Looking forward to ICE 2007 later this year.
Full details on the website: www.ice07.org
Longboats first sailed down the Mersey almost exactly 1,000 years ago. Around the same time, the Vikings landed in Iceland. Over the next millenia, these settlements grew to become two of the world’s most iconic, free-thinking and individual cities.
Now, these two great cultural capitals are to be re-united in a major international festival. And, this time, the invasion promises to be a whole lot friendlier.
The Festival is the creation of Icelander and adopted Scouser, Ingi-Thor Jonsson; “Our purpose is to bring a taste of Iceland to the north of England, and to bring an exciting roster of young Icelandic talent to the attention of the British public. Reykjavik’s only a couple of hour’s flight time away yet, still, Iceland feels as far away as Fiji to most people. This festival aims to change all that,” Ingi explains.
Featuring a menu as dramatic and inspiring as Ingi’s homeland, ICE2007 also showcases the cream of Icelandic and British entrepreneurs and desginers in unique exhibition at the Daily Post and Echo Building on Old Hall Street.
“We aim to highlight the burgeoning Icelandic economy and its British connections,” Ingi says, “but, most importantly, we want festival visitors to experience the very best of Icelandic arts and culture, in a range of venues around the city and Merseyside.”
To this end, ICE2007 promises concerts by leading musicians. Mike McCartney and Andri Snaer Magnason (Icelandic Booker Prize winner 2006) are set to judge a short story and art competition open to Merseyside’s school children, and a series of Icelandic films are to be shown.
Elsewhere in the city, visitors can enjoy exhibitions of Icelandic photography, and Icelandic cuisine by top chef, Ragnar Omarsson at the Racquet Club, Chapel Street.
Make no mistake. The Vikings are coming back.
