List í Ljósi Light festival

Celebrating light

Seyðisfjörður’s setting – at the end of a 17km-long (10-mile) fjord, ringed by mountains – is itself a visual feast, but those dazzling peaks cast long shadows. In the depths of winter, the sun sits low in the sky and the tall mountains block the sun’s rays from reaching the town. It’s a similar story in many parts of Austurland, where mountains soar over towns and obstruct direct sunlight.

When the sun finally peeks over the mountains after its months-long absence in mid-February, it’s time to celebrate! In a number of towns, a charming tradition known as sólarkaffi (which literally means ‘sun coffee’) is held - a gathering at the local community center for coffee and cake. As well as sólarkaffi, Seyðisfjörður welcomes the sun’s return with the List í ljósi festival.

_{Mountain, 2021. Artists: Fríða Ísberg (IS) and Nanna Vibe S Juelsbo (DK). Photographer: Jessica Auer}

Seyðisfjörður’s artistry

Despite a small population of only around 700 people, Seyðisfjörður has built an impressive reputation as one of Iceland’s creative hubs. A growing list of projects and events have helped to build this distinction: festivals, artist residencies, the LungA art school and workshops, galleries, and even art installations high in the hills.

The seventh celebration of List í ljósi will be held in 2022, after the event’s founding in 2016 by Celia Harrison from New Zealand, together with local Sesselja Jónasardóttir. In 2019 it received the Eyrarrósin Award, awarded to outstanding cultural projects in Iceland’s rural areas.

_{Church, 2019. Samuel Miro (NZ). By Wikipedia. Photographer: Juliette Rowland}

List í ljósi highlights

The free festival lights up Seyðisfjörður with unique contemporary works from local and international artists. Outdoor installations, projections and live performances vary each year, and locals and visitors rug up to walk the streets after dusk, pausing to admire buildings that glow with animations or hillsides that reflect profound messages. Anything is possible, from oversized illuminated chickens roosting by the lagoon to shiny disco balls suspended from a bridge. This year the festival’s theme is connecting with our environment.

The Blue Church, at the northern end of the photogenic Rainbow Street, is often a beacon for projections, but look out for them on hillsides, houses, and on the walls of Herðubreið, the town’s community center and culture house (named after Iceland’s favorite mountain).

The community works together to ensure the weekend is a calendar highlight. Inside Herðubreið, the Flat Earth Film Festival screens a selection of offbeat international films, and performances, talks, and panels are held. The local power company turns off central streetlights so the light of the art shines extra bright. If the weather gods are kind, northern lights might glimmer overhead to add extra radiance.

_{Smoke, 2019. Emily Parsons-Lord (AU). Photographer: Chantal Anderson}