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Beyond ‘puffins and moss’: Iceland Airwaves and post-crash musical tourism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2021

Kimberly D. Cannady Open the ORCID record for Kimberly D. Cannady [Opens in a new window]
Kimberly D. Cannady*
Affiliation:
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
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Abstract

This article explores relationships between the significant growth of foreign tourism to Iceland, following the 2008 economic crash, and the popular music festival Iceland Airwaves. I consider the effects of Iceland Airwaves on popular music in Reykjavík during the festival and outside of the festival season. My focus is primarily on how the local population experiences Iceland Airwaves and musical tourism in general. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Iceland between 2010 and 2018, I examine how musicians, politicians, festival management, tourism sector workers, business people, and other music industry workers approach and negotiate the rising role of popular music in Iceland's new tourism economy. This research contributes to broader understandings of how music festivals and musical tourism shape local musical life year-round, and it also offers insight into Iceland's internationally renowned popular music industry.

Type
Article
Information
Popular Music , Volume 39 , Issue 3-4 , December 2020 , pp. 539 - 553
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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