The Reykjavík Grapevine has been published in downtown Reykjavík for more than 20 years. For most of that time, its offices have been next door to the “World Famous Hot Dog Stand.” Every day, people drop-in to our office for various reasons...

  Iceland’s Municipality ElectionsElections were held in Iceland’s municipalities last Saturday. These elections take place every four years and unlike parliamentary elections have a wider voting base, since people who don’t have an Icelan...

It’s 8:55 AM the Monday after municipal elections destroyed the left in Reykjavík, and I’m standing outside Háskólabíó holding an oily paper bag with two kleinur waiting for one of Iceland’s most celebrated living writers, Einar Már Guðm...

“New Milestone in Icelandic film premieres at Prague,” was what started my four-month pursuit of the VR film Fallax. Before I could ever actually personally encounter the film, filmmakers Owen Hindley and Nanna Gunnars, working under the company ...

Magnús Jóhann is a very serious composer, and, as very serious composers do, he recently wrote Very Serious Music, his new concerto for Ondes Martenot, piano and orchestra, to premiere at Harpa on the 22nd of May. I met up with Magnús to talk abou...

Björgvin Halldórsson died last month, a week before his 75th birthday. He is the sound of Icelandic Christmas: synth ballads, dramatic key changes, songs that warm the darkest months. Many of them are Italian pop songs he heard on holiday in the 19...

On election night, The Grapevine interviewed candidates from almost all of the parties running in the municipality of Reykjavík. What is relevant in these interviews now, after the ballots have been cast and counted, is what a coalition to rule Reyk...

The Reykjavík Grapevine has been published out of downtown Reykjavík for more than 20 years, with its offices for most of that time next door to the “World Famous Hot Dog Stand.”  In this episode of The Drop-In, Bart Cameron and Jón T...

Two decades ago, the Grapevine ran a stunning advertisement that stated there were now 400,000 tourists in a country of 300,000 people. At that time, we were one of many free newspapers, and we held the singular advantage of presenting information in...

As has been well documented, we have no money here. We do, however, have shoes. On May 16 and 17, we walked eight miles, attended eight election parties, and interviewed as many authorities as possible to determine what the future might hold for Reyk...

“I think everybody has a great relationship with Snæfellsnes, because, when it’s a sunny day in Reykjavík, you see the glacier! It’s associated with something very positive,” Birgit Guðjónsdóttir remarked over a video call this Ma...

Whether you live in Reykjavík or are just visiting, you’ve got to do something on a weekend night — and luckily, we’ve selected a few things you might want to check out. Tonight, Friday, May 15, Kjartan Hugi plays a mostly improvised set on wo...

On May 10, Stjörnugrís pig farm at Kjalarnes was burglarised. Offices were vandalised and pigs were freed from their pens, resulting in the death of at least 10 piglets.  In conversation with Vísir, Stjörnugrís CEO Geir Gunnar Geirsson claimed ...

An AI video posted on the People’s Party’s first chair Guðmundir Ingi Þóroddsson’s TikTok profile was quickly taken down harsh criticism. Among other things, the video featured Guðmundur fistfighting Social Democrat first chair Pétur Marte...

Iceland has resigned from the international Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which facilitates cross-border energy industry co-operation. Enviromental, Energy, and Climate Minister and Social Democrat MP Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson claimed the treaty to be...

Close readers of the Reykjavik Grapevine may notice that while our online summary of the 2026 municipal campaign includes a response from the Pirate Party, our print issue does not, (due to a combination of response timing and tight publication sched...

The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with an (un?)healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Grapevine editor-in-chief Bart Cameron, and Grapevine frien...

In the haze of electoral information, here are the things that stand out Icelandic municipal politics are primarily based on the national party landscape, with most of the major parties campaigning in every municipality. Reykjavík is no exception, a...

Halldór Áskell Stefánsson walked 57 kilometres home from work on May 8, travelling from Reykjavík to Selfoss, reports Vísir. He walked for more than 13 hours. This is the third time Halldór has either walked, cycled, or run between his home an...

Romanian hacker exploited a flaw in the Arion Bank’s system to transfer approximately 160 million ISK to himself, reports Vísir. Arion Bank has since recovered most of the funds. Police in Bucharest arrested a 33-year-old Romanian man on May 6 on ...

The upcoming May 16th elections bring a new Reykjavík council So, you’ve been out of the loop and don’t know who to vote for in the upcoming municipal elections. Can you even vote? What’s this Borgarlína? Is it really a tram? Who is Ari Edwal...

Daði Freyr closed Salurinn’s 2026 Söngvaskáld season One of the capital area’s best-kept secrets in terms of music venues, Salurinn is a part of the Hamraborg cultural complex. Located within a stone’s throw of one another, these facilities ...

“It’s completely clear that everything would be put on the line to keep Iceland from going into the EU. If we did, then everything would be put on the line to get it back out again. I’m not a violent man and I will speak against violenc...

Former first lady of Iceland, Dorrit Moussaieff, shared a picture of herself embracing UK Reform leader Nigel Farage on May 8. The British political party won a en electoral victory in the recent UK council elections, held May 7. In an Instagram post...

Yrsa Roca Fannberg’s The Ground Beneath Our Feet brings an unflinching portrayal of life in its last chapter Outside an old house in Vesturbær, two silver-haired women sit on a bench, bathing in what may be the last of September sun. Inside, dozen...

    “When you enter, like in front of the entrance door, there’s this big phallic sculpture of bodies all placed on top of each other,” Yuki Mik tells me. The musician, artist, Grapevine contributor and now model is describing Wor...

