Never Went South - The Documentary

Monday, 05 April 2010 21:36

I was recently in Iceland (again) to visit Aldrei fór ég suður, the festival in the Westfjords region started by Mugison and his dad in 2003. The name of the event translates as I Never Went South, which immediately tells you something about the independent nature of this area, one of Iceland's more remote (which is saying something).

The festival is pretty unique. In Mugison's own words the original idea was to create an event "that was almost impossible to get to" and had none of the formalities and hierarchies of other festivals. Getting there requires a minimum six hour car drive from Reykjavik or a fairly scary one hour flight, though because of the time of year (Easter) there is every chance the roads will be blocked and the airplanes cancelled.

This is all part of the plan.

If you do make it, you'll find the entire event takes place in a decidedly unglamorous warehouse. A couple of dozen bands - mostly from the Westfjords and Reykjavik - play on a stage fashioned from fishing pallets. There is no admission fee, the audience age ranges from 8 months to 80 and the line up is hand written on the wall (this year it was being written as the first band were playing).

No bands get to sound check. And everyone plays for 20 minutes, whether they're múm or the local male choir (both of whom have played).

My 2007 Drowned in Sound report is here; Or there's this regional overview I penned for the Guardian in 2009.

This year I went back with a film crew to make a documentary. We spent a week shooting the festival and interviewing just about everyone we could get our frost-bitten little hands on: local bands and international starlets Mugison and Olof Arnalds; the odd fisherman; a 75-year-old DJ; some horses (it's true - they do shoot them, or at least we did). We also recorded the beautiful sound of fjord ice crackling away to itself in the wind.

Editing begins next month and we're hoping to have a trailer soon after. In the meantime, here are some photos from the trip...