Events in Reykjavik
Feb/March Food and Fun Festival
Food and Fun mixes outstanding culinary skills, fresh natural ingredients, Icelandic outdoor adventure and the world-famous Reykjavik nightlife to create the ultimate recipe for fun. The core element of the festival involves world-acclaimed chefs collaborating with Reykjavik's finest restaurants. Each chef is assigned to one of the participating restaurants, where they prepare a special menu crafted from Icelandic ingredients only, commonly held to be the best in the world by Icelanders. The menus are presented at all the restaurants for an entire week. In addition, the chefs themselves are on site for three nights during the festival week. The second element of the festival is the chef competition, which takes place on the last day of the festival. The chefs compete by making three courses, made out of only Icelandic ingredients!
Art festival in Reykjavik - May 15th - June 5th
First held in 1970, the Reykjavik Arts Festival celebrates the arts with a vibrant mix of national and international performances throughout the island. This season the festival offers a variety of grand scale, elite events including performances by the San Francisco Ballet, recitals by Bryn Terfel and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and the Icelandic première of Haflidi Hallgrimsson´s recent opera, Die Welt der Zwischenfälle. Forty musicians from the Balkans, led by world famous musician and composer Goran Bregovic, perform a concert in Laugardalshöll, jointly organized with the music festival Vorblót (Rite of Spring). For more information see: www.artfest.is
Beginning of June - Festival of the Sea (Seafarers day)
All the fishermen of Iceland - and there are lots of them - take this June Sunday off as a holiday. Officially known as Sjomannadagur (Seafarers' Day), it's a time for rowdy parties, parades and speeches.
The fishermen compete in swimming and rowing races and other tests of strength including the ever-popular tug-of-war. In Reykjavik the fun is all part of a weekend Festival of the Sea.
17. June National Independent Day
Crowds flock onto the streets throughout Iceland on 17 June every year to commemorate the birthday of national hero Jón Sigurdsson (1811-1879). The day tends to start off on a solemn and patriotic note, but by the afternoon the mood changes and the fun breaks out. Everyone takes the day off to be entertained by street performances, theater, fire-eaters and to enjoy the real festival atmosphere.
21. June Midsummer Night
Visitors are welcomed by Icelanders as they gather around Reykjavik and across the country to celebrate the magic of the midnight sun on the longest day of the year.
The solstice is the apex of a long month of endless sunshine, during which the sun hangs determinedly in the sky, never setting. Unlike some other Scandinavian countries, formally organized events are rare, but visitors will find plenty of family get-together with bonfires, feasting and general merrymaking.
June - Arctic Open Golf Championship and Midnight Open
A game of midnight golf seems an unlikely prospect to many enthusiasts and few golfers have experienced this delight. But now you have a novel opportunity to participate in an event which features round the clock golf in mid-summer at high latitudes. The Akureyri Golf Club hosts this tournament which is known as The Arctic Open Golf Championship.
August - Gay Pride
The second week in August is the focal point for Iceland's biggest Pride celebration, with parties, parades and theater shows throughout the capital of Reykjavik.
The Icelandic gay scene is small and centers on its capital. As a result it is intimate and friendly, but welcomes input from abroad. Hotels are usually fully booked around the celebrations, so make your reservations well in advance.
August– Culture Night in Reykjavik + Reykjavik Marathon
The Reykjavik Cultural Night has become an essential part of the city's cultural scene. With the midnight sun still keeping things light for almost 24 hours, Reykjavik inhabitants fill the streets to celebrate Iceland's vibrant culture. The festival is in the 3 week of August.
The marathon livens up the streets of downtown Reykjavik every August and hundreds of visitors from around the world take part alongside thousands of locals. For many, the famously fresh air is a welcome change from the pollution of the big city streets abroad.Started in 1984 by two travel agents wanting to encourage visitors to visit Iceland, there were 214 participants in that first run. Two decades on and, since since the late 1990s tied to the annual - and popular - Reykjavik Cultural Night - the marathon attracts over 3500 runners in all events, including around 500 from abroad.
September-Octobre - Reykjavik Jazz Festival -
The Reykjavik Jazz Festival presents the best of the burgeoning Nordic jazz scene during this four-day event. A number of venues are used, including Gaukurinn, Austurbær, and Jómfrúin. The festival hosts performances in a variety of different styles, from contemporary jazz and the avant-garde to Latin jazz, gospel and big bands. Against a backdrop of imposing mountains and the horizon, this small, clean coastal town is an unusual and inspiring location for live jazz.
More information can be found on Visit Reykjavik.