Keflavík

Keflavík — "driftwood bay" — grew up as a trading place on the shores of the bay. In 1579 the Danish king granted Hanseatic merchants the first licence to trade there, and from 1602 trade fell under the Danish monopoly. Settlement began to thicken after 1772, when Holger Jacobaeus was appointed merchant in Keflavík for the monopoly trading company, and the town developed on its fishing and fish processing. The trading lot was extended south into Njarðvík land in 1891, and Keflavík received town rights on 22 March 1949.

The Second World War changed it utterly. The United States Army built an air base beside the town to defend Iceland and secure the North Atlantic air routes, and after the war it became Naval Air Station Keflavik, home of the Iceland Defense Force and a long-running political issue; in the 1960s and 1970s protesters walked every year the 50 kilometres from Reykjavík to chant against NATO and the army. The airfield also became Iceland's main international airport. As aircraft ranges grew and the Soviet Union dissolved, the base mattered less, and the last American personnel left on 8 September 2006.

In the mid-1990s Keflavík merged with Njarðvík and the village of Hafnir to form Reykjanesbær. After 2006 part of the old base was reborn as Ásbrú, with an education centre, Keilir, and new businesses, while the main base area passed to Iceland's defence authorities and is used periodically by NATO aircraft for air policing. Since 2021, and above all since late 2023, eruptions on the peninsula near Grindavík have brought volcanic danger close to the town's doorstep.

Within Iceland, Keflavík is famous for its music. In the 1960s and 1970s it produced so many musicians that it became known as Bítlabærinn, "the Beatle town". The best known were Hljómar, who also recorded in English for export as Thor's Hammer; their 1966 EP Umbarumbamba is one of the rarest records sought by collectors. The town honours that past with the Icelandic Museum of Rock 'n' Roll, opened in 2014 in the Hljómahöll concert hall, which covers Icelandic pop and rock from 1920 onwards — Hljómar alongside Björk, Sigur Rós and Of Monsters and Men.

The town's festival is Ljósanótt, the Night of Lights, held on the first weekend of September since 2000. Shops, exhibitions and concerts fill the weekend, and on the Saturday night crowds gather at Myllubakki to hear well-known bands until dark, when the floodlights on the Keflavíkurberg cliff are switched on and fireworks follow. A competition chooses a song for each year's festival.

Sport has a loyal following through Keflavík ÍF, the town's sports and youth association, whose divisions include football, basketball and swimming. Viking World in Njarðvík, built around the replica longship Íslendingur that crossed the Atlantic in 2000 to mark the millennium of Leif Eriksson's voyage to Vinland, links the town to the saga past, and the Duus museum houses at the harbour hold its heritage collection and boat models.

Reykjanesbær had 21,957 residents in 2024, making it Iceland's fourth largest municipality; Keflavík is the largest of its three settlements and has grown together with Njarðvík into one continuous town. Growth has been fast, from about 18,900 in 2019, and immigrants and their children made up just over a quarter of the population in 2024 — Poles, Lithuanians and Ukrainians are the most common foreign citizens.

The airport is the economic engine. It handles almost all of Iceland's international journeys, is a hub for Icelandair and has been expanded several times, most recently with a new eastern wing opened between 2023 and 2025, and the peninsula as a whole lives largely off the airport and the visitors who pass through it. Ásbrú, the former base, now houses students, colleges and companies in its old buildings.

Keflavík and Njarðvík grew into each other over the second half of the 20th century until only a single street separated them, and Reykjanesbær is now the most populous municipality outside the capital area and in the wider Suðurnes region, which it shares with five neighbouring municipalities. The eruptions near Grindavík, whose residents were evacuated in November 2023, are close by, and magma has continued to accumulate beneath the area since the last eruption.

Keflavík was built on fish, and its food is the Icelandic everyday kitchen of lamb, dairy and seafood. Icelanders today eat mostly haddock, plaice, halibut, herring and shrimp. Saltfiskur, salted cod, has a long history on the peninsula — in neighbouring Grindavík in the 13th century, the Bishop of Skálholt, who owned the fishing rights, took payment in stacks of salted cod.

The traditional staples turn up in shops and on menus here as anywhere in Iceland: skyr, a soft yoghurt-like cheese eaten with a spoon; rúgbrauð, a dense, dark and moist rye bread; hangikjöt, smoked lamb, often served in thin slices on flatkaka, a soft brown rye flatbread; and kleina, a small knotted bun of fried dough. At midwinter, þorramatur, the buffet of cured meat and fish, is served with rúgbrauð and brennivín, an Icelandic akvavit.

Because so many travellers spend a night here before or after a flight, the town's cafés and restaurants serve a steady passing trade. Supermarkets are the practical choice for anyone stocking up before setting off around the country or using up the last of their króna before flying home.