This year's programme offers a varied and colourful blend of big and small events in all fields of art; theatre, dance, music, literature and visual arts.

Reykjavík is a city of pure energy and enjoys the best of two worlds: the qualities of a modern, forward looking society, complemented by a close connection to beautiful unspoilt nature. The Reykjavík Arts Festival collaborates with the airline Iceland Express as well as Center Hotels.

The first Reykjavík Arts Festival was held in summer 1970. Ever since then the Festival has been a leading force on the Icelandic cultural scene and has been instrumental in bringing world-class artists to the Icelandic nation.

The dates for the next Reykjavik Arts Festival are out in the air. We kick off on May 12 and close with style on June 5. The programme is in full preparation but will not be made official until March. Sign up for our newsletter and we‘ll keep you updated.

The Spanish‐Icelandic artist duo Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson have been chosen to exhibit on Iceland's behalf at the 54th International Art Exhibition ‐ La Biennale di Venezia 2011.

Reykjavík Arts Festival celebrates its 40 anniversary in 2010. From the very first festival in 1970, it has always stayed true to its original goal of offering the best of the Icelandic and international art scene. Here you can take a look at old festival posters and download booklets from previous festivals.

Singer/songwriter Lhasa de Sela has passed away at the age of 37, succumbed to breast cancer. She moved us deeply with her performances at the Reykjavík Arts Festival last May, which sadly were to be her last, as she was forced to cancel a long international tour scheduled for autumn 2009.

The Festival team is very grateful for the opportunity to get to know her during her visit to Iceland. According to Sela's manager she was happy to have come as she always wanted to perform in Iceland.  The Festival team offers its deepest sympathies to Sela´s family and friends. Her music continues to be an integral part of our lives.

The official Press Release can be downloaded here.

Gift certificates for Reykjavik Arts Festival 2010 are now available for sale at our new office location in Gimli, Lækjargata 3 in downtown Reykjavik.  You can also purchase the certificates online and have them sent to your home. The Festival dates for 2010 are May 12th through June 5th and the program will be proudly announced here at the website early 2010.

Click here to purchase

The dates for the next Reykjavik Arts Festival are out in the air. Next year, we will kick off on May 12 and close with style on June 5. The programme is in full preparation but will not be made official until  the new year.

The final event of the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2009 was a recital by soprano Deborah Voigt. The festival was highly successful and the majority of the 70 events, hosted by over 500 Icelandic and international artists, on the Festival were sold out.

In addition, audiences and critics alike praised the artists.

The Reykjavik Arts Festival hosted STRAY BEACONS, an unconventional art exhibition in four lighthouses around Iceland during spring and summer 2009. The exhibitions are the focus of the article LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS, written by Markus T. Andresson, in the August/September issue of DAMN°, an international review on contemporary culture.

Click here to download the article (455 KB).

Reykjavík Arts Festival's office is closed from July 1 until August 4. For urgent matters please contact Jóhanna Vigdís Guðmundsdóttir executive director at johanna@artfest.is and / or Hrefna Haraldsdóttir artistic director at hrefna@artfest.is.

The final event of the Reykjavik Arts Festival 2009 was a recital by soprano Deborah Voigt. The festival was highly successful this year and remarkably well received by audience and critics alike. Almost all events were sold out.

Reykjavík Arts Festival 2009 hosts an unconventional art exhibition in four lighthouses around Iceland, one in each quarter of the island. Artists have been invited to install their work in the lighthouses that will be open to the public during the summer. Each of the participating artists is quite different from the others, even if they belong to the same generation. A mutual element in their work, however, is a coherent search for innovative ways to relate to their immediate surroundings, society and the audience.   

Deborah Voigt, arguably the leading dramatic soprano singing today, has a gleaming voice that easily soars over the largest Wagnerian orchestra,” states the New York Times. She has sung leading roles in Wagner’;s Tristan und Isolde,Walküre, Fliegende Holländer, Tannhäuser and Lohengrin and in Strauss’;s Ariadne auf Naxos, Die Aegyptische Helena,Elektra, Rosenkavalier, and Salome.

Experience Reykjavík during the preparations for the upcoming Reykjavík Arts Festival by viewing The Guardian's brand new Reykjavík Video Break.  The Festival opend May 15 and will be ongoing until May 31.

Click here to view the video.

Campingwomen, a five large rolling sculptures, by Marit Benthe Norheim, are functional caravans from the 60s and 70s. The torsos of the female figures grow out of the roof so that the caravans function as the women's skirts.  

