Shop Workers’ Weekend – Your Guide to Verslunarmannahelgi and Þjóðhátíð 2026

In the first weekend of August, Iceland celebrates a long weekend Icelanders call Verslunarmannahelgi (“Shop Workers’ Weekend”). This is based around Commerce Day, a  public holiday on the first Monday of August – 3 August in 2026.

The idea of commerce day is that it’s a holiday for shop workers, but ironically these days the stores stay open, the rest of the country gets the day off and the only people working are the shop workers!

Much of the country decamps to an outdoor festival somewhere for it. If you’re in Iceland that weekend, here’s what’s on — starting with the biggest of them all.

Friday 31 July – Monday 3 August 2026 · Herjólfsdalur, Heimaey

Þjóðhátíð (“National festival”) is the most famous of Iceland’s long-weekend festivals, held in Herjólfsdalur — a grassy natural bowl ringed by cliffs on Heimaey, the main island of the Westman Islands. It’s one of the country’s oldest festival traditions, celebrated annually since 1916 but tracing its roots all the way back to 1874. Over the weekend it usually draws a crowd of about fifteen thousand people – more than triple the Westman Islands’ population of just over four thousand.

What makes it Þjóðhátíð isn’t just the lineup — it’s the ritual. The valley fills with white tents for the weekend, and the programme is built around a bonfire, a large fireworks display, and its emotional centrepiece: the Sunday-night Brekkusöngur (“Hill-song”), a mass hillside singalong lit by thousands of red flares. A new festival song (“Þjóðhátíðarlag”) is commissioned each year and becomes the soundtrack to the weekend. This year’s song is called Flugeldar (“Fireworks”) and is performed by Birgitta Haukdal, Eurovision alum, and rapper Herra Hnetusmjör.

It’s a ticketed, camping-style festival with a big-name Icelandic bill.

The lineup at the time of writing (subject to change) includes highlights such as:

• Friday: the 2026 þjóðhátíðarlag premieres, performed by Birgitta Haukdal and Herra Hnetusmjör. After the bonfire at 11pm,  Retro Stefson and XXX Rottweiler and Gísli Pálmi will perform.
• Saturday: Aron Can, Friðrik Dór and Herra Hnetusmjör, with the fireworks display at midnight.
• Sunday:
  • 14:30: Latibær (LazyTown) plays the children’s programme.
  • 8pm: the Gosar house band with Pálmi Gunnarsson, then Brekkusöngur led by Ágúst Brynjarsson. Flares at midnight, followed by Birnir.

Getting there: Heimaey is reached by the Herjólfur car ferry from Landeyjahöfn on the south coast, or by a short domestic flight. Both fill up for the long weekend, so book well ahead.

• You can also combine your festival experience with some tours and experiences in the Westman Islands 

Friday 31 July – Sunday 2 August 2026 · downtown Reykjavík

It’s difficult to explain what an innipúki is. An inside-demon? It’s what you call a child who doesn’t want to play outside (which I imagine is not the insult it used to be back in my day). The joke is that the rest of the nation is camping in all weathers in the countryside, singing on the hillside in the rain in Vestmannaeyjar, but we hip and cool Reykjavík people don’t want to mess with all that, so we will stay inside cozy music venues and go to sleep in our own beds. It’s an ironic humble-brag about how we are too cool to go to Þjóðhátíð.

That should tell you what the vibe is – a downtown Reykjavík indie and alternative music festival for people who’d sooner spend the long weekend in the city’s small venues than in a muddy field. It’s an intimate, locally focused affair, leaning on Icelandic indie, alternative and up-and-coming acts at Austurbæjarbíó, a historic cinema and concert venue. If you’re staying in the capital, this is your long-weekend festival.

The lineup announced so far is a mix of newer and more familiar names, some of the better known includes FM Belfast, Emmsjé Gauti, Retro Stefson, GDRN and gugusar.

• Reykjavík is the perfect launch pad for all sorts of other cool activities too, check out the selection here!

Þjóðhátíð may be the biggest, but the August long weekend is genuinely a nationwide event — different regions host their own outdoor family festivals, and much of Iceland spends the weekend at a campsite somewhere. Two of the largest are worth knowing about:

Neistaflug — Neskaupstaður (East Iceland)

Thursday 31 July – Sunday 2 August 2026

Over in the Eastfjords, the small fishing town of Neskaupstaður holds Neistaflug (“Flying sparks”), a family festival celebrated since 1993. It opens with a Thursday-night concert featuring some of Iceland’s biggest names and runs through neighbourhood parades, markets and children’s events, before closing with a singalong and a fireworks display on the Sunday night. It’s a town celebration first and a music festival second — but the concert bill is real.

• If you are in the area, you have lots of options for activities in East Iceland too!

Ein með öllu — Akureyri (North Iceland)

Thursday 30 July – Monday 3 August 2026 · Akureyrarvöllur

Akureyri, the largest town in the north, throws one of the country’s best-attended long-weekend festivals. Its name — which translates to “One with everything” — is a nod to the Icelandic hot dog ordered með öllu. (Side note: “everything” means something different – and horrible – in the north than in the south. I heard they put red cabbage on it? Anyway I refuse to look it up.)

In 2026 the festival spreads across town — the funfair, food trucks and family programming centre on Akureyrarvöllur, a large open ground in the heart of Akureyri, with more going on downtown around Ráðhústorg and out in the Kjarnaskógur woods. The big free closing concert (Sparitónleikar) is on Sunday evening, 2 August, headlined by Páll Óskar, one of Iceland’s best-loved pop performers. Also featured are Bríet, Herra Hnetusmjör, Aron Can, Kristmundur Axel, Laddi og Hljómsveit mannanna and Dynjandi, with secret guests still to be announced. The concert ends around midnight with a fireworks display.

There’s also a separate ticketed “Stadium” concert on 1 August (staged by radio station FM95BLÖ), which features Úlfur Úlfur, Birnir, Jóhanna Guðrún, Sverrir Bergmann, Bent, Ragga Gísla, Saint Pete, Daniil, Gemil and DJ Muscleboy.

For a bit of local colour, the weekend even opens on the Thursday with a “summer dresses and prosecco run” (Sumarkjóla & Freyðivínshlaup) out in Kjarnaskógur. If you’re driving up, camping is at Hamrar next to the woods, and Strætó runs extra services across the weekend.

Can you believe it, we have lots of tours in the North as well! 

• See also: Upcoming music festivals in Iceland 2026