Eistnaflug – The Most Brilliant Festival in the World

I have been collecting festival and concert experiences throughout the world for many years. Many great memories are linked to the different festivals, and I made lots of great experiences and friends at the different locations. In this way, it came that I have been reporting now for many years from the Wacken Open Air, the biggest Heavy Metal festival of the world (since 2001), and wrote several articles about it, so I have a lot of experience with a festival that can turn a whole village upside down once a year.

As music is one of my biggest passions, it is not the only one to me. For many years now, I have had a really intimate relationship with Northern Europe, especially with Iceland. Not only musically, but also its people and the incredible nature are reasons for my close relationship to Iceland. For 14 times now I have been traveling around in this beautiful country, and every visit I feel more and more linked to it. In 2014, I decided to visit the Eistnaflug festival in the east fjords of Iceland for the first time. Similar to the situation in Wacken, the festival is taking place in an extremely exposed location in a remote valley, right in the middle of the small town of Neskaupstaður, with about 1500 inhabitants, which is almost doubled every year in July by festival visitors.
From all over Iceland and many countries around the world, music enthusiasts travel to this remote town, accessible only via a small single-track tunnel, situated at 700 meters above sea level, to listen to a wide range of rock and metal.

Already in 2014, I was impressed by the overall atmosphere. As soon as you pass the adventurous tunnel, which has no equal, you get an incredibly beautiful view around the magnificent mountain landscape that stretches to the seacoast. After some kilometers of driving, you reach the city sign of Neskaupstaður. The festival has two campsites to offer, a family campsite and one for everyone who wants to celebrate into the night without end.

Last year, we decided to choose the party campsite and pitched up our tents. After around 15 minutes of walking, we reached the actual festival ground, which – due to the Icelandic weather conditions – consists of a large sports hall.

In 2014, the festival took place in a nice little hotel; this year, the festival operator was clever enough to change this location and move the festival into a much larger hall. If I look back at this decision, it was the right one. Contrary to many German festivals, the operator of the Eistnaflug festival and his crew did a really fantastic job; to make it short, I have rarely seen such a well-organized and yet so relaxed festival. At this point, let me say thank you so much for the really easy and quick handling of my wishes. For me, something typically Icelandic is one of many reasons why I feel so connected to this country.
After we got the usual festival wristband, we learned that this year, a kind of garbage and toilet fee was charged, which gave us another ribbon. Fully understandable in my view.

After the first beer, we met up with our Icelandic friends, Hallveig and Jón, who had traveled over from Reykjavík. Together, we started the festival with a really brilliant band, with Kontinuum. Standing in the first row, we really enjoyed our first band of the evening.

After having a pizza, we reached the hall again, right in time to see Carcass. This UK band was one of the few foreign bands that were invited to play this exclusive festival this year. With their Grindcore and Death Metal mixture, Carcass started heating up the hall, which brought the first rows right into motion. The first people started shaking their hair in the air while Carcass played its set, which mainly featured classic songs.

After a few more beers, it was time for the band of the evening. My favorite one and not only mine: Sólstafir. As soon as Aðalbjörn and Co hit the stage, the audience began to cheer and celebrate the band. There is really not much to write about Sólstafir. Anyone who has ever experienced this brilliant band live will understand what I mean. Aðalbjörn has the unique gift to cast his audience right from the beginning under his spell. This charismatic frontman, along with the incredibly atmospheric sound and the hall’s very good acoustics, made the concert a truly memorable experience. When Sólstafir started playing their awesome song “Fjara” and the entire hall began singing along, the atmosphere was at its absolute peak.

A perfect festival day was coming to an end, and we crept into our cold sleeping bags. Late at night, I dozed off, the songs of the party animals on the campsite in my ears.

When I woke up at 10 o’clock in the morning and felt the fresh, but dry air, I turned once more around in my warm sleeping bag and enjoyed being able to sleep some more. After the tent was packed together – unfortunately, this was our last day at the festival, because our flight home again came nearer and the route to Reykjavik was far – we met at 11 o’clock with Hallveig and Jón for a late breakfast and decided to drive to the neighboring town of Eskifjörður and go out for a cup of coffee and to visit the local sailor museum.

