Iceland Airwaves drops Hafnarhús as concert venue over costs

Iceland Airwaves will no longer hold concerts at Hafnarhúsið, part of the Reykjavik Art Museum, as rising costs have made the venue too expensive, mbl.is reports. The festival will instead stage concerts at Reykjavik City Hall for the first time.

Hafnarhúsið has been the festival’s largest concert venue for about 25 years. Ísleif B. Þórhallsson, managing director of Sena Live, which runs the festival, said expenses including rent, equipment and security had increased.

“It had become difficult to justify all the costs,” he said. Keeping a 1,000-capacity venue full throughout the festival required paying a premium to attract the right artists, he added, and the arrangement was no longer financially viable.

The concert hall on the ground floor of Reykjavik City Hall holds 600 people, the same capacity as Kolaportið. They will be the festival’s two largest venues this year. Þórhallsson said the organisers were pleased to have access to the hall and thanked Reykjavik City officials for their support.