And here it is, the complete list of Icelandic musicians performing at the 20th anniversary of Iceland Airwaves 2018.  It’s under new management so there are probably a few more surprises coming our way, But here is the list of everything we know.  So get digging in and learn about all the new stuff you haven’t heard before.

I’ll be doing a few blog posts with tips, recommendations etc… And this year I’ve started a series on the first time Icelandic musicians, you can see the first post here.

You can see my past Airwaves photos here, and my tips for a pleasant Airwaves as well.

Once again I’ve created a loosely sorted, by genre, cheat sheet for the Icelandic bands.  Out of the 225 bands set to perform, 139 are Icelandic.  This year the Airwaves team massively improved their line up page, you can search and sort by genre and country, but the genre sections is rather precise, so I’ve kept the categories rather broad here.  To See the official Airwaves line-up page, click here.

With Icelandic bands it can always be hard to categorize their music styles as one of the greatest things about them is their ability to snag and grab their favorite things from all over the musical spectrum and make it work for them. So these lists are just general nods in the direction you may be looking for, for example, the Dance table, they sit right on the edge of electronic and dance pop/rock and beats. But I tried to focus on the prominence of a lead singer and the beats of the bulk of their songs in deciding which side to place them.

At the bottom you will also find the Spotify playlist for the entire festival.

Categorizing some bands can be extremely difficult as they run borders are freely through genres, so if you feel a band needs to be moved into a different category let me know and I’ll change it.