The Heart-Shaped Lights

In Akureyri, the red traffic lights are shaped like hearts, but why?

Margrét Blöndal, a media personality, was in charge of organizing the 2008 Commerce Day Weekend festival. In the years before, the festival's planning had been fraught, partly due to underage drinking and disputes between the municipality and event organizers. Margrét wanted to improve the festival's image and atmosphere. She came up with the idea of placing cardboard cutouts on Akureyri's red traffic lights to form hearts. The mayor and the local district commissioner welcomed the idea. Her inspiration came from her daughter and niece, who lived in Brussels, where they had seen a heart taped to a traffic light for Valentine's Day.

Since then, the hearts have become one of Akureyri's symbols and a popular photo subject for tourists. In the summer of 2025, the Icelandic Road and Coastal Administration requested that the hearts be removed, as they no longer complied with new traffic light regulations. The people of Akureyri came to the lights' defense and showed their support for the red hearts, including through a post by President Halla Tómasdóttir on Instagram. It is now under consideration whether the regulations will be changed so the hearts can stay. The battle isn't over, but the hearts are still beating.

Whatever happens to the lights, this heart will be yours, a small memory from Akureyri.

Designed and made in Akureyri.

Read more:

The press coverage below is in Icelandic: