FREE EVENTS: Taste of Iceland Brings Icelandic Music, Design, Cocktails, and More to New York City
Short on land but huge on culture, Taste of Iceland is bringing the ultimate celebration of all things Iceland to NYC. The series is returning with three days of music, design, film, food, and bike rides. Here’s a comprehensive look as Iceland descends upon the city that never sleeps. Oh, and we’ve never had to write FREE EVENT this many times in a single story.
FREE EVENTS: Taste of Iceland Brings Icelandic Music, Design, Cocktails, and More to New York City
Fanning out across the city for three days straight, Taste of Iceland returns to New York with a celebration of Icelandic culture. For over a decade, Tate of Iceland has brought the country's music, design, architecture, hospitality, and outdoor culture to venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Organized by Inspired by Iceland, the annual festival translates a trip across the North Atlantic into a series of free events around the city, while several lucky ticketed attendees will also be randomly selected to spin Icelandair's Wheel of Prizes during select events, with a trip to Iceland and luxury products from Icelandic brands among the prizes. Other cities recently visited by Taste of Iceland include Seattle, London, and Washington, DC.
This year's programming in NYC ranges from an Iceland Airwaves off-venue show on the Lower East Side and an Icelandic-designed group bike ride through Brooklyn to conversations about bathing and architecture, film screenings, Icelandic cocktails, astronomy, comedy, and a photography exhibition devoted to the world's worst photographer.
Thursday, October 1, 2026
Taste of Iceland Brings an Icelandic Feast to Pier 57
What’s happening: As part of the 3-day Taste of Iceland extravaganza, the organization is bringing three Icelandic chefs to the James Beard Foundation’s Platform for a communal dinner exploring the country’s cooking through ingredients from its land and sea. Hugi Stefánsson, head chef at Reykjavík’s Black Sand Hotel; Þórir Erlingsson, president of the Icelandic Chefs Association; and Hafliði Halldórsson, Certified Master Chef and CEO of Icelandic Lamb, have created a multi-course menu centered on Icelandic seafood, meat, dairy, and produce.
The Icelandic connection: Eat as the Icelanders do. The menu begins with a Himbrimi Gin welcome cocktail before moving through scallop sashimi with strawberry-umeboshi and lime cream, crumpet bread with Icelandic Feykir cheese, prosciutto, and truffle honey, and slow-cooked Arctic char with dill and cucumber.
Fried Icelandic cod comes with Icelandic wasabi, ricotta, and langoustine foam, while grilled Icelandic lamb loin is served with parsley breading, asparagus velouté, grilled asparagus, and oxtail reduction. Rhubarb crumble precedes a final dessert of lemon skyr, raspberries, rose, and meringue. Guests 21 and older can also add a Maison Wessman wine pairing, with individual wines matched to courses throughout the dinner.
Thursday, October 1, 2026 from 6:30 PM to 9:30 PM at Platform by JBF, Pier 57, 25 11th Avenue, New York, NY 10011. Tickets range from $185 to $250. Reservations are required. Use code oct2026 for 10% off ticket prices. Information and tickets here.
FREE EVENT: Iceland Airwaves Off-Venue at Pianos
What's happening: Reykjavík's Iceland Airwaves festival is heading to the Lower East Side for an off-venue show at Pianos featuring Icelandic artists of all genres.
The Icelandic connection: Each year in November, music lovers and adventure seekers from around the world gather in the city for Iceland Airwaves: three days and nights of music at in venues across downtown Reykjavík. Now, they’re bringing the festival to NYC. It's a compact introduction to the contemporary Reykjavík music scene, featuring artists like SCAM (techno, metal, pop), Inspector Spacetime (high-energy electronic pop), and Hermigervill (Icelandic beats between performances). Ticketed guests will also be eligible for selection to spin Icelandair's Wheel of Prizes.
Thursday, October 1, 2026 from 7:00 PM onward at Pianos, 158 Ludlow Street, New York, NY 10002. Admission is free with a ticket. More information and tickets here.
Friday, October 2, 2026
FREE EVENT: Ride NYC with Lauf Cycles
What's happening: Icelandic bicycle maker Lauf Cycles is taking a small group of riders on a curated 10-mile social ride through Brooklyn. Riders will set out from Other Half Brewing at Domino Park aboard the Lauf Úthald (from $3,490 for a full build), an all-road carbon bicycle designed and engineered in Iceland.
The Icelandic connection: The bikes are Icelandic. The three-hour ride puts Icelandic industrial design into motion while exploring Brooklyn, pairing Lauf's approach to lightweight, all-road cycling with an appropriately outdoors-focused way of experiencing New York.
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM, departing from Other Half Brewing Domino Park, 34 River Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249. Participation is free, with limited tickets distributed to selected registrants. Information and sign up here.
FREE EVENT: SOAK: The Radical Act of Bathing Together
What's happening: The team behind SOAK: Rituals of Collective Belonging, Iceland's contribution to the 2027 Venice Architecture Biennale, comes to Scandinavia House for an afternoon examining bathing as architecture, ritual, and shared civic space. Basalt Architects partner Marcos Zotes, Gagarín CEO Kristín Eva Ólafsdóttir, architect and author Christie Pearson, and Parsons professor Miodrag Mitrašinović will explore Iceland's UNESCO-recognized bathing culture alongside traditions from elsewhere in the world and New York's own culture of shared space. Icelandic writer and documentary filmmaker Andri Snær Magnason moderates the discussion.
The Icelandic connection: Iceland's pools and geothermal baths are world-renowned and often presented to visitors as wellness experiences. SOAK considers what happens when they're treated as architecture and social infrastructure instead. With architects, designers, and academics approaching the subject from different directions, the conversation offers a deeper look at how the simple act of bathing together can influence the way spaces for community and belonging are designed.
