News From Iceland

All stories edited from www.grapevine.is

This morning, the bypass tunnel for the Kárahnjúkar Dam was closed, effectively starting the build up of the Hálsalón Lagoon, which will provide the hydroelectric dam with consistent water pressure.

The water level is expected to rise fast in the first few hours, up to 15 meters in four hours, but as the canyon widens towards the top the rise of the water level will slow down, and the eventual water level of 200 meters is not expected to be reached until next summer.

Last night, 28 September 2006, Reykjavík experienced the world’s first [known] planned blackout. The event marked the realisation of its architect, Andri Snær Magnason’s, dream to expose urban youth to the dark night skies which have influenced culture around the world for millennia. The Reykjavík City Council agreed to turn-off all the city’s streetlamps to participate in the event. Unfortunately, not all privately owned homes and businesses took part, making the event not quite so black as hoped.

In an interview with Grapevine, Magnason said, “We might look at it as a dress rehearsal.” As for the fireworks Reykjavík residents may have seen or heard last night, they were unplanned, and perhaps served only to exacerbate the problem of light pollution created by those lights that were left for the half-hour duration of the event. Magnason does not view the incomplete blackness as an indication of failure, however, stating that, “The idea has been going all over the globe in newswires… I’ve been talking to the BBC and PBS and it was in Italian papers… Lots and lots big writing follow-up.” Magnason hopes that if people enjoyed the event and would like to see it repeated, hopefully growing darker with each effort, that they will express their positive opinions to bolster his efforts to make the blackout an annual occurrence.

Last night’s blackout signalled the beginning of the 3rd annual Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF). More information on RIFF, schedules and events, can be found at www.filmfest.is

Thousands of Icelanders marched in protest last night, in support of retiring television reporter and nature enthusiast Ómar Ragnarsson and his call to the Icelandic government to forego with the Kárahnjúkar dam. Thursday will reportedly see an epoch in the Kárahnjúkar damming process, when water will finally be released to flood the valley behind the already-built dam. In a public address, Ragnarsson called for Icelanders to mightily protest this, stating that when an unjust execution is about to go forth one should continue disputing it until the last day.

Protest walks took place on Laugavegur in Reykjavík, in Akureyri, Egilsstaðir and Ísafjörður. Police and organisers disagreed on exactly how many thousands marched down Laugavegur, although both agreed that the numbers were great. According to Reykjavík police estimates, around 7-8.000 people marched while organisers present decreed it to have contained up to 15.000. Local media reports up to 200 marching in Akureyri, around 100 in Egilsstaðir and 50 people protesting in Ísafjörður.

In conversation with the Grapevine right before the march last night, Ísafjörður organizer and scholar Ólína Þorvarðardóttir reflected public opinion to the latest developments in the dam spectacle. “It was foremost Ómar’s call that sparked our interest in marching here in Ísafjörður. He has been very diligent in calling attention to the impending harm to nature and the environment and people are finally starting to realise that it’s not too late to do something about it. This is why we will answer his call and march, expressing our sorrow over what is happening.”

When asked about the effects the Kárahnjúkar endeavour had on the people of Ísafjörður Ólína replied that the scope and effect of the projects is far greater than anyone envisioned. “In environmental and economical terms, the effects are alarming. Here in the Westfjords, we have experienced drawbacks due to the inflation caused by the dam, where greatly needed projects such as improving our dismal road system have been postponed to accommodate it. On another note, the country belongs to all of us; Easterners do not ‘possess’ the Eastern highlands any more than we possess the Westfjords peninsula. This is our heritage and we have an obligation to pass it on to future generations.”

Smáralind was packed on Sunday, 17 September 2006, with 8,000 Magni enthusiasts of all ages.

Where I come from, big acts just do not perform in malls. And, for the few artists whose sad fate it is to have no alternative but to book them, there are no opening bands. I arrived “early”, or so I thought, only to be met by an already swarming crowd of people and the first opening act, playing a mediocre Marley cover.

I waited patiently for the sea of excited Magni fans to slowly shift me toward the front of the crowd while the duo on stage finished up with a forgettable rendition of Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer.

Somewhere in the middle of the second opening set I began to crave air and moved out of what would soon become “the pit” to the side of the stage. The smell of the free Doritos being passed out hadn’t lent anything positive to the experience of being walled in by bodies. With crowds numbering in the thousands, keeping track of children looked to be something of a struggle. Some parents had them loaded into shopping carts. Other kids were standing on the large pots of faux trees to get a better view. My cameraman, on the other hand, looked extremely bored.

And then Magni took the stage.

Audience participation during the opening acts impressed me given it was a mall crowd, but this was nothing compared to the arrival of Magni. After being given flowers and the appreciation of the nation of Iceland things got, well, a little crazy. As Á Móti Sól joined him onstage and launched directly into his Rockstar “hit” Fire, the sense of adolescent excitement came to a crescendo. A 12-year-old girl looked to be crushing one of her compatriots in her effort to touch Magni’s leg while he played; another woman attempted to yell above the blasting music, begging for an autograph. The extremely harassed security guard in front of me, stage right, had his work cut out of him in his efforts to hold children back while ordering others to dismount a nearby faux tree, all while more youngsters were streaming underneath the rope barrier behind him to get a view from the rear of the set.

Following what was, frankly, a damn good cover of Fire, Á Móti Sól and Magni began to play some of the band’s older songs. Having read that Icelanders have only a limited conception of fame and are baffled by the idea of mobbing a celebrity, the entire event was a surprising one for me. Nevertheless, the energy of Á Móti Sól almost led one to forget they were playing during broad daylight in a food court. Fan enthusiasm never flagged for their performance and, all in all, it was definitely the mall concert of the year, if not the decade.

Legendary Icelandic supergroup The Sugarcubes announced today that they would reform for a single concert to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of their first single, ‘AMMÆLI’, which was released on November 21, 1986. The celebration will take place November 17 in the Laugardalshöll sports centre and will mark the first time the full Sugarcubes line-up appears together since 1992.

The ‘AMMÆLI’ single was later released as ‘Birthday’ in the UK, immediately reaching the top of the independent charts and thus setting the tone for the global rise of the Sugarcubes and their record imprint ‘Smekkleysa’ (Bad Taste). While neither The Sugarcubes nor Smekkleysa ever fully managed to live (or die) up to their ‘World domination or death’ manifesto, both reached considerable success and went on to spawn the careers of legends such as Björk Guðmundsdóttir, Einar Örn Benediktsson (currently splitting ears under the Ghostigital moniker) and several others. The birthday celebration is sponsored by FL-Group and Icelandair, who plan on marketing package trips to the concert internationally.