Something wicked this way comes. The Yule Lads.
You think Icelandic popstars are strange? Maybe it’s got something to do with their twisted childhoods.
See, up there, they don’t bother too much with big fat Coca-Cola branded Santa Claus and his merry band of minimum-wage elves. No, up in the cruel north, kids are brought up in fear of the 13 Yule Lads. And they’re not a seasonal charity football team. They’re a bunch of mischievous, criminal, maladjusted pranksters – intent on making the 13 days before Christmas as tortuous as possible for little Bjorks and Jónsis.
With names like ‘The Sausage Swiper’, ‘The Door Slammer’ ‘The Window Peeper’ and, menacingly, ‘The Meat Hook’, they’re straight out of a Guillermo Del Torro film. And, this year, if you don’t want your spoon licked by, who else, ‘The Spoon Licker’, you’d better be good, for goodness sake, because the Yule Lads are coming to town.
They came from a distant country
with winters long and cold
They were the boys with horrid tricks
well, that’s what I’ve been told
One by one, for 13 days
they came for food and light.
And when the last one had arrived
it was the Holy Night…
And it’s all the work of Icelandic Scouser, Ingi Thor Johnsson. This year will see his festival, Nice 09, reach out across the Nordic seas, to animate Liverpool with the best in Scandinavian, Faroese and Icelandic culture. And, with the launch this week of the festival’s official website, I’m already wishing it was November.
I remember sitting at Ingi’s dining table a couple of years ago, when he first hatched his plan – originally for an Icelandic festival – and set about making it so. He had no money, no real experience in this sort of thing, and no friends in high places (or even in the Council). And usually, you gonna need at least one of the three.
Not so grim up north. Apart from the Y fronts.
Yet, three years later, Nice is one of Liverpool’s most exciting and original festivals. Ingi, and partner James Lawler have, against the odds (and in the face of the entire Icelandic economy collapsing – hence, not the best place to seek corporate sponsorship) created something they, and the city, should be proud of. So let’s hope it gets the support it deserves.
How do you create a good festival? There are two ways – do it with passion, or do it with money. Guess which ones come up trumps in the end? There are music festivals, like Bestival, Glastonbury and Liverpool Music Week that grow out of the passion of (usually) one person. And there’s V Festival and T in the Park. I’m off to Bestival in September. I think you get a better class of piss thrown over you in the Isle of Wight. And what’s the betting Rob Da Bank’s tastes better than Tennants lager, anyway?
I digress.
The point is, the best festivals grow organically. They start with a vision, and no money, and, nurtured by love and support from a steadily growning band of fellow travellers, the best become tomorrow’s essential diary dates.
Which is why the Manchester International Festival, for all its excellent acts, still feels more supermarket sweep than artistic intervention. A parachuted-in ensemble (the excellent Elbow aside) which Manchester City Council spent millions of pounds buying up, and the festival organisers recoup by charging extortionate ticket prices. All a bit grubby, really.
Which is why the DIY aesthetic is such a welcome counterpoint. And why we need more people like Ingi-Thor Johnsson.
Finland's Moomins. Less scary than Lordi.
A celebration of the cultural links between Reykjavik and Liverpool? Yeah, it sounds niche, until you remember it was the Vikings, 1,000 years ago, who first settled the shores of the Mersey. And, let’s face it, we’re named after a Danish meat and veg casserole.
This year’s highlights include the critically acclaimed ‘To Die For’ a dance piece from Sweden and Norway, featuring ‘ four dancers stripped down to their psychological essentials in a gladiatorial battle to define winners and losers’. Well, it wouldn’t be a Scandinavian festival without a little flesh, now would it? Those chilling Yule Lads tales will be acted out at the Unity Theatre, with renowned Icelandic actor Felix Bergsson bringing a show which recieved rave reviews at London’s Drill Hall. If you fancy, there’s a brilliant BBC Worldwide documentary about the Yule lads, called Too Many Santas – for free download here.
There’s also lots of Finnish stuff going on this year, as the festival is officially sponsored by the Finnish Embassy. So expect Moomins exhibitions for a start.
“Our purpose is to bring a taste of Nordic culture to the north of England, and to bring an exciting roster of young talent to the attention of the British public. Scandinavia’s only a couple of hour’s flight time away yet, still, most of it feels as far away as Fiji to many people. This festival aims to change all that,” says Ingi.
Musically, the festival always features some of the best gigs in the city – proving that there’s definitely something in the glacial run off water up there.
NICE runs from 19th November until 3rd December, and features music, film, theatre, dance and design from Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. And I can’t wait.