Just in time for “Lights On The Highway” we returned to the festival hall. The Icelanders, who describe their music as “A Little Bit Of Everything,” rocked the stage and were the perfect introduction for the festival today.

“The Vintage Caravan” entered as the next band on the festival stage and provided with their outfits and stylings some nice variety. Pressed into tight ladies’ clothes with nylon pantyhose, they jumped around like rubber balls on the stage and rocked it. Barely a minute, they treated themselves to a standstill, so it came up that the time of their performance flew by.

Vallenfyre from the UK offered after a little contrast program. The band of the former bassist of Paradise Lost attended with their old school Death Metal for the movement in the audience.

Since this did not really suit my taste in music, we took the opportunity for a visit to the merchandise stand and the ingenious hamburger car. With a beer and a cup of coffee, the time passed very quickly, and it was time for Dimma.

The local heroes from Iceland had already won their audience with their entrance on stage. Singer Stefán impressed with his clear and beautiful voice, accompanied by Dimma’s own sound. Not only vocally, but also from the stage show, Dimma convinced me absolutely, especially guitarist Ingo, who surprised me again and again with his acrobatic shows. As a hint for all visitors to Reykjavík, I would like to mention that bass player Silli owns a really great bar in the city center called “Skúli Craft Bar“, which I was able to test extensively thanks to Jón.

Inquisition from the United States attended with corpse paint and icy Black Metal sound a completely different atmosphere. The two member’s band played their set without major ups and downs, typical Black Metal with only a few special features.

Enslaved was next to Skálmöld, the band of the day for me. For a long time, I have loved the music and the albums of the Norwegian metal band of the first hour. Enslaved has to offer one special thing besides its brilliant music: charisma. Especially, singer Ivar and guitarist Grutle ensure that the listener does not get bored for a single minute. Enslaved’s musical mixture of clean vocals, scolding Black Metal vocals, melodic passages, and hard-hitting riffs, paired with lyrics that tell primarily from the Norse mythology, pulled me long ago under its spell, and they did it again this time. Time, unfortunately, passed by very quickly, especially as my two favorite songs, “Ethica Odini” and “Allfaðr-Odinn,” were played.

With the last band of the evening, the end of this year’s Eistnaflug festival, and the departure for our trip back to Reykjavík came closer for us.
But still, the anticipation for Skálmöld was huge. Above all, I was happy about seeing singer Björgvin again, as a loose friendship connects me with him, which has lasted for several years, and in which we meet once a year at festivals around the world. So it really pleased me when Björgvin saw me and greeted me in the photo pit.

Usually, Skálmöld start their show at full power, and so they did on the Eistnaflug 2015 festival. The very numerous audience gave props to Skálmöld with loud choruses, flying hair, and a lot of action. You could really see and feel how much fun Skálmöld had on stage, and exactly this mood spread around in the hall like a wildfire.

All too soon the show ended, and after an extensive goodbye, we went on the road again to manage all the way to Reykjavik, while we were really sad that we had to leave the festival one day earlier.

Practical things

For all those of you whom I was able to infect with my enthusiasm for this unusual festival, here are some more details:
We have the festival always associated with a tour around the island or into the Icelandic highlands. In this way, you can experience the natural scenery and the hospitality of Icelanders properly and enjoy both of them. The contrast between nature and festival, which is actually not a contrast, but two closely linked things, makes this combination so interesting.

The way over to Neskaupstaður from Reykjavík – when you drive over the north route – is around 715 kilometers. To arrive safely, it will be best to split this almost 9-hour drive into at least two stages. The Icelandic nature is so beautiful and varied that you should even take some more time for this drive.

The three days of the festival cost about 150 euros. For a four-day festival, this is a really good price.
Since alcohol in Iceland is very expensive, you should plan for it in your budget.

A good car rental, a good tent, and above all a good sleeping bag will make your stay a lot more comfortable.

For those who need more information here are the most important links:
The festival pages:

• Eistnaflug on the web
• Eistnaflug on Facebook

And last but not least feel free to contact me at:

• My personal website
• Rising Darkness

All in all, I really know one thing: Eistnaflug, we will see each other again next year!