NME, Clash Magazine praise Aldrei Fór Ég Suður

Rave reviews have already started appearing for the fifth annual Aldrei Fór Ég Suður festival, which took place this weekend. Festival gurus Mugison and Mugipapa have declared the festival – which featured a whopping 34 Icelandic acts in its two day run – a total success, and have already started laying plans for next year’s bash.

Among the crowd of thousands to attend AFÉS were a slew of international journalists that travelled northwards to Ísafjörður, Iceland, specifically to witness the festival. In an enthusiastic re-telling of the whole festival, NME.com professes its love for Mugison, Megas and recent BBC World Service Battle of the Bands’ finalists Hraun, among others.

Clash Magazine’s journalist, Matthew Bennett, was equally thrilled by the festival, stating that “I Never Went South is a local delight deliberately hosted both geographically and ideologically from the exhausted and beaten track of corporate sponsored brand wank fests which appear to be popping up like generic ring fenced mushrooms in increasing propensity.”

Other equally positive reviews have been pouring in this week. Intro Magazine fawns over the festival in Deutsch, as do the good people at Laut. International jet-setter Olaf Furniss also does an excellent job of describing Aldrei Fór Ég Suður and its vibrant atmosphere in this excellent Scotsman piece.

Some of the visiting journalists also documented the festival on their Flickr and YouTube accounts, so click away for an overview of what was by all accounts a great weekend.

As a special treat for loyal Icelandmusic.is readers, you can witness Faroese superstar Eivör Pálsdóttir perform time-tested classic 'Stand by Your Man' at the AFÉS 2008 closing party.

Picture of AFÉS 2008 courtesy of Halldór Sveinbjörnsson

For more music festivals in Iceland, visit our events page.
 
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