Nightclubs happen in the dark for a reason. They offer a chance to let your hair down, dance and get sweaty without worrying about what you look like.
At Iceland’s Secret Solstice that’s not an option. The sun never sets over the three-day music festival, which is held in mid June outside the capital Reykjavik. Because of its close proximity to the Arctic Circle the sun only bounces off the horizon at 3.30am and it never gets dark.
“It’s a bit shocking seeing the state of everyone,” admits Fred Olafsson, Secret Solstice’s operations director and founder.
But he also reckons that the 24-hour sunlight helps to make Secret Solstice one of the greenest music festivals in the world because it has minimal lighting needs. Any power it does use comes from Iceland’s vast geothermal energy and hydropower reserves.
“It’s in a beautiful part of town; we have lots of trees on site, but the main thing is we don’t have any diesel generators,” he says. “When you go to festivals around the world they have generators fenced off making loud noises and producing greenhouse gas emissions, which is not the case for us.”