All events in the Winter Lights Festival are free to attend and the full schedule can be read in English here.

Reykjavík mayor Jón Gnarr will formally begin the festival at 19.30 with a short speech by Hallgrímskirkja before handing over to Marcos Zotes who will paint the cathedral in moving light themes inspired by the elements of water, fire, air and earth.

Dance, film, exhibitions, theatre, music and more will all compete for attention at a festival which truly has something for everyone – despite how cliché that phrase has become.

The festival also includes free access to many of Reykjavík’s swimming pools this Saturday evening and pool guests will be artistically stimulated all the while.

www.vetrarhatid.is

The bomb, which was destroyed in a controlled explosion, did not turn out to contain high explosives; but was designed to look like it did and to cause disruption. The explosion outside the IMF office and next to the Prime Minister’s office is also being taken seriously. Police say the explosion at arond 06.00 was a danger to safety and was much more than just fireworks.

Investigators are still combing through CCTV footage from Hverfisagata and nearby streets and several tip-offs have reportedly been received.

Nobody has yet been arrested and the explosion and device are still being investigated. An eyewitness described the man police are looking for as short and fat.

Meanwhile Ögmundur Jónasson, Minister of the Interior, has criticised the police for what he calls their slow reaction and the too-slow pace of their investigation so far. He intends to meet with police chiefs.

The 11 year-old boy is a student at Melaskóli in the Icelandic capital and returned armed from his lunch break yesterday.

According to DV sources the boy threatened to cut a teacher at the school’s throat with the knife and also threatened others nearby with the weapon.

Police officers were called to the school and succeeded in talking the boy down and taking the knife away. The case is to be referred to child protection authorities.

According to DV, students at the school were called in early from their afternoon break and counselled by teachers. Staff and students alike are understandably shaken by the unusual event; but it was reportedly dealt with in an appropriate and professional manner.

A section of the street near to the Prime Minister’s office remains cordoned off; although following the controlled explosion reporters have been allowed nearer as the danger level is believed to have dropped.

Bomb disposal teams from the police and the coastguard jointly disposed of the package in a controlled explosion. The package was found at 06.00. At around that time a security guard at the Prime Ministry reports hearing a bang.

Other people nearby also report hearing a loud bang, Vísir.is reports. It appears that pictures or placards with political messages were stuck to the outside of the Prime Ministry this morning just before the bang was heard and before the package was discovered. Similar placards were also put outside the Ministry of the Interior.

Police decided then to search for suspicious objects in other nearby government ministries, but none were found. A cabinet meeting has been allowed to proceed inside the Prime Ministry as police now believe the area to be safe.

UPDATE: The latest news is that the building next to the Prime Ministry where the package was found and destroyed is the Icelandic base of the IMF and that police were not only reacting to a suspicious box, but to a suspicious item inside the suspicious box.

The drugs operation was discovered in the east of the city. The police confiscated the plants and arrested four people in connection.

In both cases the plants were being grown in residential blocks. In one of the flats police found 70 cannabis plants, as well as an array of cosmetics which police believe were stolen, Vísir.is reports.

It was at the first address that police officers found clues leading them to the second address, where 18 cannabis plants were found. Two were arrested at each location and both are previously known to police.

Police sources say they are increasingly worried about cannabis production in residential buildings because of the fire risk. They say moisture from the plants can short circuit electrics, causing a fire – as has apparently happened recently.

The Icelandic police are extremely serious about drugs and raids such as this happen very regularly and always make the local headlines. Sometimes they find only two or three plants; but suspects are arrested nevertheless. What is noteworthy about this case is that the suspects were all named as being of Asian origin.

The Icelandic Sound Poetry Choir was established in 2003. It performs two to three times per year, and the choir has performed various works by Icelandic and foreign composers like Magnús Pálsson, Philip Corner, Eric Andersen, Kristinn G. Harðarson, Rúrí, Harpa Björnsdóttir, Ásta Ólafsdóttir, Eiríksína Ásgrímsdóttir, Áka Ásgeirsson, Magnea Ásmundsdóttir, Þorkell Atlason and Magnús Jensson.

The choir performed at the PPF Polipoetryfestival in Reykjavík 2006, it has performed twice at the Reykjavík Arts Festival and twice at the Sequences Art Festival.

Conductors have been from the beginning Snorri Sigfús Birgisson and Hörður Bragason. Hörður is now the main conductor.

The following works will be performed on Friday:

“Ekið úr bænum“ (for 4 voices).
By Kristinn G. Harðarson. Conductor Snorri Sigfús Birgisson. Premièred by the choir at the festival “Orðið tónlist” in Reykjavík Art Museum in 2005.

