It has started – one of the coolest festivals in Iceland, Secret Solstice 2015. It began yesterday at noon and as I claimed my festival pass at around three o’clock I could see people starting to arrive with their camping equipment and everyone seemed super excited.
As I finished work at 9 PM and hurried to the festival site, I could see the last of the family people with kids leaving and groups of young people arriving. I love how creative people seem to be getting with clothing, hair and accessories this year; I could see Buffalo shoes, colorful patterns, hair in all colors and a lot of face decorations (rhinestones and tattoos) and everyone still fitted in – a very cool mix of hundreds of different people.
Anyways, I didn’t get there until 9:30 or so but just in time to see Gus Gus perform. Gus Gus is an Icelandic band know for their dance friendly electronic music. I’ve seen them a few times in various festivals in Iceland over the last few years and I am never, ever disappointed – they are so good on stage! It’s not a sure thing that a band sounds as good on stage as it does when you listen to a studio recording but they nail it every time. The sound system did die on them mid-performance but they kept up the fun atmosphere that had formed during their performance. When the system was up and running they finished like the champs they are!
Next up I went with a friend to check out her brother’s band; Shades of Reykjavík. It’s not what I think of as my cup of tea, rapping about drugs, sex etc. But (!) they were by far the biggest surprise I’ve ever encountered when it comes to listening to new bands. The music was fun to listen to (the lyrics were a bit too much though) and they created this insanely good atmosphere.
We then went one of to the most anticipated performances of the festival – Kelis! She was soooo good! Myself and Jóhanna, another What’s On employee, were 2 meters away from her and were kind of star struck. The crowd went absolutely crazy when she began and especially when she performed the song ,,Milkshake”. I was thrilled about Kelis’s performance.
Unfortunately those were all the performances I saw last night as I had an early morning today but this was a fantastic start to the weekend – can’t wait for the rest!
