Blue Lagoon "Hangover Party"

An annual tradition of the Iceland Airwaves music festival is the Saturday "Hangover" party at the Blue Lagoon.

The Blue Lagoon is a huge thermal pool that is a by-product of the adjacent geothermal plant. Seawater is pumped into the ground and super-heated, which then turns turbines and generates electricity. The waste product is hot water full of minerals, silica and algae. The silica is what gives the water its blue look, and the bottom of the lagoon is full of silica mud which feels really nice on your skin.

For the hangover party, a sound system is setup and DJs spin as the audience soaks. This year, Flockids and DJ Detect from France provided the entertainment. The music was fun, upbeat techno which had everyone bobbing in the pools.

You can see the geothermal plant in the background, with all the steam coming of it. I overheard someone saying, "this place is so great. Too bad they built that power plant right next to it!" A bit unclear on the concept I guess.

I'd highly recommend a trip to the Blue Lagoon, it's an amazing sight and the combination of hot water and cold air is exhilarating. There is also a spa, bar, and places to eat. I'm not sure if you can normally drink beer in the lagoon, but for this we could.

The water is different temperatures in different areas of the pools. The entire thing is warm, but some sections are really hot, so by moving around you get your choice of heat. Hot water with cold air feels great; it really is a good way to wake yourself up on a Saturday. I wish I had taken some before and after shots of the people on the bus with us... everyone was half awake going out, and totally happy and relaxed on the way back.

Merin suggested SomaFM do some some sound installation there; Groove Salad and Cliqhop music in the "lounge" pool, and a Drone Zone-inspired multispeaker/multichannel installation through the larger and more distant pools. Maybe even some underwater sounds. (Like a giant version of the "Drone Dome" we did at Burning Man a couple years ago.)