world”

Starting on Friday 13 and continuing on 14 November, the event is spearheaded by Icelandair and the team who usually produce the annual Iceland Airwaves event, which had been a firm fixture in Reykjavik for 20 years until the pandemic struck.

Billed as “the first major livestream music event from the top of the world”, the event aims to stream performances from the best Icelandic talent for a one-off online event including Olafur Arnalds, a multi-instrumentalist whose current release and fifth album Some Kind of Peace is BBC 6 Music’s album of the day.

Performances will be re-broadcast across four time zones to "bring the spirit of Iceland to the world".

Icelandair is a founding sponsor, usually bringing festivalgoers to the country every November for the event, which attracts around 8,000 people.

“We know international travel isn’t possible for many people right now, so we’re thrilled to still be able to share the spirit of Iceland with our customers and the world – albeit a little differently this year – through such a big celebration of Icelandic talent,” said head of global marketing at Icelandair, Gisli S Brynjolfsson.

Other homegrown musicians performing will include Of Monsters and Men, Eurovision 2020 favourite Daoi Freyr, and Asgeir, who will be performing in iconic venues across Reykjavik such as Iono, Gamla Bio, Art Museum Reykjavik and more.

“We wanted to find a way to shine a spotlight on the vast talent of the music scene here in Iceland. To have all these artists in Iceland at the same time is a ‘lightning strikes once’ moment, and we wanted to seize it with both hands,” said festival director Isleifur Porhallsson.

Tickets need to be purchased via Iceland Airwaves for either individual performances, or one or two days, with performances shown in the UK from 7.30pm.

The live Iceland Airwaves festival for next year has been scheduled for 3–6 November 2021.

Meanwhile, Icelandair recently announced it was planning to fly to four cities in the UK and Ireland in its summer 2021 schedule – London, Glasgow, Manchester and Dublin.