I dag inleds Islands mest lokalpatriotiska festival Aldrei fór ég suður (Jag flyttade aldrig söderut) i Ísafjörður. Under två dagar spelar 35 artister i en gammal fiskfabrik vid hamnen. Bakom arrangemanget står eldsjälarna Mugison och Muggur samt omkring 80 funktionärer. Flera tusen personer brukar besöka gratisfestivalen.Bland artisterna som uppträder i år finns både etablerade namn som Sprengjuhöllin och Mugison, hyllade löftet Hjaltalín samt Bob Justman, Retro Stefson, XXX Rottweilerhundar, Sign, SSSól, Mysterious Marta, Megas og Senuþjófarnir, Dísa, Hraun, Morðingjarnir, Skakkamanage, Karlakórinn Ernir með Óttari Proppé, Múgsefjun, Johnny Sexual, Ben Frost, Abbababb, Sudden weather change, Vax, Vilhelm, Hellvar, Hjálmar, Biogen, Skátar, Ultra mega teknóbandið Stefán, Steintryggur, Lára Rúnarsdóttir (bilden), Benny Crespos gang, Flateyrar-rapp och Hálfkák.
Så här berättar Mugison om festivalens tillkomst:
"Me and papamug were drinking beer in London in the summer of 2003 while we were enjoying a music festival at the ICA. We started to imagine a festival in our little town located on the westest part of Iceland. We imagined that we would do a festival were local workers would sing, dj and entertain as they were the main attraction and we would get the biggest name in Icelandic music seen to support them. When we woke up the idea was still there so we called up some friends and to our surprise everybody was up for it. A guy called Ragnar (the singer in Trabant) loved the idea, he got everybody involved, we even talked to Bjork when we meet her down town when we were drunk... She said we were cutie pies and for a long time we thought that was yes..."
Även barerna Krúsin och Langi Mangi fyller påskhelgen i Ísafjörður med musik.
Aldrei fór ég suður, som arrangeras för femte året i rad, tilldelades i januari utmärkelsen Eyrarrósin för att ha främjat det isländska kulturlivet på landsbygden. Läs mer om det här.
Hela festivalen är tänkt att sändas via nätet från 18.00 i kväll, så håll utkik på hemsidan.
Foto: www.myspace.com/lararunars
