Aldrei Fór Ég Suður, the rock festival that puts them all to shame.

I went last year, and I've raved about it before, but let just rave on a bit more again. Heaps of bands, almost all Icelandic, (I think this year only icelandic) all free, all volunteer, all playing the same 15-20minute set. Get on, play, rock out, get off.

It's an absolutely amazing festival. The vibe is fantastic, it's all in a fish shed by the harbour, though this year they'd upgraded and had some sound dampening on the walls! The crowd is mothers, fathers, rockers, babes in arms, toddlers on shoulders with earmuffs, grandmothers and distant cousins. The music, everything from rap, choral music, reggae, metal and blues right through to straight out arsecaning nosebleed techno.

If you're using the "right" browser, there are two links on the right hand side of the aldrei.is website, under "Beinar Útsendingar" where you can watch the entire show, both friday and saturday on replay. Unfortunately I've not managed to get it downloaded as a single video yet.

This year Wolfgang came along as well, and Chelle flew in to check out the party. We stayed with Lee and Alda as I had last year, which was wonderful. We had a roast lamb one night, and some equally fabulous dinners on other nights. As last year, we went skiing on the first day, and swimming on the other days, visiting Suðureyri and Bolungarvík.

I didn't take any pictures. Just didn't feel like it. But, the couple of pictures I took on the drive back accurately portray how shit the weather was on the drive up. For probably a couple of hours we were lucky if we could see the next set of posts on the road, and were dealing with ever thickening snow on the road. White knuckle driving at 35-40kph.

Til next year!

FIXME - should I include the times I worked out for the bands in the video streams here?