FAROE FRIDAY: MUSIC AND STUFF

In my first ever post on the Faroe Islands last year, I remarked that the islands hosted the G! Festival each summer and that the festival was starting to gain an international reputation. I may have also mentioned that I wanted to attend the festival one day.

Alas, that may have to wait a while. I've read on various bulletin boards that the company that runs the festival has gone bankrupt. There is word, however, that plans are being drawn up for a G! Festival in 2009. At least that's what I gather from the postings on their website. They're in Faroese, and I don't understand much of that.

But all is not doom and gloom on the Faroese music scene. Boys in a Band are continuing to get good press around the world. And a Faroese singer/songwriter named Teitur is touring the east coast of the U.S. and getting good notices. The New York Daily News called Teitur "the Norse whisperer."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: considering there are only 48,000 people on the islands, they have an amazing number of bands that tour internationally. A Faroese jazz band is even scheduled to play in my hometown of Rochester this summer.

This week's Faroe photos come from the village of Gøta. Gøta plays(ed) host to the G! Festival and is a pretty spectacular setting for a music festival. Only 500 people live in the village, but they have their own football team. The area also figures prominently in an Icelandic saga.

As always, I hope I get to see it firsthand. (I'm looking at you, Faroese Tourist Board... whose site appears to be down for maintenance.)