Festivals in Reykjavík

Festivals in Reykjavík – It’s All Happening in Reykjavík City

Reykjavík City is buzzing with activity all year around. A number of annual festivals and seasonal events attract festivalgoers from all around the world. Apart from the city’s superb official events, such as the winter lights festival and Cultural night, there’s also a host of film festivals, design events, music festivals, and other events celebrating everything from the arrival of summer to the city’s wealth of culture.

Reykjavík Loves Festivals

Reykjavík Winter Lights Festival

Iceland can get dreary during the darkest months, especially February. The Winter Lights Festival was created to stimulate the city life in mid-winter, and was intended not only to combat the darkness but to celebrate the unique subarctic nights. Over the years the Winter Lights festival has evolved into an incredibly fun four-day festival with an array of great events, such as the Museum Night and Pool Night.

Reykjavík International Film Festival

RIFF takes place every year in late September for eleven days. RIFF is an independent non profit organization. The festival shows a wide range of dramas and non-fiction films from over 40 countries. It highlights independent filmmaking from all over the world, with a special emphasis on up-and-coming filmmakers. RIFF encourages the interaction of film with other art forms by organizing concerts, photo exhibitions and more.

Design March

A celebration of Icelandic design, showcasing the best creations of the Reykjavík design scene. The scene is small and itimate, which means you’ll get the chance to meet all the stars of local design. From fashion to furniture, architecture to food design, the festival presents the best of the local designers alongside exciting international names. For four days Reykjavík is transformed into a mega venue hosting hundreds of openings, events, exhibitions and parties.

Rainbow in Iceland's waterfall. Photo by Olga

Illumination of the Imagine Peace Tower of Videy Island

Yoko Ono’s Imagine Peace Tower is an extraordinary dedication to John Lennon and his vision of world peace installed on Videy Island on October 9th 2007, this stunning work of art is lit annually on Lennon’s birthday. The powerful super-beam of light reaches approximately 400 metres into the sky on a clear night and illuminates the skies above Reykjavík nightly until the anniversary of Lennon’s death on 8 December. Every year, Yoko invites visitors on a complimentary ferry trip to the island to take part in the beautiful illumination ceremony.

Reykjavík’s Children Culture Festival

A week-long festival dedicated to children’s art and culture. Children’s culture, culture for children and culture with children, these are the three main aspects of the festival. Dedicated exclusively to children and young people in Reykjavík up to the age of 16, the annual festival strives to introduce a wide range of art disciplines to Icelandic youth, through the medium of workshops and performances.

Reykjavík Arts Festival

RAF focuses on new commissions and the creative intersection of the arts. It brings together major cultural venues and unconventional spaces throughout the city in exhibitions and performances of contemporary and classical works, presented to a wide audience. The festival is one of Northern Europe’s oldest, and promotes Icelandic and international culture in all fields of art, bringing together the best in local and international theatre, dance, music, and visual art.

Reykjavík Pride

This colourful events brings tens of thousands of people into the city center every year to show solidarity and show fun with the LGBT+ community of Reykjavík. People of all genders, friends, relatives and a fast growing number of tourists, come together to celebrate and support universal human rights. One cosy little pride parade, originally visited by some fifteen hundred onlookers, has blossomed and evolved into a colourful six-day celebration that attracts up to 100 thousand guests from all over the world.

Reykjavík Culture Nights

Takes place all across Reykjavík with celebrations in city streets and squares, in museums, businesses and even in residential gardens. The event’s slogan « come on in » is a reference to those old good fashioned customs of hospitality. Culture Night is a permanent fixture in the annual calendar of events in Reykjavík and marks the start of the city’s cultural year, when museums, theaters and other cultural institutions launch their annual program of events.

Iceland Airwaves

A critically acclaimed music festival showcasing the hottest new international bands and the best up-and-coming Icelandic artists. It started out as a one-off gig in an airplane hangar back in 1999, with only 5 bands, but now it has established itself as one of the hippest events on the international music festival calendar. The festival attracts thousands of visitors from around the world, who come in search of some fresh audio dynamite and an adventure at edge of the Arctic Circle