Iceland Airwaves festival announces second round of artists
The lineup is set to feature Sex Week, Heartworms, Lucy Dreams, SCAM, Shygirl, and more, alongside first wave acts like Dove Ellis and Adult DVD.
After a terrific first wave of artists—including Paste faves like Dove Ellis and SXSW standouts like Adult DVD—Iceland Airwaves is back with their second batch of musicians, spanning continents and generations.
2024 Best of What’s Next artist Sex Week will be making an appearance on the heels of some great sets at New Colossus Fest earlier this year, as will UK post-punk act Heartworms, who made our list of 2025’s best debut albums with Glutton For Punishment. London DJ Shygirl has appeared on many of our weekly Best New Songs lists over the years, and we’ve had our eye on the Atlanta band Lucy Dreams for quite some time, too; they were on our 2012 list of Atlanta acts to watch. There will also be plenty of Icelandic talent: 2025 Iceland Airwaves PLUS Award winner RAKEL, multilingual folk artist Andervel, electro-pop outfit SCAM, and many more.
Today’s announcement comes with a bonus for New Yorkers: in October, Taste of Iceland x Iceland Airwaves will present a showcase event at Pianos on the Lower East Side. SCAM will be performing there, as will other artists yet to be announced.
The festival also includes a two-day conference, which the press release calls “a vital meeting point for artists, agents, media, and industry professionals from around the world, all coming together to discuss some of the most prominent successes and problems of the current creative industries.” The first set of panels were announced today, with “Anybody in There? Human Curation in the Age of the Algorithm” looking into the increasingly online state of the music industry and “From Local to Global: Against The Odds” exploring how Iceland and other smaller countries manage to make their musical dent on the world stage. Check out the lineup below.
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