Bergmál - Þingvellir, Kaleo and the summer solstice….
20,000 people gathered together in the evening sunshine
A few months ago I began to notice advertisments popping up for a festival to be held at the Þingvellir National Park to celebrate the summer solstice. The festival was called Bergmál, meaning echo (literally Bergmál means a voice or sound from the rock, which is a lovely way to describe the word echo – I do love the Icelandic language!).
When I saw that the headliners were due to be Kaleo, one of my favourite bands, I knew I should get tickets. Kaleo are an Icelandic band who come from the Mosfellsbær area of Reykjavík and whose blues rock style (with folky overtones) has now gained global fame. Funnily enough, Imogen had introduced me to Kaleo´s music on a trip to Iceland and it was only whilst playing it on a road trip along the south coast that we suddenly realised that they weren´t American as we´d thought, but Icelandic! The beautiful setting of Vor í Vaglaskógi came on and, as I drove, I did a double-take as I realised I was listening to Icelandic vocals…. Neither of us had known that they were from Iceland!
It was quite a special prospect to see this hugely popular Icelandic band in such a historic and special Icelandic setting so we grabbed tickets as soon as they became available. Although Matthew and I were originally intending to go, due to him needing to be in the UK in mid-June, Imogen instead decided to grab a flight and come out to have a cheeky long weekend and attend the festival with me, so it became a mum & daughter trip.
We decided to book a night in a cabin near the National Park so as not to have to drive all the way back to Reykjavík after the event. It´s only about an hour and a quarter away, but the prospect of spending all day on our feet, followed by a long drive home (possibly taking very much longer as pretty much everyone there would be heading back to Reykjavík afterwards) wasn´t particularly enticing, and I managed to get a decent last-minute deal on one of our favourite Blue View cabins with a hot tub… Now the prospect of spending all day on our feet at a festival, followed by a glass of something nice whilst soaking in a hot tub was very enticing indeed!! So we ended up making a full weekend of it.
The other special thing about the Bergmál festival is that it is held on the summer solstice, ensuring that, although we knew we would be there until around midnight, the sun wasn´t going to actually set and we would be able to enjoy the atmosphere, fellowship and music beneath the midnight sun.
Saturday 20th of June dawned bright and sunny. Not too hot, because Iceland never is, but nevertheless a glorious day of perfect festival weather. I had booked a parking space in one of the festival car parks and on arrival we were guided into place, and then whisked to the festival location by a free shuttle bus. The organisation was excellent and everything was extremely well run. Once we finally gained entrance into the concert venue area itself, right in the rift valley between the tectonic plates at the very birthplace of the Alþingi parliament, the oldest parliament in the world, we wandered through the food court area towards the stage itself. I can´t begin to describe the feeling of being there in that historic and beautiful place. This landscape is just stunning and the sheer beauty of the valley we were in, surrounded by basalt cliffs, mountains and trees, combined with the sense of history and Icelandic culture, made the day feel very special indeed.
The very different vibes of Kaleo´s two sets - morning and evening
I hadn´t known much about the festival beforehand, and wasn´t expecting anything of the scale that we experienced. We discovered that there were over 20,000 people gathered together in this historic UNESCO World Heritage site. For much of the day it didn´t feel as if there were that many people there, as attendees lounged on the grass on picnic blankets in small family or friendship groups and enjoyed the sun, the party atmosphere and the plentiful food and drink that was on offer in the hospitality area. We watched astounded as the day went on and we saw tray after tray after tray of beers being bought and consumed - alongside many a hip flask of something stronger – and yet, despite being there for some nine and a half hours, we never once saw any trouble or antisocial behaviour. This is what festivals should all be like! Of course, by the time headliners Kaleo hit the stage in the evening everyone was on their feet and the entire place was packed with people.
Unexpectedly, Kaleo not only played the headline slot but also kicked off the main part of the festival at around 2pm with an acoustic set so we got a double concert from them, as well as performances by other Icelandic bands and performers including Mugison, Stuðmenn, Helgi Björnsson, Hjálmar, GDRN and Emilíana Torrini.