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Information and tickets here.
FREE EVENT: Across Iceland: A Guided Cocktail Journey
What's happening: Icelandic guide and storyteller Ragnar Bragason and mixologist Arnór Gísli are turning the gin-focused Ivory Peacock into a two-hour liquid tour of Iceland. Bragason guides guests through different regions of the country and the places where Iceland Hotel Collection by Berjaya welcomes travelers, while Gísli pairs the journey with three cocktails made with Himbrimi Gin, each inspired by the landscape, mood, and character of a different destination.
The Icelandic connection: Iceland’s cocktail culture is strong. It's part cocktail tasting and part Icelandic travelogue. Rather than simply presenting three drinks, the event uses each cocktail as a way into a different part of Iceland, combining Bragason's storytelling with Gísli's interpretation of place through Icelandic gin. Ticketed guests will also be eligible for selection to spin Icelandair's Wheel of Prizes.
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM at The Ivory Peacock, 38 W. 26th Street, New York, NY 10010. Admission is free with a ticket. Guests must be 21 or older and present valid ID. Information and tickets here.
FREE EVENT: Emilíana Torrini: The Extraordinary Miss Flower
What's happening: Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini, the voice behind "Gollum's Song" from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, comes to Scandinavia House for a screening of The Extraordinary Miss Flower, followed by a Q&A and short live performance. The film traces the discovery of a suitcase filled with love letters sent to Geraldine Flower during the 1960s and '70s, which ultimately inspired Torrini's Miss Flower album. If you can’t make it, the film is currently streaming on Apple TV.
The Icelandic connection: Iceland in the context of Hollywood. Part film screening, part conversation, and part concert, the evening offers an introduction to an Icelandic artist whose music has moved between folk, trip-hop, and electronica for more than two decades. The Extraordinary Miss Flower turns the real-life letters of a woman Torrini never knew into an impressionistic portrait told through film and music, before Torrini herself takes the stage to discuss the project and perform a few songs.
Friday, October 2, 2026 from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Admission is free with a ticket. Information here.
Saturday, October 3
FREE EVENT: Iceland by the World's Worst Photographer
What's happening: Icelandair famously went looking for the world's worst photographer to prove a point: even bad photographs look good when Iceland is the subject. More than 127,000 applicants later, the airline selected 28-year-old Paris resident Blanche Mortemard and sent her across Iceland for ten days. Iceland by the World's Worst Photographer brings the resulting photographs to Chelsea for a one-day exhibition. In addition, the photographer herself will be on hand to discuss her work from 12:00PM to 1:00 PM (tickets for that here)
The Iceland connection: The project handed Iceland's landscapes to someone chosen specifically for her consistently poor photography and let reality make the case for itself. Expect waterfalls, glaciers, landscapes, questionable composition, and the occasional blur—all photographed by an actual traveler encountering Iceland. You’ll be booking a flight before the end of the day.
Saturday, October 3, 2026 from 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM at Lavan Chelsea, 541 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10001. Information here.
FREE EVENT: Time and Water Film Screening & Conversation
What's happening: Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sara Dosa, director of Fire of Love, turns to Iceland's disappearing glaciers in Time and Water, a new National Geographic documentary drawn from seven decades of Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason's family film archives and writing. The full screening at Scandinavia House is followed by a conversation between Dosa and Magnason about memory, ice, and Iceland's changing landscape.
The Iceland connection: Iceland's glaciers are noble, but active. Magnason's family archives allow Dosa to place environmental change against a human lifespan, using decades of home movies to consider what it means to watch landscapes that once appeared permanent disappear within a generation.
Saturday, October 3, 2026 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Scandinavia House, 58 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10016. Information and tickets here.
FREE EVENT: Learn About the Northern Lights
What's happening: Icelandic astronomy educator and science communicator Sævar Helgi Bragason brings Iceland's night sky indoors for an afternoon devoted to the Northern Lights. Bragason will explain the science behind the aurora, when and where travelers have the best chance of seeing it, and why the coming years are expected to provide particularly interesting opportunities for aurora viewing.
The Iceland connection: Seeing the Northern Lights is easy to put on an Iceland itinerary and considerably harder to guarantee. Bragason combines the spectacle with the practicalities, explaining what actually creates the aurora and what travelers should know when trying to see it for themselves. Ticketed guests will also be eligible for selection to spin Icelandair's Wheel of Prizes.
Saturday, October 3, 2026 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Lavan Chelsea, 541 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10001. Admission is free with a ticket. Information and tickets here.
FREE EVENT: The Truth: Iceland Unfiltered with Bergur Ebbi and Ragnar Bragason
What's happening: Reykjavík-based comedians and storytellers Bergur Ebbi and Ragnar Bragason take on the assumptions, peculiarities, and cultural misunderstandings surrounding their home country in an evening hosted by Icelandair. Rather than conventional stand-up, Iceland Unfiltered is structured as a conversation between two Icelanders trading stories about the country's traditions, tourists, identity, and everyday realities.
The Iceland connection: Ebbi and Bragason are offering the local perspective on Iceland from Icelanders, with stories about what visitors get wrong, the stranger realities of Icelandic life, and some thoroughly unqualified advice from the people who actually live there. Yes, your pronunciation of Reykjavík may come up. Ticketed guests will also be eligible for selection to spin Icelandair's Wheel of Prizes.
Saturday, October 3, 2026 from 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Lavan Chelsea, 541 W. 25th Street, New York, NY 10001. Admission is free with a ticket and limited to guests 21 and older with valid ID. Information and tickets here.
Famously resistant to practically any partnerships, Southwest Airlines gains access Europe via Icelandair, while Icelandair gains access to the US market.