The Reykjavík Grapevine

Iceland can choose to make its citizenship requirements stricter.

hinÓperan, a new Icelandic opera company whose mission is to increase the visibility of LGBTQ+ people on the operatic stage, reached out to us to discuss a bold new move.

There’s more than a hint of smug industry insiderism to Jane Schoenbrun’s all-too self-aware slasher flick, but not so much that it gets in the way of Schoenbrun’s keen-eyed look at a far more complex and relevant topic: the cultural and commercial hegemo…

A wrongful raid on a Reykjavík flat shows how the system shields police from scrutiny, just as the minister of justice proposes letting them tap phones before a judge has said yes.

Pave paradise, and put up a parking lot From Trieste to Tromsø, municipalities around Europe are doing everything they can to make their cities more pedestrian friendly and choosing to prioritise people over cars.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev at the Höfði house in Reykjavík.

The Icelandic Meteorological Service has posted warnings for extremely hazardous conditions in the North of Iceland starting October 14, 2026.

As a rule, I follow the guidance that any advertisement is an abject lie.

On September 26, 2026, Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir stood at the podium of the General Assembly of the United Nations and unloaded one of the most formidable speeches in Icelandic history.

We are preparing the magazine for our annual Iceland Airwaves coverage, which in this case will include our new public-access storefront.

My first impression of Howie B is through his cigarette butt.

He has rarely made our magazine, but Saint Pete is the talk of the town.

Films depicting historical events often need to recreate facsimile locations on soundstages.

There have been few joys felt in my short life as entirely embodied as the little joy I have been blessed with this rainy October day.

Next time you’re hard up, searching for coins under the sofa, in your car’s glove compartment and in the pockets of your friend’s jacket, you’ll curse yourself for having not managed your finances better.

Update on Name That Sheep: We have received the correct name.

I caught his eye by mistake in the midst of the jumping and drunken partygoers, and I couldn’t stop laughing.

The head of an American investment firm says his company paid 2.2 million ISK ($18,000) in 2025 to a Washington consultant hired by the Independence Party, Iceland's largest opposition party, towards lobbying.

The discussion about the referendum on the negotiations for Iceland’s accession to the EU has been obliterated by another topic that is arguably the most discussed in Iceland right now: the PISA results.

A medical doctor by training, Dagur B.

When people travel, they often want to sample the local beers.

With love for colleague Freyr Thorvaldsson’s Word of the Issue, the column that enriches the vocabulary of Grapevine readers, I offer my own take on it, trading words for birds.

It is lively in Andrými when I arrive.

You know the rules.

We weren’t secretive about it.

Economy in the dumps The so-called gúrkutíð, or silly season, is over and now we can start focusing on the truly depressing stuff: the economy.

Hidden in the basement of a historic building in downtown Reykjavík, Japanese cocktail bar ĒN is dark, intimate and seductive, a neon-lit meeting of Japanese cocktail craft and Icelandic imagination.

For archaeologists, Iceland has one enormous advantage over many other parts of the world: its volcanoes have left timestamps in the ground.

If you are a regular reader of this magazine — or if you’ve read this issue’s editorial by Bart Cameron, you know that this publication has been struggling financially all year, and that since spring, this magazine has been run by almost no staff.

The second episode of the Northern Rising, season 2, is out now!

A Twitch Star Disrupts Idyllic Reykjavík Some dude from New York, a 25-year-old called Kai Cenat, who apparently has millions of followers on something called Twitch, disrupted life in downtown Reykjavík this weekend when he was livestreaming his visit th…

Iceland, known worldwide for its green energy, is set to miss its emission-reduction targets for 2035, and it won’t even be close.

For six years, VÁ, an NGO born from the opposition to open-net salmon farming in Seyðisfjörður, has fought to stop these licences from being issued.

For most of its history, Iceland’s food delivery system was a pizza place and a cousin with a car.

On Wednesday, 23 September, the Icelandic Aircraft Mechanics Association (FVFÍ) began a strike, which disrupted Icelandair’s flight schedule significantly, affecting 26 flights and 5,500 passengers.

Ninety years after the famous French scientist and explorer Jean-Baptiste Charcot sailed out of Reykjavík harbour for the last time, his great-granddaughter returns to Iceland.

For one night in August, a glittering combination of fame, politics, and academics filled Háskólabíó.

As an editor, I frequent Reykjavík Record Shop, and I have repeatedly interviewed Jóhann Ágúst Jóhannsson, but never successfully.

In this episode of The Drop-In, hosts Bart Cameron and Jón Trausti Sigurðarson sit down with Montreal-based photojournalist, artist, and multimedia storyteller G.

I have lived in Iceland for years and never seen a glíma match.

Update: As noted in the Icelandic Stock Exchange, at 11:08 the Icelandic Aircraft Mechanics Association (FVFÍ) ended their strike.

A boy was injured by a used syringe at Laugarnesskóli elementary school in central Reykjavík on Monday.

Summer in Iceland used to be work 24/7.

I am dressed in an old hoodie and cargo trousers, a reflective vest, and tall rubber boots.

It’s nearly RIFF o’clock once again in this great city, so we hope you’re ready to trade the little screen for the big one.

In the silence of Fljótsdalur, where green summer meadows stretch towards Lake Lagarfljót and mountains close the horizon like theatrical scenery, the remains of a monastery lie almost level with the earth.

Today, whenever a large enough scandal breaks, there will inevitably follow calls for it to be investigated, and not just investigated but properly investigated.

Solo travelers to a foreign land often ponder their future, or escape a relationship.

You know the rules.

Every creator, publisher, writer and musician over 30 seemed present at a packed Háskólabíó to watch composer, keyboardist, jazz musician, classicist, beat maker, film scorer, and master producer Magnús Johann celebrate his 30th birthday.