Photo courtesy: Rolf Meldgaard. Retrieved from insidehook.com
That openness and trust is a big part of what the Faroese call heimablídni, which translates to “home hospitality.” It’s tradition here for locals to host visitors and tourists for home-cooked meals, intimate house concerts or, in this case, G! Festival, the annual summer music festival that sees 5,000 people — roughly one-tenth of the entire country’s population — descend upon Syðrugøta to take in their favorite bands. Because the town, dubbed “Gøta” for short by the locals, is so small, there are no hotels or hostels. Some G! Festival attendees camp, some sleep on boats docked in a nearby harbor and others crash on cots in classrooms in the town’s schoolhouse. But many of the residents generously open up their homes to the artists and other festival-goers who are in from out of town.
The festival, which was founded in 2002, takes place on a beach, overlooking one of the island’s stunning fjords, during the course of three days in July. Because it’s so far north, the sun almost never sets; the area typically gets 23 hours of daylight at a time during the summer. There are food trucks and an area for kids to play, as well as wooden hot tubs and a sauna on the beach — which offer welcome relief for those of us who aren’t used to a climate where 50 degrees Fahrenheit constitutes a warm summer day. If you’re still freezing, you can make your way to the tent where Navia, a knitwear brand, is selling traditional Faroese sweaters designed specifically for the festival. (The wool here, which is rich in lanolin, making it naturally water repellent, is highly coveted all over the world. Not surprising, perhaps, for a country where sheep outnumber humans.)