NEW YORK (AP) — It was 2023 when Laufey, the Icelandic singer-songwriter known for her neoclassical jazz-pop, decided to create a global fan event. Her second album, “Bewitched,” was soon to be released and she wanted to do something big to celebrate it. But more than that, she says, she “wanted to find a way to get my fans out of their homes, and to really follow an itinerary of my perfect idea of a day and have the music from ‘Bewitched’ follow it.”
And thus, “A Very Laufey Day” was born. Each year, the Grammy-winning singer curates itineraries for different locations across the globe for her listeners to follow. It's “anywhere I have been and loved,” she says. It allows them to live what she refers to as “a perfect day,” but also to connect with their community offline and in person. And as she approaches its fourth edition, it has only grown larger.
“It became much bigger than I anticipated, really,” she says. She sought to inspire her audience to find “third spaces,” and explore some of her favorite locales: museums, bookstores, cafes, concerts and the like, and foster community in the process. And each year, it has only grown bigger, with fans dressing up in their favorite Laufey-themed vintage fashions to celebrate the unofficial holiday.
And Aug. 23 will mark the fourth annual “A Very Laufey Day.”
“It is a fun puzzle every year,” she says.
This year, “A Very Laufey Day” will include experiences in 75 cities across 25 countries, centering on the theme of “A Celebration of the Arts.”
Those include performances spanning symphony orchestras, ballet, jazz, opera and theater as well as events with libraries, bookstores, coffee shops, yogurt/ice cream shops and more. Her concert film “A Night at the Symphony: Hollywood Bowl” will be screened at select theaters. And she's partnered with many museums around the world, including New York City's Guggenheim, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, London's Tate Modern and National Gallery, Chile's Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Seoul's Daelim Museum and more. At some participating businesses, fans will be able to acquire limited edition merchandise and Laufey-themed specialty drinks.
“This year it was really about focusing on the arts and culture and finding ways to bring this barrier of entry down between my audience — which is mostly Gen Z and Gen A — and these kind of so-called high cultural experiences,” she says. “Whether it’s going to see an orchestra show … museums or galleries, we really want to find ways to connect with those institutions.”
Some of these spaces can be intimidating for younger fans, and Laufey says this year was all about making these rooms, some of her favorites, inviting to her audience.
“It doesn’t have to be this scary thing. And so, I’ve kind of made it my life’s mission to make spaces like that fun and accessible,” she says.
FILE - Laufey appears at Billboard's Women in Music event in Los Angeles, April 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Laufey accepts the award for best traditional pop vocal album for "A Matter of Time" at the 68th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)
FILE - Laufey performs during iHeartRadio's Jingle Ball in Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 2025. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
CLACTON-ON-SEA, England (AP) — Nigel Farage regained his seat in Parliament on Friday, beating a field of fringe candidates led by trash-can-wearing comic Count Binface in a special election boycotted by mainstream parties that called it a farce.
Farage, leader of the anti-immigration Reform UK party who some see as a possible next prime minister, abruptly quit his seat in July amid an investigation into whether he failed to report a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from an overseas crypto billionaire.
He denied wrongdoing and ran again for the seat to prove he had voters’ support, regaining it with 63% of Thursday’s vote in an unusual election on the hottest day of the year. Binface, a serial candidate who has challenged prime ministers past and present, represented a protest vote and finished second in a field of 34 candidates — many of them also jokers — with about 27%, according to the results announced Friday.
Farage hailed the result as an “overwhelming win” that increased his vote share over the last election, but it’s hard to draw broad conclusions from the election given the lack of genuine rivals and the fact that Farage has long been popular in the conservative constituency on the east coast of England.
“Today the voters in Clacton have stuck up two fingers to the entire political establishment,” Farage said, referring to the British equivalent of a crude gesture that employs the middle finger in other cultures.
The result will send him back to the House of Commons, but an investigation by a parliamentary watchdog that was suspended when he stepped down was resumed hours after the result was announced. That means Farage could be forced out of Parliament — and face yet another election.
Farage, the chief cheerleader in getting Britain to vote to leave the European Union a decade ago, has shattered the country's longstanding two-party system by positioning himself to the right of the Conservative Party.
With Farage’s win, the party has just eight of the 650 seats in the House of Commons, but is popular nationally by drawing on a mix of cultural grievances and a vow to stop what he has called an invasion of migrants crossing the English Channel in inflatable rafts. Reform has frequently changed the national conversation and forced the governing center-left Labour Party and the Conservatives, long the dominant parties, to address Reform’s key issues.
But with Farage under scrutiny and a Labour leadership shakeup that installed Andy Burnham as prime minister, some analysts say Labour is regaining popularity.
Pressure will continue to mount on Farage as Parliament’s standards watchdog investigates an undeclared donation he got in 2024 from Christopher Harborne, a Thailand-based cryptocurrency billionaire. Farage says he didn’t need to declare the money because it was a personal gift he used to fund his security and was made before he was elected.
When he resigned on July 7, he complained of an “establishment hit job” and a media-driven “witch-hunt.”
Farage also faces an investigation into his financial relationship with George Cottrell, an aristocratic crypto-gambling entrepreneur who served eight months in a U.S. prison for fraud a decade ago after offering to launder money for undercover agents posing as drug traffickers.
Cottrell remains close to Farage and has reportedly given him money for security and staff. Farage has denied wrongdoing and stood by the man he calls “Posh George.”
Labour Party chairwoman Bridget Phillipson said the election was no victory for Farage, and he needs to come clean over his finances and relationship with Cottrell.
“The mountain of sleaze and scandal he and Reform are now engulfed in has grown and grown while he’s been trying to distract the public by fighting a by-election against a bin,” Phillipson said.
Farage’s gambit to resign and run again backfired when other parties refused to participate and he was left facing a massive field of independent and small-party candidates, including novelty acts such as Howling Laud Hope of The Official Monster Raving Loony Party and Marcus White from the Everyone is God Party.
Farage declared victory in the early morning and blew off the official declaration where he would have had to stand alongside the other candidates — a time-honored tradition in British politics.
“I’m damned if I’m going to stand on a stage, having won a resounding victory ... and be demeaned and humiliated by nobodies,” Farage told supporters at a victory party.
Farage also said he didn’t attend because police told him about an “organized campaign to disrupt and degrade the result.” A spokesperson for Reform said there was a credible threat against him, though police disputed that.
Fiona Byrne, who wouldn’t say who she voted for, said Farage shouldn’t have called the election, which she said was an expensive joke.
“It’s just been a complete waste of money and time for everybody here, and he just needs to face the music,” she said.
But John Fairclough said he was happy Farage won because he’s what the country needs.
“To my mind he hasn’t done anything wrong,” Fairclough said. “He’s a threat to the main media and government who want to just control us and control everything.”
Binface, who ran on a wacky platform that included a vow to “cut your taxes, and raise everyone else’s,” build one affordable home, and nationalize singer Adele, declared himself the "winning candidate of the candidates who bothered to turn up for the results."
Under the black cape, trash can helmet and ample body armor straight out of a low-budget sci-fi film, Binface’s alter-ego is Jon Harvey, a middle-aged comedian who spent most of the campaign doing media interviews and trying to stay cool in the costume during a sweltering summer.
Binface has hinted that if Farage faces another election, he could return to run again.
Melley reported from London.
Candidate Count Binface poses for the media during the Clacton by-election count at the Leisure Centre in Clacton on Sea, England, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Ballot papers sorted for Farage and Binface are collected in boxes during the Clacton by-election count at the Leisure Centre in Clacton on Sea, England, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Ballot papers sorted for Farage and Binface are collected in boxes during the Clacton by-election count at the Leisure Centre in Clacton on Sea, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Count Binface, center, stands among other candidates during the result announcement after the Clacton by-election count at the Leisure Centre in Clacton on Sea, England, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Count Binface, center, stands among other candidates during the result announcement after the Clacton by-election count at the Leisure Centre in Clacton on Sea, England, Friday, Aug. 14, 2026.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
Britain's Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage arrives at a polling station in Walton on the Naze, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026 to cast his vote for the Clacton on Sea by-election.(AP Photo/Richard Pelham)
