Something for the Weekend: Highbrow Edition

A round up of things to do in Reykjavík this weekend, prepared by your good-looking and oh-so culturally minded editors.

• He’s back! Former General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and Pizza Hut fan, Mikhail Gorbachev is back in Iceland this weekend. No Ronald Reagan this time, just a lot of people willing to pay between £125 and £235 (€185 to €348) to go to Háskólabíó at 17.00 today and listen to Gorby talk about “leadership.”
• The Iceland Dance Company premières ‘Við erum komin’ (’We Have Arrived’) at the Reykjavík City Theatre. We recommend the première tonight — lots of free bubbly during intermission — but you can also catch them on Friday and Sunday. Be a dancing queen.
• Embarassingly, there’s seems to be nothing worthwhile happening on Friday. Correct us if we’re wrong. Plan B: Go straight to Kaffibarinn, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Update: The Rocktobeerfest (we kid you not) is on at Gaukurinn, featuring the Telepathetics, Ske, Leaves, Dikta og Wulfgang. They say it starts at 22. Yeah, right. We stand corrected.
• For your post-Friday hangover (assuming you manage to get one), nothing beats Iceland’s answer to Wagner, Jón Leifs. He’ll be on full blast Saturday, when the Iceland Symphony Orchestra plays his epic Edda I, complete with choir and lots and lots of people banging on things.
• Of course, if Nordic myth is not your thing, there’s always the lovely Skakkamanage, who are celebrating the release of their lovely new album, Lab of Love, with a concert at Fríkirkjan on Saturday. We’re betting that all the cool kids will be there.

And hey — let’s be careful out there.