Eistnaflug - Flight of testicles

Here u go, a small report from Eistnaflug a week ago, brought to you by the guest writer Carga! Check out also her blog!

Festival time! Most of the metalheads, punks and rockers in Iceland had gathered to the small fjord town of Neskaupsstadur for the local metal festival, Eistnaflug. And smelling a good party, we followed in their wake.

How do you recognize a typical icelandic metalhead? He is gnawing a piece of dried fish and washing it down with a bottle of he local booze called brennivin. He is wearing the traditional woolen jumper or cardigan over a band t-shirt and might or might not be wearing pants. Most likely not, if he's in the moshpit. This species is extremely resistant to cold and rainy weather and to general exhaustion. When they finally collapse and do sleep, they curl up in a tent (or under a table at the venue and even onstage). In the afternoon large flocks of them can be seen floating around the outdoor hot tubs in the local outdoor pool.

Plastic Gods. It was actually a good gig after he woke up.

Eistnaflug, gotta love this small festival! Well, you can't really go wrong with a festival called 'Flight of testicles' but we were amazed at how good some of the local bands were. Every day about 10-15 bands performed and everyday we discovered one or two real gems among them. And not just because we were watching them through beer goggles...

The festival venue was not the best we've seen, a bit too hot and a bit too sterile with a bit too expensive booze. The nearby off-venue called Mayhemisphere was quite the opposite, cold and smoky and dirty – a true underground atmosphere. The (illegal) bar was a small candle-lit corner with quite an interesting selection of drinks. Mmmm, a paper cup of vodka mixed with rhubarb juice or beer spiced with caffeine! Some of the performances we saw in Mayhemissphere were quite underground, too; how about two men dressed as turfs of grass fighting each other in slow motion in the rhythm of weird tribal music?

Solstafir at Mayhemisphere

Anyhow, most of the time we spent at the official venue. Solstafir played two nights in a row on both venues. The official gig was brilliant (not that we expected anything less from them) but the one in the off-venue was probably the most hypnotic, intimate and weird Solstafir gig one could hope for.

All in all, we left Eistnaflug hung over, happy and poorer than we arrived with some new albums and t-shirts from the local bands. Skál!

- Carga a.ka Tanja

Emil joined the festival too.