(Our French contributor Zoltar made his way to Iceland again to attend the June 2025 edition of Sátan festival, and we received the following report, with a few of Zoltar‘s photos.)

Be warned, you’ll often read this same phrase over and over again in the following report: Only in Iceland…

Mind you, it’s far from being my first time here as after a first visit in the mid-00s as a regular tourist (no metal involved), I had the chance to attend a few times the now defunct Eistnaflug festival and also to be invited to be part of the Wacken Battle Iceland jury. Yet, this tiny country with a big heart never ceases to amaze me, on all levels.

And yes, only in Iceland could a festival be set up in the middle of freakin’ nowhere (that would be in this very case Stykkishholmúr for you, roughly one three-hour drive up from Reykjavik, population 1,300) in early June called Sátan Festival. And yes, there’s a twist here. The accent makes all the difference, since Sátan (look it up, google it if you don’t believe me) is first and foremost the name of a local mountain with an old legend attached to it.

Besides a hard-to-transcribe-on-paper pronunciation – try something like ‘sauthan’ – the name has actually something to do with a legend about a troll, a haystack, a horse, and a couple of extra things I’m not entirely sure of anymore… But that’s not what really matters here, as this new and up-and-coming festival (this is their second edition) encapsulates everything that makes the Icelandic scene such a special one. Continue reading »