Yes, we danced and sang. Yes, we spent a small fortune at the merchandise stand on event t-shirts and sweatshirts, as well as enjoying the delights of festival food, churros etc. The whole event was good natured, with a great atmosphere, an introduction from President Halla Tómasdóttir and even a full Icelandic mens choir. With an audience almost entirely made up of locals, it felt really special. Everything came together; everyone seemed to be smiling, both artists and crowds, the food did not run out, the beer flowed all day and into the night, even the weather was perfect. The forecast a day before had predicted a 60% chance of rain and yet not a single drop fell on this historic landscape where the North American and European continents meet along the fault line of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. As we looked at the mountains around us we were very aware of how very lucky we were to be experiencing the first concert in decades which has been allowed on this hallowed ground.
Interestingly, it seems that the idea of this concert came from Kaleo´s lead singer Jökull Júlíusson (JJ) himself, who had a dream to recapture his childhood memories of being at Þingvellir with his family. The event was promoted beforehand using a home video of a four year old JJ on his dad´s shoulders in the Þingvellir national park, which went viral on social media and ensured a sell-out gig. It somehow seemed to make sense – you only have to watch Kaleo´s videos to see how closely their musical identity is linked with Icelandic nature…. The video for ´Save Yourself´is filmed with them performing on a drifting iceberg that has calved from a melting glacier, the ´Way Down We Go´video was shot deep inside the dormant Þríhnúkagígur volcano and ´Skinny´ was performed right in front of the Fagradalsfjall volcano as it erupted in March 2021….. And so, here we were, at the birthplace of the world´s oldest continuing parliament, the midnight sun sinking towards the peaks of the surrounding mountains, surrounded by locals enjoying what must surely be the most Icelandic of concerts that it would be possible to experience.
The day was fantastic. The unplugged acoustic set that kicked the main concert off was perfectly executed in a chilled, relaxed vibe and each of the other performers brought their own unique take to the day. Of the other acts, my own favourite by far was GDRN, stage name of Guðrun Ýr Eyfjörð Jóhannesdóttir, Icelandic singer/songwriter/actress. If you haven´t come across her, it´s worth checking out her music, a soulful blend of jazz, R&B and pop. You may also know her from the hit Netflix series ´Katla´ in which she starred as Gríma and gained international recognition – also well worth checking out if you haven´t seen it. Several of the performers guested on one another´s sets and it never felt as if there was too long a wait in between acts. The sound system seemed to work faultlessly and all in all it felt as if the entire event went without a hitch. If there were any hitches, we certainly weren´t aware of it! And before we knew it, we were at the main event with Kaleo back on stage for their main set. I didn´t make a note of all the songs played but they seemed to give us pretty much all the hits from across their albums – I wasn´t aware of anything I´d wanted to hear that was missing. And even after the set was finished and they had left the stage with the gathered crowds cheering for more, they came back on and gave us not one but three encore tracks, Vor í Vaglaskógi, Way Down We Go and Rock ´n´Roller. What a night! Nine and a half hours had gone by in what seemed afterwards almost like the blink of an eye!
There were a couple of acts after Kaleo´s main set, just to finish the night off for those die-hards who were not finished partying but we gathered our things together and headed off to get a bus back to the car park. Again, following the crowd that streamed back to the pick up point, everything seemed to be good-natured, friendly and chilled and there was no antisocial behaviour at all. The shuttle buses went back and forth to the car park and before long we were back in our car and heading out of the concert venue. I was glad not to be joining the thousands of people heading back to the capital and before long we were on an almost deserted road to our cabin.
Never has a hot tub been so welcome or felt so good! What a way to end a festival! A hot tub and cold prosecco beats a long drive back to Reykjavík every time! And all that was left was to look forward to a very welcome sleep and lie-in after enjoying a fabulous event in the most beautiful concert setting I have yet been lucky enough to experience. Thank you Iceland!!
