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I lived in Iceland during part of the explosive growth of the tourism industry and witnessed some of its negative-for-the-locals effects firsthand. There were
by hrnnnnnn 7y ago
I lived in Iceland during part of the explosive growth of the tourism industry and witnessed some of its negative-for-the-locals effects firsthand.
There were once two or three decent mid-sized concert venues in downtown Reykjavik (capacity ~500 - ~1000) now, as far as I know there are none, as they were closed to make way for more hotels.
My partner is Icelandic and she saw the pattern from the original collapse repeating: when the number of tourists slows those new hotels will lie empty and the local culture, well the music scene at least, will be the worse off for it.
- kd5bjo 7y ago> Now, as far as I know there are none I don’t really follow the music scene here much, but there seems to be a pretty steady stream of concerts coming through Harpa, Gamla Bíó, and Háskólabíó, along with several bars that have live music all the time.
- hrnnnnnn 7y agoHarpa's not what I was considering a mid-sized venue. It's big and fancy and probably won't let your brand-new band play in front of 100 people. I was thinking more of NASA and the one I can't remember the name of that was on Hverfisgata. Never been to a show at Háskólabíó, is it decent? Is Gaukurinn still going?
- kd5bjo 7y agoHarpa’s got some halls that size, but I don’t think I’ve seen anything there at less than 5k ISK per ticket. Gaukurinn is still going, with something on the schedule almost every night. The only time I’ve been inside Háskólabíó was as an overflow lecture hall, so I don’t know how well it works for shows.