Incase you haven’t heard (or seen on Instagram) Iceland is a pretty hip place to be right now, with tourism growing from 200,000 tourists per year circa 2008, to 2 million last year. For an island with a population of 30,000, that’s a fair few people to entertain. And what better way to do that than with one of the best festivals in the world(™), Secret Solstice. Not only does the line up offer something for everyone — from former i-D coverstar Stormzy to Bonnie Tyler to IAMDBB to homegrown talents such as Birnir, all music tastes are covered — but it also offers up the opportunity to experience some real once in a lifetime gems.
From the neon green moss covering the lava fields, to the black sand beaches, to the lunar blue coloured glaciers, Iceland is very easy on the retina. At Secret Solstice you can commune with nature like nowhere else — it’s the only country in the world where you can get down and dirty inside a glacier. Forget a rave in a cave, it’s time to get groovy in a glacier. Hosted in Langjökull, The Glacier is Europe’s second largest and actually the world’s first party inside of one. As if that wasn’t enough, Secret Solstice is also hosting a party in the Lava Tunnel — an actual 5200 year old magma tube.
Picture it: that moment that the sun finally goes down and you can trudge back to your tent and omg your legs hurt but you’ve had a great day but you might trip over a guyline or one of those chairs someone’s lugged from home. Well, at Secret Solstice, this isn’t a concern. There’s no pausing. No break for dark. Set, obviously, over summer solstice, the festival utilises Iceland’s 24 hours of daylight and gives you 96 non stop hours of sun-lit partying — probably best to book into one of the country’s geothermal spas for some R’n’R after that.
With the festival’s line up including our favourites Dream Wife, J-Hus, and Slayer, we can certainly see why it’s so popular.
Get your ticket to have fun in the midnight sun here.