Festival Spotlight: Iceland Airwaves

Posted by Marya Mclaughlin on Jun 8, 2011 01:27 PM
Marya Mclaughlin
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The Iceland Airwaves festival is known for its intimacy and party spirit. 5,000 festival passes are sold each year with an additional 2,000 - 3,000 people purchasing day passes. 7,000 - 8,000 people attend the festival per day. Also, since Iceland Airwaves is a showcase festival, it attracts hundreds of journalists and music industry professionals from around the world, especially from the US, UK, Scandinavia, Germany and France. The 13th annual Iceland Airwaves festival will take place in various venues all over downtown Reykjavik from October 12-16, 2011. We recently caught up with Nive Nielsen & The Deer Children, who told us all the ins and outs of the festival from her experience playing last year.

Why did you submit to Iceland Airwaves 2010?

I heard about the festival from friends who attended (as audience) and they kept saying how this was just an amazing event. I'd been to Iceland before as a tourist and loved it there. So any chance to go back would be something I'd jump on. Then it turned out that Iceland Airwaves IS in fact an amazing festival. I went there hoping to find people to work with in the west-Nordic countries, being from Greenland myself, so I applied hoping to get in touch with local promoters and/or label people, which is precisely what happened!

What did you do to prepare for the festival?

I learned how to tune my guitar myself. Also, I checked out what other artists where playing, got in touch to share gear and stuff, which worked out well. I contacted the organizers about off-festival gigs and they set me up with a bunch of contacts for additional shows (they too turned out to be super cool). And I bought a new bathing suit since I simply had to go to the hot springs!

Tell us a bit about your festival experience.

It was absolutely amazing. Super fun and wildly chaotic, too - but that may have had to do with us partying a wee bit much with our new Icelandic friends. My main show was at a great club called Idno, with cool sound, a lot of people, chill staff. The event was well promoted, I got a lot of press and interviews both for Icelandic and international media, and I sold a bunch of merch. It was great. The off-festival shows were awesome also. We played in a tiny record store at 11 in the morning with the hugest hangover ever, and people kept bringing me coffee on stage. Fun times! Saw a bunch of other bands - the line-up was super cool by the way - and met a lot of nice folks. I can only recommend Iceland Airwaves, and I sure hope we get to play there again!

Did you meet any influential people there? How has Iceland Airwaves influenced your career?

We got ourselves a record deal in Iceland, which was amazing! We got to go back to Iceland and play some amazing shows. We met some festival bookers who booked us for their own festivals after seeing us. Yeah, it was pretty good.

Can you give other artists submitting to Iceland Airwaves some advice?

Well I 'd say definitely apply. There are a lot of festivals around the world but not so many chances to go to Iceland so that alone is worth it. And as I said, this festival, the organizers, the staff, the audience - it's all really cool. I found that planning way ahead, especially when it came to lodging and travel, really helps keeping (high) costs down. And by Googling the off-festival program of the previous years you can easily find out where you can book yourself a second or third show. Also, be sure to pack a warm jacket!

Iceland Airwaves is open for submissions now! Submit here.





















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