Iceland Airwaves has sadly postponed its festivities for Reykjavik again this year, due to ongoing COVID-19 measures by the Icelandic governments that make the movement and capacity of people in venues economically and logistically unviable for its planned November dates.
The new dates for the festival will be Wednesday, November 2nd through to Saturday, November 5th, 2022.
While Iceland’s cases currently falling, and their vaccination rate currently at 77%, there was hope that Airwaves could welcome international guests, but restrictions show no sign of lifting.
The organisers said:
After several months of no restrictions, followed by a snap lockdown in response to the Delta variant, new measures just delivered by the local authorities see venues capped at up to 500 people (per section), with obligatory assigned seats, guests not allowed to face each other, and mandatory rapid tests for all guests (within 48 hours of the event). All other events (standing and no tests) are to have no more than 200 people in each section.
While increasing the seated limit up to 500 and introducing rapid tests is a step in the right direction, these current restrictions render a multi-venue, multi-capacity, standing event, such as Iceland Airwaves impossible to produce.
Despite Iceland approaching a vaccination rate of over 90%, the Icelandic Government has, to date, not laid out any plan to get large-scale music events started again. It seems these new measures are here for the indefinite future and everything regarding the execution of, and access to the obligatory rapid tests is still unclear. This means that for the time being, planning any all large-scale events in Iceland is not possible.
Even though it is our belief that events like Iceland Airwaves can now be executed in a safe and responsible manner, using all available safety measures, the authorities apparently disagree.
It goes without saying, the team at Airwaves is devastated to have to move the festival for yet another year.
Refunds are available for anyone who cannot attend next year but Airwaves also hope people keep their tickets they say “This announcement not only affects Iceland Airwaves, but ALL events, venues and concert houses, production suppliers and tech crews, airlines, hotels, tourism, and most importantly musicians from both Iceland and abroad. Hanging onto your ticket can provide a lifeline to the Icelandic music industry.”
You can see the bands scheduled to play 2021 here, as many will be reconfirmed.
