Accordion festival in Grímsnes deemed most successful ever

The annual Accordion Festival in Grímsnes, Iceland, achieved unprecedented success this year, organizers reported. Sigurður Harðarson, a festival planner, told mbl.is that the event exceeded all expectations, with attendance so high that organizers struggled to fit everyone indoors.

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This has gone exceptionally well, and I believe tonight's ball will be just as good as previous nights, if not more crowded as many people are coming from the city.

"It has gone exceptionally well, and I believe tonight's ball will be just as good as previous nights, if not more crowded as many people are coming from the city," Harðarson said. He described the attendance as "one hundred percent," noting that more than 150 people were present at the dance events on previous nights.

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I would say, quite frankly, that there were more than 150 people.

The festival, held over the weekend at Borg in Grímsnes, featured three to four bands performing each night for three consecutive evenings. A free concert also took place, where 15 to 20 accordions played together, accompanied by singing. The music included various dance styles like waltz, polka, and traditional Icelandic "gamaldansar."

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Name it, these are waltzes and reels and polkas, and then the old dances, round dance and the cook where people dance in circles and finally meet someone to dance with in the next song.