Krakkasveiflan (SummerPlayWave) – Integrated Summer Activities for Children

Krakkasveiflan - meaning SummerPlayWave - is a coordinated summer programme for children aged 6 to 13 in Húnaþing Vestra, Iceland, a rural municipality in the country's northwest. Designed to turn the long summer school holidays from a time of fragmented, unequal access to leisure into a sustained season of play, creativity and community, SummerPlayWave demonstrates what small and rural municipalities can achieve when they organise collectively around children's rights.

Húnaþing Vestra is a sparsely populated municipality where access to structured leisure activities for children during the summer has historically been limited. Families faced challenges in ensuring consistent, meaningful engagement for children across the school holidays. The result was an uneven landscape: some children had access to enriching activities, others had very little. The municipality's wellbeing team, working toward Child Friendly City recognition since 2023, saw closing that gap as a priority.

SummerPlayWave brings together local sports clubs, cultural institutions, schools, NGOs and community organisations under a single coordinated programme. Each day across most of the summer, children can take part in a varied offer: kayaking, swimming, arts and crafts, theatre-making, gardening, animal-related activities and community events, among others. The programme is designed to promote physical activity, creativity and social inclusion simultaneously - and to ensure that no child in the municipality is left without a meaningful play opportunity during the holidays.

Cross-sector collaboration has been the foundation of the programme's success. No single organisation could deliver the breadth and consistency that SummerPlayWave offers; it is the coordination across partners that makes it work. Flexibility has also proved essential; adapting the programme to children's interests and to what local organisations can realistically provide has kept participation high and inclusivity genuine. A key lesson has been that sustainable funding remains a challenge for rural municipalities, particularly when participation fluctuates year to year, and that clear communication and coordination structures are as important as the activities themselves.

Children are not simply beneficiaries of SummerPlayWave: they shape it. The programme is built around their interests, their feedback informs its development year on year, and their active participation in diverse, self-chosen activities is the measure by which it is assessed. Evaluation reports are presented to municipal committees, and registration and participation figures are tracked against previous years.

Looking ahead, Húnaþing Vestra is working to integrate SummerPlayWave into the regular, sustainable operations of the municipality. Future development will focus on expanding the programme's diversity, strengthening its preventive and educational dimensions, and ensuring it remains accessible and affordable to every child, regardless of family circumstances or geography.

Krakkasveiflan is proof that even the smallest municipalities can make the right to play a lived reality - with the right partnerships, the right coordination, and a genuine commitment to every child.

To learn more: https://www.hunathing.is/is/mannlif/frettir-og-auglysingar/tilkynningar-og-frettir/enginn-titill-25