Opening ceremony

Reykjavík Arts Festival will open for the 35th time on Saturday, 30 May, with a day full of exciting and diverse events.

The opening celebration begins at the Reykjavík Art Museum – Hafnarhús, where guests will be treated to excerpts from several festival events, speeches, and light refreshments. At the same time, a retrospective exhibition of works by Karin Sander will be on view. Following this, the Reykjavík School Bands will lead festival guests and city residents to Harpa Square, where the world premiere of the musical work Loftvægi by Samúel Jón Samúelsson will take place. The piece brings together all four Reykjavík school bands, involving nearly 600 young performers.

The premiere of the aerial dance performance The Air Between Us begins at 15:30 at Harpa Square and will be shown again at 17:00. At 17:00, the Iceland Symphony Orchestra will perform one of the largest symphonic works in history, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, while Fischersund presents the festival’s immersive scent world in the greenhouse at Lækjartorg. Exhibitions by James Merry and Björk open at the National Gallery of Iceland at 18:00, and the day concludes with the Reykjavík Arts Festival Club opening party at Iðnó, where the dance performance Move with Pride takes place at 21:00.