What a week! The new Grapevine is fresh off the press, Sir David Attenborough turns 100, half the town seems to be in Venice for the Biennale opening of the incomparable Ásta Fanney at the Icelandic Pavilion, and DesignMarch has landed with enough e...

Debut LP Samferða weaves lost connections, diary entries, and theatre Anna Róshildur Benediktsdóttir Bøving — Róshildur for short — pulls up to 12 Tónar on a vintage turquoise Bianchi road bike. “I got this off Facebook Marketplace in a...

Studio Brynjar & Veronika takes on Icelandic poplar in a new furniture collection “Nature is somehow gradually ​​moving further away from us. We tend to experience it as something we step into and out of,” says Brynjar Sigurðarson, speak...

Reykjavík stalwart combs life experience with his 10th album, conditioned by experience Without Ægir Sindri Bjarnason, the Reykjavík music scene would be worse for wear. An enduring musician and organiser, Ægir’s efforts have made indelible mar...

For the April issue of the Grapevine, we held a photo shoot with Mayor Heiða Björg Hilmisdóttir. The shoot itself was a scramble, as we wanted a chance to show the mayor in the elements of Reykjavik, and we had limited time and budget. We scrapped...

From hemp houses to sustainable fashion, DesignMarch 2026 connects disciplines, materials, and people Despite it being May on the calendar, DesignMarch is back, once again ignoring its own name and sprawling across Reykjavík and even beyond May 6 to...

Six years after a sale to South Korean company Pearl Abyss, CCP has reached an agreement to bring control of the company back to Iceland. Originally sold to Pearl Abyss for 26 billion ISK, management has reported that they were able to buy control ba...

Sigur Rós are among the musical acts performing at Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday celebration, slated May 8. In honour of the natural historian’s centenary, Royal Albert Hall will play host to the festivities.  Sigur Rós is claimed to...

Iceland Innovation Week runs from 27 to 30 April, and, if opening day is any indication, the organisers are not messing around. The event has been going for a few years now. Its premise is simple enough: bring Iceland’s startup and investment c...

New information has been made public regarding the murders at The Edition hotel in Reykjavík in June 2025. Yesterday, the woman arrested at the scene was charged with the manslaughter of her daughter, allegedly acting together with her husband, repo...

On Sunday, April 26, search and rescue teams found a dead man near Háifoss waterfall in Skeiða- og Gnjúpverjahreppur, South Iceland. The South Iceland police announced the news in a statement.  Around 19:00, the police received a report about an ...

Grindavík and Hveragerði, two towns in southwest Iceland, are located in areas classified at the highest hazard level in a new risk assessment by the Icelandic Met Office, reports Vísir. The data comes from reports published by the Met Office last...

Happy Friday, everyone! Though our weather isn’t exactly exhibiting it, it is now officially summer. If you’re finding it difficult to focus at work after having yesterday off, well, you’re not alone. Thanks for checking out the Gra...

Eleven years ago today, the Westfjords district commissioner repealed the local decree permitting the killing of Basques in the Westfjords. The decree dated to 1615. Three Basque whaling ships were wrecked in a storm off the coast in September of tha...

According to a new survey by the Housing and Construction Authority (HMS), 60 percent of people oppose densification in their local environment, with 20 percent in favour. Out of all age groups, people aged 25-34 are most likely to be in favour of de...

The No Music for Genocide campaign has published an open letter calling for a boycott of the Eurovision Song Contest over the decision to allow Israel to participate. 123 Icelandic musicians have signed the letter. The letter was prepared in collabor...

A mandarin duck was spotted at the Hamarkotslækur pond in Hafnarfjörður yesterday, according to Vísir. “This is such a beautiful bird that it’s always a pleasure to see it again and again,” birdwatcher Sveinn Jónsson, who photographed the ...

This Saturday, Denmark’s oldest newspaper, Berlingske Tidende, ran a story it had been working on for months. The topic: the Icelandic fisheries industry. The conclusion: Iceland is an oligarchy. Berlingske’s story sites numerous Icelandic source...

A man in Reykjanesbær was ruled to pay a 100.000 ISK fine after expressing hate speech online, RÚV reports.  In a comment to a Vísir news story, the offender said that the “German showers” needed to be revived because of asylum seekers, and t...

Beauty Through Abrasion Múm member, Nordic Council Music Prize Winner, and tour-de-force composer Gyða Valtýsdóttir released her latest album Mother Pearl on March 20. Drawing on philosophical inspiration, Mother Pearl is possibly Gyða’s most ...

Reykjavík City Council has approved a proposal to revive the Music Venue Improvement Fund, with 10 million ISK to be distributed this year, RÚV reports. The aim is to strengthen live music venues downtown. A task force on live music in Reykjavík p...

If you’re looking for something fun to do in Reykjavík this weekend, you’re in the right place! Today (April 17), at 18:00, Edda Karólína Ævarsdóttir opens her solo exhibition Allt fram streymir at Herma. Through large-scale wooden ...

As reported by RÚV, the likelihood of jet fuel diminishing increases as each day of the Hormuz Strait closure. AFP News claimed that fuel reserves in Iceland, Britain and the Netherlands were limited.  In conversation with RÚV, CEO of Skeljungur �...

Early music in Iceland is new: this week was only the third edition ever of the annual Early Music Festival in Reykjavik. From 31 March to 2 April, just before the Easter weekend, Baroque ensembles, lutenists and surprisingly even a cornettist-turned...