Icelandic band ADHD will head to Canada on June 17th, where they are set to perform at eight jazz festivals across the country over the coming weeks. The tour marks a pinnacle of Iceland Music’s dedicated efforts in mapping out the Canadian festival circuit and expanding opportunities for Icelandic musicians in the region.

To celebrate the tour, we invited ADHD to take over our Iceland Music Jazz playlist. The band—a collective of well-known mavericks celebrated for flouting conventional rules—delivered a selection that perfectly reflects their mischievous spirit. It is an unpredictable yet immensely enjoyable journey through the minds of its members, capturing much of the most exciting work happening in the Icelandic jazz scene today.

Collaboration Between Iceland Music and the Canadian Jazz Festivals Association

The unique nature of the Canadian jazz festivals, which are quite numerous, lies in the fact that they mostly take place during the same one-month period over the summer. Due to the country’s vast geography, the festivals do not compete but rather work closely together, often sharing artist bookings. The festival organizers meet at annual AGMs to review bookings for the upcoming summer, where Iceland Music presents a curated list of prominent Icelandic jazz projects. If festivals book Icelandic talent through this network, Iceland Music then provides travel assistance.

This initiative yielded immediate results last summer when musician Anna Gréta Sigurðardóttir and the band Hist og performed at the Ottawa and Edmonton jazz festivals, alongside their own headline show in Toronto. Following this success, the chairperson of the Canadian Jazz Festivals Association was invited to the Reykjavík Jazz Festival to experience the Icelandic scene firsthand.

Sigtryggur Baldursson, export specialist at Iceland Music, notes that ADHD’s tour is clear evidence that the mapping of the festivals and the networking efforts of recent years are paying off, while emphasizing that the vitality of the local scene and the involvement of Icelandic industry professionals are crucial factors:

"Canada is a tremendously powerful market that is opening up significantly, not least due to growing interest in European collaborations. However, projects like these are not executed in isolation, which is why we have also focused on developing the local infrastructure and the professional sector here at home. That work is also yielding stronger results; musicians are generally becoming much better at securing solid partners, as seen in the case of ADHD, who work with manager Sveinn Snorri."

ADHD on Tour in Canada:

• June 18: Winnipeg, Winnipeg Jazz Festival
• June 19: Gimli, Gimli Festival
• June 20: Toronto, Wavelength Festival
• June 21: Ottawa, Ottawa Jazz Festival
• June 23: Toronto, Toronto Jazz Festival
• June 25: Calgary, Calgary Jazz Festival
• June 26: Edmonton, Edmonton Jazz Festival
• June 27: Vancouver, Vancouver Jazz Festival