The travel of the Campingwomen at Reykjavík Arts Festival:

Fri 22.5 - Sólfarið - a sculpture by Sæbraut street

Sat 23.5 - Old Washing Springs in Laugardalur from 1pm

Sun 24.5 - Old Washing Springs in Laugardalur

Mon 25.5 - Old Washing Springs in Laugardalur

Australian street artists, Strange Fruit, and Norwegian Campingwomen will stake their claim to Austurvöllur Square in Reykjavík City Centre this Saturday at 2 and 4 pm, but there will be a number of other events to delight Festival guests in downtown area and elsewhere in the city on Opening Day. By the Reykjavík Pond and in the Gallery 100° the Environmental Health Clinic will emerge and at Gallery i8 Hrafnhildur Arnardóttir opens an exhibition named Vanity Disorder; objects designed from photographs are on display in an exciting exhibition at the Reykjavík Museum of Photography and visual artist Hulda Hákon opens her show at the Akureyri Art Museum. At the Reykjanesbaer Art Museum, Olga Bergmann brings us The House of Pain and the neighbouring gallery Suðsuðvestur hosts an exhibitions by Dutch artist Klaas Kloosterboer.

Next Friday, on 15 May the Reykjavík Arts Festival will begin: a two-week programme of exciting events will take place on the city's streets, in theatres, concert halls, opera houses, art museums and galleries, lighthouses, private homes and selected places in the countryside. The Opening Ceremony will be on 15 May at Kjarvalsstaðir museum, when the exhibition Unuhús and West 8th Street, featuring the art of painters Nína Tryggvadóttir and Louisa Matthíasdóttir, will also be opened. The Reykjavík Arts Festival 2009, which continues until 31 May, will cover art in a wide range of genres. More than 70 events will feature the work of around 500 local and international artists.

The middle of May marks the onset of two weeks of the Reykjavík Arts Festival´s dense and varied program of events which take place on the city´s streets, in theatres, concert halls, art museums and galleries, lighthouses, private homes and selected spots in the countryside.

The forefathers of Brechtian Punk Cabaret, the Tiger Lillies, will have concert on May 29 at the Icelandic opera. They were founded in 1989 and 20 years later, their sound remains one of the most unique and original things you could come across. The Tiger Lillies stood out immediately for their distinct sound and style and worked their way up from  London pubs to the Piccadilly Theatre, from buskers’ benches to the Sidney Opera House. Soon the Tiger Lillies were touring the world giving concerts and participating in various art and theatre projects.

Reykjavík Arts Festival 2009 will be held from May 15 to May 31.  The Festival will be a feast of all art forms, including music, theatre, dance,opera, literature and visual arts.

The Festival is pleased to announce that Hrefna Haraldsdóttir, former Executive Director of the Festival, has formally assumed the role of Artistic Director.

The work Ambra that was premiered at Reykjavík Arts Festival 2008 received recently the Norwegian Critics Price. Ina Christel Johannessen created Ambra for the Iceland Dance Company and Carte Blanche in co-operation with Reykjavík Arts Festival and Bergen International Festival.

As I am now stepping down as a director I would like to thank all of you who have sent regards and greetings. This has been a wonderful time and I will miss you all.

Tonight, June 5 at 7.30 pm, Barði Jóhannsson and Keren Ann Zeidel will get together in a concert with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. The programme covers their individual careers in new symphonic arrangements.

Articles about the Opening Weekend of the Reykjavík Arts Festival have been appearing in respected foreign journals and art magazines recently but quite a few journalists from the foreign press attended the first days of the Festival. Thorough articles have appeared in the newspapers Boston Globe and Wall Street Journal as well as in the art magazines Artnet, Artforum and Art - Das Kunstmagazine.

The Experiment Marathon in the Reykjavik Arts Museum started last Friday and will continue Sunday, May 18 at 10 am and run until 3 pm. During the Marathon the Museum will become a laboratory in which leading artists, architects, film-makers, academics, and scientists create an environment of invention through a series of installations, screenings, performances, and experimental films.

The Reykjavík Arts Festival launched Thursday, May 15. The opening ceremony was broadcast live from the Reykjavik Arts Museum where the Experiment Marathon exhibition was opened at the same time. In the evening, Amiina & Kippi and friends in Wonderland held a magnificent concert in the Museum.

The Reykjavík Arts Festival launches on May 15, 2008 with a groundbreaking series of visual and performing arts programs that will involve most of the city’s exhibition spaces and extend to other locations in Iceland. This year will mark the Festival’s second focus on contemporary visual art, following the critically acclaimed program presented in 2005. It will feature more than 20 exhibitions of nearly 100 Icelandic and international artists, with most exhibitions on view through July or August 2008.

Reykjavik Arts Festival and KlaraFestival van Vlaanderen in Brussels have established an official exchange programme where a project manager from both festivals visits and works for the other festival. In May, Vicky Van Keer, a project manager for the KlaraFestival, will come to Reykajvik to assist with the preparation and organisation for the Reykjavik Arts Festival.

Our recent experience being on tour in Reykjavik was nothing short of a dream come true!  Our dancers are still talking about the spectacular performances, dancing Helgi's ballets, and having the chance to meet so many wonderful Icelanders, and of course, their visit to the magical Blue Lagoon

The Reykjavík Arts Festival launches on May 15, 2008 with a groundbreaking series of visual and performing arts programs that will involve most of the city’s exhibition spaces and extend to other locations in Iceland.