Right. I'm excited. Again.

Just over a week from now, Sónar festival will be kicking off a two day party at beautiful, lovely, happy place Harpa (right) in Reykjavík. There will be 3,500 people watching bands on 4 stages, one of which is the underground car park converted, that will be interesting!It's a very exciting event, and, let's be honest, a great chance for me to make a lightning quick visit and see some of my very favourite Icelandic acts in one easy, bite-size chunk.

Like Iceland Airwaves I expect the locals will be mainly found watching the overseas acts and the visitors checking out the Icelanders. So, you will find me watching not only the last two winners of album of the year on this very website Ghostigital (2012) and Sóley (2011) but loads more wonderful (and totally, utterly recommended) local heroes such as Mugison, Retro Stefson, Ólafur Arnalds, GusGus, Sin Fang, Bloodgroup and others do their things. The full program is here, and it looks mighty fine.

What intrigued me was how the process came about that ended up with the internationally famous Sónar festival, most often based in Barcelona, planning a small, boutique event in Reykjavík. I mean, I think it's a wonderful idea and I know it's going to be amazing, but still – it surprised me. Luckily, I have found a man to tell me all about it, key local organiser and driving force, Bjorn Steinbekk.

So, starting with the obvious question – why did you decide to put on a Sonar festival in Reykjavik?

Icelandair asked me if I felt I could see if some sort of a DJ
festival was a possibility to set up during the winter time in iceland. I
felt that would not be enough to draw attention. I asked around and did
some research and decided to approach Sónar. Their brand and how they
portrait their festivals was very appealing and I felt this could be the
right festival to promote. The hard part was convincing Sónar people of
doing this in the middle of February.

Is Reykjavik a cool city? What makes it cool?

I never look at Reykjavik as cool per say. I believe the history, the
nature and the people shaped by this nature and Iceland´s culture,
specially music has created this so called cool factor. I have lived
abroad for extensive time and I can understand why people are drawn to
this island in the middle of the Atlantic.

And once you had decided on Sonar Reykjavik, how did you go about researching and selecting the local acts?

The usual suspects like Retro Stefson, Mugison who has played at
Sonar, Asgeir Trausti , Olafur Arnalds, Bloodgroup and Gus Gus were
contacted first. Then my partner, DJ Margeir came in with others that he
felt fit the bill and the Sónar brand and we are very proud of the line
up. Especially because some of them have already been invited to perform
at Sónar Barcelona.

Is there any one local act in particular you are most excited to see? 

I hope I will be able to see most of them. Mugison will have a very
special program but my role while Sónar takes to the stage is to take
part as one of the guests and experience the variety of artists.

Will there be others events in the city at the same time? Any daytime shows for example?

There will be a warm up program promoted by local bars and clubs.

And you are changing Harpa's underground car park into a nightclub? Is that going to work!?

First time I came into the car park i felt I wanted to do an old
school rave party there. Being one of those who started promoting rave
parties in iceland in 1988 at the age of 16 this is a dream come true.

Sonar is a Spanish festival. What will be the biggest differences in Iceland, and what do you expect to be just the same?

Sónar Barcelona draws around 100.000 people to the city every year. We
hope to have 3,500 total of guests and media people at Sónar Reykjavik
so intimate is what I hope it will be.

What has been the best Sonar outside of Spain so far and why?  (because I'm sure Iceland can beat it!)

Only been to Barcelona but plan to visit Sónar Sao Paulo in May. That will be something.

Finally – you can guarantee Spanish weather for the festival can't you?

Global Warming is doing wonders for Iceland…who knows?

We can hope! Thank you.

If you are going to be there, do give me a shout, and please go and see the excellent local bands. You won't regret it.