Iceland Airwaves

Last week I had the opportunity to visit Iceland' s biggest music festival: Iceland Airwaves. It's a chance for Icelandic and international musicians to perform all over Reykjavik. It lasted for five days and it's my kind of festival; I didn't have to camp and could end each night in my own bed!

There was only one downside to this festival though. It happened to be during the week I got a stinking cold and sinusitis and I'm not sure that I made the most of it like I would have any other week. I still had an amazing time though!

The highlight of the first night was seeing Retro Stefson and FM Belfast playing in Harpa, Reykjavik's new concert hall. They created a fantastic atmosphere and the only word I can think of to describe these acts is crazy: crazy in a very good way! I also got the opportunity to see a lot of bands I've never heard of and I have to say, it's amazing how much talent Iceland has for such a small country.

The second day I got to see something a bit different: an Icelandic musician, Olafur Arnalds, playing with the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. It was beautiful and felt perfect in the main hall of Harpa.

Sorry for blurry pictures!

Another highlight of the festival for me was seeing Sin Fang, an Icelandic singer who I had listened to a lot before coming to Iceland. It sounds very cheesy but I remember listening to the song 'Young Boys' and feeling so exciting that it wouldn't be long until I was going on my year abroad adventure so it felt very special seeing it performed live.

But now for the main event: Kraftwerk! On Friday, me and three friends queued for two and half hours in Harpa to get tickets. It was actually really fun and we were able to sit on the floor (five minutes later and we would have been standing out in the cold!) whilst eating cake and drinking coffee. We got tickets and when we turned up for the show on Sunday night we discovered we were actually in the second row! I think maybe these seats were seen as slightly inferior because the 3D would not work so well (yes, we had to wear 3D glasses!) but considering 3D never seems to work well for me anyway, this wasn't a problem. The band members stood perfectly still at their keyboards without saying a word to the audience except for 'Thank you. Auf wiedersehen, goodnight' at the end. But this just added to the enigma of Krafwerk! It was a truly bizarre but brilliant show!

Autobahn!