Harpa Reykjavik: entry, tours and concerts

Many visitors assume Harpa charges an entry fee like a museum, and turn away at the doors without going in. Entry to the building is free, on the operator's own word, and the glass hall alone is worth the walk from the harbour. Harpa Reykjavik sits on the waterfront at Austurbakka 2, 101 Reykjavik, and its ground floor is open to anyone during building hours, whether or not a concert is scheduled that night. What this page settles is what costs money inside it: the guided tour, the shows, and the car park, and what does not: walking in, browsing the halls' public areas, and the Hljodhimnar sound world for children.

Getting inside without a ticket

A common mistake is booking a tour before checking the building's own hours, which differ from the box office hours and from each other. The building itself is open Sunday to Tuesday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00. The box office keeps different hours again: daily from 10:00 to 18:00, and later on nights when a show is on. A reader planning an evening arrival should check which of the two applies, since a browse of the halls after 18:00 on a quiet weeknight is not always possible even though the building is technically still open.

None of this costs anything to see. Free entry covers the concourse, the public stairways, the harbour-facing glass wall, and the ground-floor Hljodhimnar sound world built for children, which is also free. What is ticketed is the guided tour, a seat at a concert, and the car park underneath the building. Somebody deciding between a self-guided wander and a booked tour should weigh the tour's fixed times against a free walk-through that fits any schedule.

For anyone timing a visit around a show, checking listings ahead matters more than checking gigs in Reykjavik on the day, since the box office hours run later on performance nights and slots for a guided tour can fill before the box office window opens. The building rewards a slow pass through regardless of whether a ticket is involved: the halls, the glass facade and the harbour views are all part of the free entry, and a visitor who only stops for a guided tour misses the parts of Harpa that cost nothing at all.

What the halls are used for

A visitor booking a night out often assumes Harpa has one auditorium, and is surprised on arrival to find four separate halls running different programmes at once. Eldborg is the largest, seating up to 1,734, and it is where the Iceland Symphony Orchestra performs as resident company. Silfurberg seats 729 to 857 depending on configuration, or holds 1,200 standing, and Nordurljos seats 456 to 516 theatre-style. Kaldalon is the smallest, at 165 to 195 seats, and suits a quieter evening than the main hall.

Reykjavik concerts at Harpa range from full orchestral programmes in Eldborg to smaller acts in Kaldalon on the same night, so checking which hall a listing names matters before buying a ticket, since a Kaldalon show and an Eldborg show can differ enormously in scale and price. The Iceland Symphony Orchestra, the Reykjavik Big Band and Maximus Musicus are all listed as resident companies, meaning their programming returns to the building through the year rather than appearing as one-off bookings.

Anyone treating Harpa as a single venue with one schedule will miss half of what is on. A reykjavik music hall of this size runs several halls in parallel most weeks, and checking the specific hall named on a ticket, not just the building, avoids turning up at the wrong door on the night.

Booking a show or a tour

A visitor deciding between a guided building tour and a concert ticket sometimes assumes the two are interchangeable, but they are separate products with separate booking pages. The guided tour runs 45 to 60 minutes at 11:00 and/or 13:00, priced at 5,200 ISK for an adult and 4,680 ISK for a student, senior or group booking, with children 12 and under admitted free. A concert seat is booked separately, hall by hall, and the box office keeps longer hours on the nights those shows run.

Reykjavik concert hall listings change by season, and the box office's own hours, extended on performance nights, are the more reliable window for buying a same-day seat than the standard daily hours. A visitor arriving without a booking should check the box office hours for that specific date rather than assuming the standard 10:00 to 18:00 window applies, since it does not on a night with a show.

Live music Reykjavik programming at Harpa draws on its four halls running independently, so two visitors on the same evening can attend entirely different kinds of performance in the same building. Booking ahead matters most for Eldborg, the largest hall, where demand for the Iceland Symphony Orchestra's own programme tends to fill seats before smaller-hall shows.

Accessibility, parking and photography

A visitor driving to Harpa often expects free parking at a building that is itself free to enter, and finds a metered car park instead. The car park sits underneath the building, holds 545 spaces, is open 24 hours, and charges 525 ISK an hour. Nineteen accessible spaces are set aside, free of charge with a valid P-badge. Inside, three lifts serve every level and all four halls provide wheelchair spaces, with an infrared hearing assistance system fitted throughout.

Among music venues Reykjavik visitors compare, Harpa is unusual for combining free general access with a metered car park underneath it, so budgeting for parking separately from the ticket or tour is worth doing before arrival. Personal photography is allowed throughout the building, though anyone planning a formal shoot needs permission arranged in advance rather than assuming a camera alone is enough.

The harpa concert hall Reykjavik interior is built around the same steel frame and glass panelling that shapes the exterior, so the coloured light shifting through the concourse changes through the day and is worth timing a visit around rather than treating as a fixed backdrop. Wheelchair users and anyone needing hearing assistance should know the infrastructure is built into all four halls rather than offered in one only.

The building itself

A visitor expecting a conventional concert hall facade is met instead with a wall of coloured geometric glass, and many do not realise it is a named artwork rather than standard cladding. The facade was designed by Olafur Eliasson, built from a steel frame clad in coloured geometric glass panels, and it is the single most photographed feature of the building. Construction began on 12 January 2007, halted between October 2008 and March 2009 after the financial crash, and the building opened on 4 May 2011, designed by Henning Larsen Architects with Batteriid Architects. It won the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2013 among 16 listed awards in total, and its floor area runs to 28,000 square metres.

The harpa concert hall Reykjavik exterior is best seen from outside at dusk, when the panels catch the changing light differently than they do at midday, though no fixed viewing time is published for it. Ownership sits with the Icelandic state at 54% and the City of Reykjavik at 46%, and the building draws 1.2 million visitors a year, a scale that shapes how full the concourse feels even outside concert hours.

Travel advice for a US or UK visitor planning around Iceland more broadly starts with the US Department of State's country information for Iceland, checked first, and the UK FCDO's travel advice for Iceland checked second. Neither changes anything about Harpa itself, but both are worth confirming before travel dates are set.

Common questions

Is it free to go inside Harpa?

Yes. Entry to the building is free, and that covers the concourse, the public areas and the ground-floor Hljodhimnar sound world for children. Only the guided tour, concerts and the car park are ticketed.

What is the difference between the building hours and the box office hours?

The building is open Sunday to Tuesday from 10:00 to 18:00 and Wednesday to Saturday from 10:00 to 20:00. The box office keeps shorter daily hours, 10:00 to 18:00, extended on nights when a show is scheduled.

How much does the guided tour cost?

5,200 ISK for an adult and 4,680 ISK for a student, senior or group booking. Children 12 and under go free. Tours run 45 to 60 minutes at 11:00 and/or 13:00.

How many halls does Harpa have, and how big are they?

Four: Eldborg seats up to 1,734, Silfurberg seats 729 to 857 or holds 1,200 standing, Nordurljos seats 456 to 516, and Kaldalon seats 165 to 195.

Is parking free at Harpa?

No. The car park under the building holds 545 spaces, is open 24 hours and charges 525 ISK an hour. Nineteen accessible spaces are free with a valid P-badge.