Icelandairwaves 2006

Sam is using his fall break from his semester in Prague to travel alone to Icelandairwaves 2006, an annual rock music festival in Reykjavik. Here's a quote from the website for the festival:

Since the first show held in 1999 (in an airplane hangar), Iceland Airwaves has become one of the premier showcases for new music – Icelandic and otherwise – in the world. It's been called "the most innovative music festival since CMJ" and "as responsible for all of Reykjavík's recent positive press as Björk herself".

Some of the world's most exciting artists, including Suede, The Flaming Lips, The Hives, Fatboy Slim, Sparta, and Thievery Corporation, have made the short hop from Europe or North America to share the stages with Iceland's finest talents: Sigur Rós, Gus Gus, Jagúar, Quarashi, Leaves, Trabant, Ulpa, Apparat Organ Quartet and many, many more. And when the live bands are finished, top DJs spin across the city until dawn.

But there's more to Airwaves than music. Reykjavík is possibly the perfect festival city – small enough to be welcoming, sophisticated enough to offer cultural, historical and nightlife diversions to rival cities ten times its size. Maybe 20. And it's surrounded by some of the most unique and astonishing natural beauty you're ever likely to see. Roll out of bed, hose the party remains out of your hair and hop a bus. Before you can remember what you did the night before, you're looking at geysers, waterfalls, lava fields – all the best that a volcanic island has to offer, including the world-famous Blue Lagoon, favorite soaking spot of the international hung-over glitterati. Mmm! You can really taste the hipster!

Sounds like a truly bizarre experience for a 21 year-old kid from Kansas City.