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.