FESTIVAL SPOTLIGHT: Norðanpaunk
DIY at the end of the world!
It is telling that the last couple of festivals that we’ve set our sights on (SÁTAN being the previous one) happen in the apparently unlikely setting that is Iceland, which is really not so unlikely anymore given the importance that little country lost in the middle of the Atlantic up there has gained in the underground scene. Just a couple of decades ago this would be impossible to even imagine, but the truth is that talent is just hard to contain when it spews forth in the quantity that it does, especially given the proportions (it’s a 382,000 people country), from that scene. The legendary Eistnaflug has a lot to answer for in this current state of things - a little festival that happened (the last edition was in 2022) in the remotest-of-the-remote town of Neskaupstaður, that nevertheless, through some brilliant know-how and choice of relevant people, managed to serve as an amplifier to artists that are now pretty much household names in the underground and even beyond. The famous Icelandic black metal scene first got its taste of international attention there, for example - the very first Úlfsmessa took place at an abandoned factory just off-site -, The Vintage Caravan, still teenagers, blew away a little bunch of very well-connected international journalists en route to Eistnaflug, and even an old local classic like HAM was rediscovered pretty much through the eyes of the international press that gathered at that event.
As more of us hacks investigated just what the hell do these people put in the water up there, the more bands and micro-scenes kept leaping at us, and soon a lot of spotlights were shining on the little island, and have been ever since, and the development has been a wonder to behold. Now it seems that every week we get a promo of a new Icelandic band, from black metal to punk, from death metal to rock, and this vibrancy is reflected in the quantity - and quality - of underground events that have sprung up there as well. One of the coolest ones is undoubtedly Norðanpaunk, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary already this year, once again with a completely DIY approach and focusing not just on punk, as the name would imply, but on what they delightfully like to call “weird underground music”. They do have a great sense of humour in how they like to present the event, as you will notice when you visit their social media and notice slogans like “biggest icelandic DIY festival in the world” and things like that. Just so you get a few vibes, here’s one of their trailers…
Even if you (probably) won’t understand the Icelandic spoken there, you get the joke. So yeah, three days at the end of the world, in Laugarbakki (about 215km to the north of Reykjavik), a town with a grand total of four streets, watching raw, weird, furious bands of which you’ll have heard of about half before the festival if you pay serious attention to the underground, with lines between artists, staff and crowded blurred to the point of non-existence. It’s a real community, and there’s no better place for wild and loose fun, as well as for discovering your next favourite band that you can brag about to your mates who won’t even be able to pronounce it. If you’re not able to make it, start planning for next year, and in the meantime I shall report back from there in the days after to give you a few more reasons why you should have gone. For now, the lovely Arneus Ogeath from the organization of the festival sat down with us to talk a bit more about it.
Before the jump, let me just leave you with their manifesto, which deserves to be read:
”This is the vision of Norðanpaunk (e. Nordic-Punk), a family gathering of the icelandic punk community. It is a gathering for difficult people who like to listen to difficult music, who are, coincidentally, the best people listening to the best music.
Norðanpaunk assembles the weirdest and most extreme bands and artists in Iceland. Focusing on bands and artist that are outstanding in their presentation and interptretation of their chosen artform. This is the bond that pulls the organisers, volunteers and plethora of performing artists together. A motley crew of outsiders and misfits united in their love for the extraordinary, meeting up with likeminded people, exchanging ideas and experiences, and creating something new and unique guided by DIY principles.
Norðanpaunk rests on three pillars: Quality, Proximity and Innovation.”
As it says on the poster, everything you need to know about the fest is here.
“The blackmetalists will be dancing to electro, if the electro is good, and the wave kids will be moshing to hardcore, if the hardcore hits. Don’t be typical. Be excellent.“
- Arneus Ogeath
Can you tell us a bit about the history of Norðanpaunk, a sort of beginner’s guide for the uninitiated – like the origins of the festival, the objectives and motivations behind it, that sort of thing?
