Counting down to Húsavík Explorers Festival

Neil Armstrong's grandchildren unveil the Astronaut Training Monument in Húsavík last year.

Neil Armstrong’s grandchildren unveiling the Astronaut Training Monument in Húsavík last year.

The Explorers Festival will take place for the second time in Húsavík, on the north coast of Iceland, from October 20 to 23, 2016. The festival consists of a series of talks by explorers, art exhibitions that deal with the theme of exploration, concerts, film screenings and smaller events.

NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski (US) who has flown 5 Space Shuttle Missions and conducted 7 spacewalks, will give the main talk. He is the first and only astronaut to summit Mt. Everest and a life-long Scuba diver.

From Erró's Astronaut series (Reykjavík Art Museum)

From Erró’s Astronaut series (Reykjavík Art Museum)

Other speakers at the festival include explorer Mike Dunn (US), who in 1985 led an expedition to the North Pole with Neil Armstrong and Sir Edmund Hillary, author Kari Herbert (UK) who is the daughter of Polar Explorer Sir Wally Herbert, exploration historian Dr. Huw Lewis-Jones (UK), planetary geologist Meena Wadhwa (US) from Arizona State University, and the Indian Malik twins (IND), first female twins to climb Mount Everest and first siblings and twins to scale the Seven Summits.

An art exhibitions will open during the festival, in Húsavík Art Gallery, where space related works of famed Icelandic artist Erró will be on display along side viking works by Lithuanian artist Arturas Slapsys.

Festival program

Download a printable PDF of the program.


Astronaut Training in IcelandTHU October 20, 2016

18:30 Opening of the festival and dinner at Naustið Restaurant.
20:00 Movie screening: Kon-Tiki (2012) at town cinema. Free entry.


Huw-in-Antarctica-hutFRI October 21, 2016

09:30 Visit and meetings at the local school.
17:00 Exploring Poetry, hosted by Dr. Huw Lewis-Jones at Húsavík Whale Museum. Free entry. With readings by Jakob Jonsson, Kari Herbert and others.
18:30 Dinner at Hvalbakur.
20:00 Evening visit to The Exploration Museum. Free entry.
21:30 Ice-Fi films screening at Fjúk Arts Center. Free entry.


US Ambassador Robert C. Barber and Journalist Kári Jónasson who was there 50 years ago.SAT October 22, 2016

10:00 Sailing with North Sailing on Skjálfandi Bay.
14:00 Exhibition opening at Húsavík Museum. Erró & Artura Slapsys. Free entry.
15:00 Explorers Talks at Húsavík Maritime Museum. Free entry.
Dr. Huw Lewis-Jones, exploration historian.
Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa, astrogeologist.
– Mike Dunn, explorer.
18:00 Dinner at Fosshótel Húsavík and Leif Erikson Exploration Awards, with talks by:
Kari Herbert, writer and daughter of polar explorer Sir Wally Herbert.
– Nungshi and Tashi Malik, alpinists and explorers.
Scott Parazynski, NASA Astronaut and mountaineer.
Email us at info@explorationmuseum.com to book tickets for the awards and a 3 course dinner, price 8.100 ISK (including welcome drink)


Polar ExplorationSUN October 23, 2016

09:00 Breakfast talks at Húsavík Cape Hotel:
– Örlygur Hnefill – Training for the Moon in Iceland.
– Francesco Perini – K2 1954: the Italian Mountain.
– Christa Maria Feucht and Martin Gasser – Breiðdalssetur and Exploration.


Speakers

NASA Astronaut Scott ParazynskiScott Parazynski has flown 5 Space Shuttle Missions and conducted 7 spacewalks, will give the main talk. He is the first and only astronaut to summit Mt. Everest and a life-long Scuba diver. In 1998 he flew on Space Shuttle mission STS-95 with US Senator John Glenn. While scaling Everest in 2009, he carried with him a rock picked from the surface of the Moon by Neil Armstrong 40 years earlier. The Moon rock is now located onboard the International Space Station in Earth Orbit.

Kari HerbertKari Herbert is the daughter of Polar Explorer Sir Wally Herbert, who in 1969 became the first man fully recognized for walking to the North Pole, on the 60th anniversary of Robert Peary’s famous expedition. Herbert spent the first few years of her life living on a remote island in the Arctic with the Polar Inuit of Northwest Greenland. Her talk on the powerful wives of the great explorers is named Heart of the Hero.

Huw Lewis-JonesDr. Huw Lewis-Jones is a British historian, editor, broadcaster and art director. Formerly a historian and Curator of Art at the Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Lewis-Jones left Cambridge in June 2010 to pursue book and broadcasting projects. He is the Editorial Director of the independent publishing company Polarworld. He will give a talk on explorers’ sketchbooks, rare journals of great explorers.

Mike DunnMike Dunn is an explorer and adventurer. In 1985, he took Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon in 1969) and Sir Edmund Hillary (first to summit Mt. Everest in 1953) to the North Pole, organizing and leading the expedition. He will tell the story of this amazing journey and how it came to be.

Meena WadhwaDr. Meenakshi Wadhwa is the director of the Center for Meteorite Studies and a professor of geological sciences in the School of Earth and Space Exploration, both at Arizona State University, for which reason she oversees the curation of one of the largest university-based meteorite collections. She is also a research associate at The Field Museum in Chicago.

Malik TwinsTashi and Nungshi Malik are the first siblings and twins to climb the Seven Summits, reach the North and South Poles and complete the Explorers Grand Slam and the Three Poles Challenge. In addition to that, they currently are also the youngest persons ever to have completed the Explorers Grand Slam (Last Degree).


Special offers for flights and accommodation

Eagle Air
25% discount on flights during the festival.
Contact info@eagleair.is to book your flight.

Húsavík Cape Hotel
15.600 ISK ($145) for a double room / 14.000 ISK ($123) for a single room.
15% extra discount if two or more nights booked.
Contact info@husavikhotels.com to book your room.

Fosshótel Húsavík
15.600 ISK ($145) for a double room / 14.000 ISK ($123) for a single room.
Contact husavik@fosshotel.is to book your room.

Húsavík Hostel
10.000 ISK ($88) for a double room / 8.000 ISK ($70) for a single room.
Contact info@husavikhotels.com to book your room.

Húsavík Guesthouse
10.000 ISK ($88) for a double room / 8.000 ISK ($70) for a single room.
Contact info@husavikhotels.com to book your room.

Isafold Travel offers a tour on 4×4 vehicles from Reykjavík to Húsavík, crossing over the highlands and overnighting in mountain cabins for those who wish to arrive in style.
Contact info@isafoldtravel.is to book your trip.

Northern Lights over Húsavík. Photo by Gaukur Hjartarson

Northern Lights over Húsavík. Photo by Gaukur Hjartarson