For the last three years, Honest has worked with The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba president, Grant Stephanson, and board to develop the annual festival theme. Every year, the president provides a general direction or tagline and we develop the creative and messaging to correspond with the president’s theme. The 2016 theme, “Celebrate New Iceland” was used as an introduction to the new brand, you can read all about the rebrand here. The 2017 theme, “Discover your Land” celebrated the coming together of the Canadian and Icelandic culture forged together over 150 years. The 2018 theme was based on family, community, and inclusiveness.
Armed with Grant’s direction, and a tagline from his late father, Family is Bedrock, we started to develop the theme story. During which, we came to understand that the festival in itself is a celebration of Icelandic heritage, culture, and most importantly, community. Icelanders pride themselves on their heritage and their lineage but they are not exclusive in doing so. The Icelandic Festival welcomes all to take part, celebrate and come together as Icelanders for a weekend. Based on this story, we developed two concepts and presented them to the board who ultimately settled on this year’s theme, Gather as Family.