Arni: Great question! Norðanpaunk started because of a lack of venues for weird underground music back in 2013. Also, there is nothing for metalheads and punk happening at the biggest travel and festival weekend in Iceland, the so called “Merchants Weekend” (Verzlunarmannahelgi, or Versló for short). The first Monday of August is a national holiday, so during that weekend there are a lot of mainstream festivals around the whole island. But, there never was anything for “us”, the punk and metal community – good people who like difficult music. We wanted to change that, so we started Norðanpaunk in a very small village in the north of Iceland!
I love how you describe the festival like “the biggest Icelandic DIY festival in the world” J It’s a quite specific category! But that DIY really says everything – is that sense of community and closeness of the staff/bands/audience at the very core of your values? Is that what defines the festival, in the end?
Arni: From the start Norðanpaunk has been a very peculiar gathering of people and organisers. Although the members of the crew have changed through the years, this peculiarity has stayed the same. All of us have quite specific ideas about what Norðanpaunk should be about. What this “certain something” is, is different from one person to the next, and that is the way it should be. For one person it is exceptional music, for the next it is a safer space policy, another it is showing people that vegan food is delicious and yet another it is promoting non-profit DIY culture. Sometimes these aspects conflict. But mainly they enrich each other.
What unites us is that we are dedicated to giving outstanding artists a worthy platform. Artists who often don’t get that opportunity in a commercial capitalist setting. Of course, a venue in downtown Reykjavík will rather host a Karaoke-evening than book a weird new electronic-noise artist, and a fishing village in the Icelandic country-side will rather book some pop-rock bands for their Merchants Weekend festival than hc-punk bands. Therefore, if you want to see your favourite experimental musical acts, that you know are world class, on a good stage with great sound, you have to organise it yourself. That’s where DIY comes to the front. Doing this together has formed an important community feeling that we hold quite dear.
Keeping this community feeling of doing things together (DIT) has gotten a life of its own so to speak. This is something that we value greatly and want to protect. Having the boundaries between performing artists and visiting guests blur is one aspect of it. One way that happens is via the artist corner, where all guests, musicians or not, draw and paint while listening to the music coming from the stage. These artworks are then spread around the walls of the venue. Seeing the festival evolve aesthetically over the three days, as a product of the participation of all guests, is quite cool. It doesn’t matter much anymore who is on the stage and who is not. It is our festival.
So in this way DIY or DIT has become some kind of core-philosophy of Norðanpaunk. However I personally don’t see DIY as an end in itself, but, as a tool to get what we want. For others, promoting DIY culture is essential.
Despite the punk ethos of the whole thing, you’re not completely limited to punk in a strictly musical kind of sense, right? Of course every band playing usually has at least some punk in them in spirit, but you’ve always dabbled in other noisy, extreme genres. What are the main characteristics that you think a Norðanpaunk band should have? Or don’t have?
Arni: Well… first of all, no viking metal. Other than that, everything goes. Jokes aside, genres in Iceland are not as strictly separated as in continental Europe. It was quite a surprise for me when moving to the continent some ten years ago, how separated the scenes are outside of Iceland. It probably has to do with the size of our island. Here, if you like weird underground music, you hook up with other people who also like weird music. Its not so important if they are into death metal or grindcore or dungeon synth. When I was growing up, all of this was “punk”. As in, all of this was underground, non-commercial music. When going to a punk show, it would be about punk attitude and there would be death metal bands headlining for hardcore bands. And they would share a bassist. Having only three bands play a concert in Reykjavík, and all of them just play thrash metal, would not work even to this day in Iceland. I am very happy that Norðanpaunk still incorporates this old-school spirit that is prevalent in Iceland. Its not important what genre you represent. Its important if the music has heart and character and is excellent in its chosen form. The blackmetalists will be dancing to electro, if the electro is good, and the wave kids will be moshing to hardcore, if the hardcore hits. Don’t be typical. Be excellent.
What are the main difficulties that you’ve found along the way? Have any of them come close to making you give up on it, or are you too stubborn and excited that you’ll handle anything?
