The annual Herring Festival and the Herring Museum are tightly connected every summer.  A part of the inhabitants dresses up and stages the working procedures on the herring pickling platforms and the visitors are invited to participate if they want to.  Many other events are staged an atmosphere of the old “gold digger days” is revived.  The people of Siglufiord often talk about two Norwegian settlements in the area.  First, when Thormodur the strong arrived at the turn of the 9^th century and when the Norwegians made Siglufiord the herring capital of the world in 1903.

During a period of forty years, a small and peaceful community became the fifth largest town of the country.  This development was based on the herring.  It was processed and pickled on 23 platforms and fish meal and oil were manufactured in five factories.  The harbour rated among the most important ones in the country and the export value often came close to 20% of the total export of the country.  This period resembles the gold rush in North America in many ways.  Many people risked everything they possessed and grew stinking rich and others lost everything.  During bad weather spells, many hundreds of fishing vessels sought shelter in the harbour and all the streets were congested like in a big city.