“Á strönd og sjó” (for 10 voices and a video).
By Kristinn G. Harðarson. Conductor Snorri Sigfús Birgisson. Premièred by the choir at the Living Art Museum in 2004.

“Samhverfun”
By Guðmundur Vignir Karlsson and Sigtryggur Baldursson, who also conducts.

Free admission.

Skúlagata 28, 101 Reykjavík.

The figure is around a million tonnes more than in 2010, which the company says is partly, or totally, explained by the fact that 2011 was colder than 2010. The average Reykjavík temperature in 2010 was 0.5°C warmer than in 2011, Vísir.is reports.

At the end of 2010 Reykjavík Energy opened its new hot water pumping station from the Hellisheið geothermal power station. The new plant makes the city’s water supply more reliable and one tenth of last year’s hot water came from Hellisheiði.

“Hot water use in the capital region in December 2011 was around a million tonnes more than in December 2010, as the average [outside] temperature was two degrees lower. In November 2011 hot water use was, however, 1.3 million tonnes less than in the same month in 2010, so that it can be said the cold in December was not able to outweigh the heat in November,” a statement on the energy company’s website states.

According to Visit Reykjavík the majority of guests are staying in hotels, but guesthuses and hostels are also busy – and according to staff at the city’s biggest tourist information bureau, visitors this year seem particularly interested in eating and drinking well and in visiting the cities museums and swimming pools, Vísir.is reports.

The imposing Hallgrímskirkja cathedral has been especially busy with tourists; while the newest attraction, the Harpa conference and concert centre, has also been well attended. The distinctive building itself has been an especially popular draw, but staff also say interest in concerts has been running high.

For those not in Reykjavík and wishing to enjoy the spectacle of many hundreds of tonnes of fireworks being let off across the city, a webcam has been set up to view around the world. Overseas web surfers are reminded, however, that between 22.30 and 23.30 GMT on New Year’s Eve the most popular television programme of the year is on (a comedic round-up of the year’s events) and almost everybody will be inside to watch – leaving the skies eerily quiet for an hour in between the mass release of fireworks, which starts as early as 21.00. Fireworks in Iceland are largely sold by charities and sports clubs, and in many cases it is the year’s biggest fundraising event.

Yesterday morning the depth of snow was 33 centimetres in Reykjavík and neighbouring municipalities; which is a record. Since records began being kept in 1921 there has never been a 24 hour period in December with more snowfall over the Icelandic capital.

Intermittent snow showers continued throughout yesterday, but the Met Office predicts a change in the weather today; with initial snow, followed by sleet and eventually rain.

The forecast is for a warming trend and temperatures above zero in all lowland areas of Iceland on New Year’s Day.

Another record has also been set in the capital region, where snow has laid on the ground uninterrupted since the 26th November — the longest period of early winter snow cover since records began. It is by no means certain yet that the rise in temperatures will last long enough to stop the uninterrupted snow cover record carrying on into January.

In addition to municipal workers being busy ploughing the streets, rescue teams across Iceland have also been busy helping stuck motorists. It was snowing so hard in Reykjavík yesterday morning that some car hire companies were turning potential customers away, advising them to come back when road conditions were better.

Things are no different elsewhere in Iceland; for example in the town of Ólafsvík, on the Snæfellsnes peninsular, where snow ploughers say they have not seen snow like it for many years. Three machines worked for three hours to open the small town’s main streets to traffic, where snow had been laying on the tarmac from 40 centimetres to fully two metres deep.

Perlan, which is owned by the financially embattled Reykjavík Energy, will be sold for ISK 1.7 billion (EUR 10.6 million). The purchasing investors plan to add more buildings to the tourist magnet site if permission can be obtained: a 300-room hotel and a spa.

An Independence Party Reykjavík city councillor has criticised the deal, saying the sales process has not been conducted properly.

Reykjavík Energy has ratified the statement of intent regarding the sale for ISK 1.7 billion. It is a group of investors in the construction, tourism and real estate businesses who are behind the offer, RÚV reports. Their offer has been accepted subject to city council approval for the extra building work and a cut-off date for the sale has been set at the 31st March.

Perlan is already a popular tourist attraction and the investors want to add a hotel, service centre and a spa with pools and steam baths.

Kjartan Magnússon, an Independence Party councillor, has brought up an objection to the deal, saying that the possibility of adding extra buildings to the site should have been brought up a lot earlier – adding that if it had been, Reykjavík Energy may have got a lot more offers for the building it is forced by circumstance to sell. He also accuses the company of not presenting information on specific offers to board members before this week’s statement of intent was signed. He says board members were hastily emailed a copy of the statement and supporting documents after already having read about it in the newspapers.

(Photo: Perlan.is)