Following several days of musical and cultural discovery at Iceland Airwaves, Mark Wheat shares his thoughts as he reflects on his experiences in Akureyri and Reykjavik.

"We've seen some bands we've never seen before, we've had some great in-studio sessions, and we've tried to answer the question, 'Why is it that Iceland is so great at producing so many musicians and producing this amazing festival, Iceland Airwaves?'," Mark says.

"We've got a variety of different answers from musicians, people in the business, fans — and it boils down to the fact that the community here in Iceland is relatively small; everybody knows each other," Mark continues. "And so they know what each other are doing, and that kind of creates the positive competition: hey don't want to do the same thing as their friends are doing, so it pushes their creativity."

See all of what Mark Wheat has to say in the video above, and view performance highlights from The Current's live broadcasts from Iceland Airwaves.

Live performances recorded in Iceland

Resources

Iceland Airwaves - official site

Ösp - official site

JFDR - official site

Emilíana Torrini - official site

Ásgeir - official site

Mammút - official site

Hildur - official site

200,000 Naglbítar - Facebook