6:00PM Loftkastalinn, a theatre in the western part of town. The theatre itself is on the second floor (that's called third floor in Iceland), but we are here for a short poetry event in the bar/foyer area on the floor below. 4 writers - Thór Eldon (ex-Sugarcubes), Heimir Már (right), as well as two female writers we don't personally know, Didda, and a sit-in for the author Kristín Ómarsdóttir (who could not personally be present to read from her book) - read their poems to aural backdrops by Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson. The music is kept low and subtle, and yet its presence is very strong - like the dramatic Icelandic landscape. We should really learn Icelandic, so that we can understand the poems too! (PS. thanks to Heimir for filling in the missing names :-)

7:05PM We arrive at Grillhúsid, the venue of the last gig on the Hamburger Tour, a little late, and find Bibbi and Tina standing in the long queue for tables. Of course, this restaurant is bang in the middle of town, and with so many people out and about all over downtown, it's no wonder that it's so packed. Still, by 7:20 we manage to get a big table in the corner (there are a few of us tonight too.) As Bibbi's supposed to be at the Reykjavík Art Museum's Harbour House opposite the restaurant before 8pm, to work as a sound tech for the Bad Taste event, the time is getting very tight, but he manages to convince the restaurant staff to rush his order. Hamburgers here are *huge*! (We're not going to show you just how huge, as we are sure you're fed up of seeing endless photos of Usako & Kousa nibbling french fries ;-)

7:55PM We pop down to Tjarnarbío, a small theatre by the lake, where a Icelandic-Canadian collective called Tími is staging a whole evening of concerts, accompanied by video projection. We manage to catch the last 10 minutes of Project 8's set - Maggi and another musician are on stage with Jóhann E.

8:15PM Walking along the crowded main streets to Living Art Museum is a real hassle, and it takes us longer to get there than usual. Here they have 3 exhibitions (which last Saturday, when we were in bed, so we missed the private view), and we're not sure what the event is about, but the names mentioned in programme, the poet Sjón and (Kitchen Motors) are interesting enough, hence the trip over. When we walk in, a crowd are moving around the first floor space, where an exhibition of Icelandic Love Corporation is on, listening to the artists and the "guides" talk about individual pieces. Which, of course, is in Icelandic, and is not much fun for us. (We really must learn the language!) We sit down and watch some of their animation work, which is cute and well executed, although a bit too clean for our taste. We then decide to come back to see the exhibition some other time, when it's not full of people.

8:45PM A quick bite at the Grænn kostur vegetarian restaurant, which is also pretty full but not as jam-packed as places on the main streets.

9:05PM Ommu Kaffi, a little cafe on the main street. Vardi is sitting in a corner with another guitarist, playing a quiet duo, amidst the nice smell of waffles (I know, we've just eaten too!) This place is pretty full too, we stay for a few minutes and then...

9:15PM Pop into the bookstore next door. Here, a rap band, Nafnlausir, is performing at the far end of the shop, among shelves dictionaries and CDs.

9:25PM Back to Tjarnarbío. Earlier on, they were running half an hour behind the announced schedule. Now they seem to be nearly an hour behind, so we manage to catch most of Helgi Thórsson's set, accompanied by video by himself and his group, Stillupsteypa. We try to stay standing in the aisle, but by this point more and more people start pushing and piling inside, and we are forced to go further in and sit down on the steps. By the time they are setting up for the next act, it becomes impossible to stay sitting down. After being squashed for a little while, and listening to a little bit of Kimono (who are a bit tame for Usako & Kousa's tastes), we push our way outside for some fresh air.

9:55PM And so on to Harbour House (right), where Bad Taste are hosting an evening of performances by the label's members and artists. An interesting thing about Culture Night is that it's not only the crowd who do the venue hopping and event crawling, the artists & performers do it too! So here we see Bibbi again on the sound mixing desk; and having seen Thór Eldon read to Hilmar's soundtrack earlier on this evening, we now wee Thór sitting behind a keyboard while Jóhamar reads. There is more interaction between the music and the voice: instead of the former simply providing a background soundscape against which the text is spoken, here it is done to and with the music - especially in the last piece, which was almost like a song. Thór's keyboard looks like the one Hilmar was using earlier, so I ask him: "It is very similar to Hilmar's, but this one's different - it's mine" :-)

Einar Örn (left) has been snapping away with his Nokia mobile phone (at one point during the performance), he sent his son with it to take extreme close-up shots of the performers, halting the proceedings and making the audience laugh.

We didn't stay for the next set, and walked home through the crowded streets, where people were still partying away. There were some big fireworks down by the harbour at 11:00PM - by then we were back home, but went outside to watch the colourful display for about 10 minute that it lasted.

We're flying off to Berlin for a few days now, to see Deep Purple, back on Thursday night. It means we'll miss the Icelandic Deep Purple tribute band who are playing this week. Oh well, at least we'll get to see the real thing instead. More news and reports to follow next week, no doubt...