The annual three-day celebration of music is unique. Sure, music festivals are held on islands and beaches around the world. But G! is something else. Taking over the village of Syðrugöta – population 400 – on the island of Eysturoy, the festival’s stages are built on the beach and the football pitch, right under the windows of houses. Locals welcome the visitors, a refreshing contrast to the grudging reception which can greet festival goers elsewhere.
G! is also held against the backdrop of the Faroes’ breath-taking landscape, a terrain dominated by grass-carpeted mountains. Caught between the peaks and the ocean, in a break between the cliffs skirting the coastline, Syðrugøta is set in an unrivalled natural amphitheatre. This is where Tróndur í Götu confronted the Norwegians who brought Christianity in the 11th century. He was threatened with beheading. Thankfully, times have changed.
