Sigur Rós at the Roskilde Festival

The Roskilde Festival was one sunny festival this year. Four days of rock and roll right outside of Denmark's capital, Copenhagen. One and a half Icelandic acts performed at this year's festival while more than 1,000 Icelanders were among a huge crowd of 80,000 people. The multi-talented Sigur Rós gave one of the best performances at the festival in front of a crowd of 20,000 while Eivör Pálsdóttir from the Faroe Islands blew people away with her minimalistic set on one of the smaller stages.

Sigur Rós have proven that they are one of the best live bands in the world. Their set featured songs from their albums Ágætis byrjun, () and Takk - a great mixture that kept the crowd cheering and clapping for over ten minutes after the show ended. Again and again the members of Sigur Rós and their accompanists (string band Amina and some horn players) had to rush the stage to take a bow for the crowd that just wouldn't stop cheering. At this moment I was really proud to be Icelandic ¿ great concert and great feedback from the crowd. Already after the gig, which took place on the first night of four, people were saying that it would be hard for other bands to top this performance. While some great concerts took place throughout the festival, few compared to this amazing performance by Sigur Rós.

Eivör Pálsdóttir has lived in Iceland for a number of years, and has had a real impact on the Icelandic music scene. Eivör is originally from the Faroe Islands but Icelanders often identify her as one of our own. That's probably why there were so many Icelanders in attendance at her poorly advertised gig. A lot of people didn't even know she was playing this year's festival but the show was outstanding. Eivör stood alone onstage and sang. She smiled and enjoyed herself as she went through her programme, seeming to enjoy it almost as much as the audience.

All in all the Roskilde Festival proved to be a stellar event this year with stand-out performances from the one (and a half) Icelandic musician(s), further evidence that though Iceland is small, cold and dark Icelandic musicians are like nothing else.

By Ágúst Bogason

Radio host on National Radio 2