Arni: Oh that’s a tricky question… our main difficulties… Well, doing everything in volunteer work is quite a challenge. But it gives us the freedom to do things exactly the way we want to do them, without having to worry too much about the money. This also takes a lot of discipline and commitment from the crew, because all of us are doing this in our free time. I think that has been the biggest challenge, but it’s a challenge worth taking. You put in the work, and later you enjoy the fruits.
With the growing success of Norðanpaunk we have also had new challenges. As we become more established, people’s expectations of us have also grown. They expect us to be more professional, as we are, but they also expect us to be down to earth underground non profit, which we also are. However, these two are kind of contradictions.
There have been examples of people calling us capitalists for raising the ticket price (still ridiculously low for three days and almost 50 bands), but the same people would expect to get free food, because hey its DIY. Well, you can have both, low ticket price, free food, lots of great bands on a good stage and with great sound engineers working on a volunteer basis. But it takes a lot of dedication and work. Over time, people will take this for granted. That’s not something we can really change. You can just hope that people realise that we don’t owe it to them to do it this way. They owe it to themselves to make it work.
It can be frustrating when people make demands of you, that they would not make of themselves. But being around people who “get it” and really understand that a festival like this is the sum of the people dedicated to the music gives you the energy back. And seeing exceptional artists of course. Those “WOW” moments. These are the moments we do this for – and sitting at the campfire talking to the best people in Iceland that too.
I think all metal and punk festivals are like this to different degrees. It’s about good music and community. And that takes commitment.
Most of the bill is made of Icelandic bands, do you think Norðanpaunk is a good way to “measure” how the underground scene there is developing, and to discover new bands? As a foreign visitor, what has appealed the most to me about Icelandic festivals are the local bands, do you feel that you can be a good way for these bands to become more known outside of Iceland?
Arni: Definitely. Our primary goal is to present Icelandic bands. New ones, old ones, weird ones, fun ones. Something to bang your head to, something to dance to, something to listen to and think… is this music? Still, even if we have 40 Icelandic bands playing, and we are only booking really good underground shit, there are even more bands we can´t fit in the bill. So, we have to say no to a lot of Icelandic bands we would want to host each year. From the start we have had a rule of thumb about bands only playing for two years and then making room for new ones. But even with that rule, we cannot fully exhibit what the Icelandic underground has to offer. But we try! So being at Norðanpaunk is definitely a good way of getting to know what is going on in the Icelandic scene. We put a lot of effort into forming the line-up each year, giving our guests a good buffet of some gourmet shit. Of course, for ourselves, and for our guests, we also book a handful of international acts we think would spice the festival up in just the right way.
How would you describe this year’s lineup, in general terms? Did you go for any kind of mood or vibe in particular? Are there any bands you’d like to talk a bit about?
Arni: This being our ten-year anniversary, it was important for us to acknowledge bands that were there at the start like MASS, BÖRN and my own band NORN, mixed with new, exciting, up and coming bands like GRÓA, which Norðanpaunk is originally all about. One flashback band I am really excited about seeing is RETRÖN, a really cool instrumental computer-game-themed rock band from way back. As always it is important for us to represent the diversity of the scene. Mixing black metal (FORSMÁN) and indie (SUCKS TO BE YOU, NIGEL) and electro (XARG) with some downright weird shit like GUBBA HORI (puking snot) and DRÝSILDJÖFULL (my personal favourite).
How do you see the future of the festival? Is it possible to still grow while maintaining all your principles? Do you have any plans you’d like to reveal?
Arni: I think it’s possible to grow in different ways. One form of growth is getting even better at what we do. One form of growth is getting more exposure for the bands performing. Another is a bigger network and bands playing at Norðanpaunk getting booked for shows abroad. These are all ways that Norðanpaunk can and should grow. But it is not our goal to have more mainstream bands and a bigger crowd.
There are a couple of exciting bands in the pipeline for 2025, but that will be revealed in due time 😉 As for future plans, one of them is to focus more on getting Icelandic bands over to the mainland. So to anyone interested reading this, feel free to reach out!
You can drop them a line at info@nordanpaunk.org. Do it, they’re cool.