FEATURED: MELT FESTIVAL
How to put on a successful festival:
Sign great artists.
Minimise queues.
Minimise dickheads.
Run it 24hrs a day.
Throw OH&S out the window & trust people.
Hold it in a ridiculously cool location.
Call it Melt Festival.
In all my years, I’ve never walked away from a music festival feeling so immediately nostalgic. I was literally looking at photos and videos from the previous 4 days, while queueing for the bus back to Berlin, mere moments after packing up my tent. The people I met while camping all felt the same way, we couldn’t stop raving about our favorite moments from the 4 days of mayhem we’d just been apart of.
A lot of our excitement was generated from the incredible setting. I doubt you’ll be able to find a festival held in a more amazing location than Melt. Approximately 1 hour from Berlin lies Ferropolis, a disused strip mine which still contains the enormous industrial machinery from its days of operation. These monumental features create an atmosphere which works so beautifully with the music that pumps from the stages beneath them. You get the immediate feeling that this could only be pulled off in Germany.
The festival began Thursday night with a pre-party designed to get the eager party-goers salivating, and Crystal Fighters were the most notable act welcoming everyone in to the weekend. The energy during their set was incredible, and despite the crowd showing up in full force, it still seemed like a momentary distraction from the campsite parties. Clusters of campers were gathering together and sharing their excitement of the festival ahead and the acts they were hanging out to see. The vibe on this first night was quite incredible, people were introducing themselves to complete strangers and immediately bonding over their love of mutual artists. Despite the enormity of Melt (over 20,000 attendees) I could already see it had the social atmosphere of a smaller, more intimate festival.
The organisers had obviously decided that Friday, the official first day, wasn’t going to be a low key start to the festival and stacked the line up with some huge names. James Blake had everyone mesmerized in the late afternoon sunset, playing a very festival friendly set with an arsenal of crowd pleasers. Alt J followed shortly after with a similar attack, before The Knife emerged on stage in an expectedly theatrical way. This was my most eagerly awaited set, however my initial elation slowly dwindled away into disappointment as their set turned into a choreography performance backed by studio recordings. It was a set that definitely polarised people as the crowed thinning noticeably as the set wore on.
Trentmøller brought the numbers back to the main stage with a live set, before Modeselektor and Apparat played an incredible sunrise set on the Melt! Selektor stage by the waters edge. Digitalism played to an unbelievably energetic 5am crowd, taking the hardcore partygoers up to the opening of the sleepless floor.
This is when I discovered my favourite thing about Melt. In fact, scratch that, the best thing about any festival I’ve ever been to. When the last acts wind up inside the festival grounds, a small cart with monitors, decks, a generator and an unbelievably awesome DJ by the name of Heinrich Müller sprung into life. The cart starts down the back of the festival and is slowly pulled out of the festival grounds while Heinrich plays ABSOLUTE BANGERS. The cart acts as a magnet for ravers who get drawn into the beats and find themselves dancing their way out of the festival. It then stops just near the Sleepless Floor where people can kick on as long as they want, or stay and dance by the cart apparently until Heinrich’s generator runs out of fuel.
Saturday didn’t slow down at all, with Motor City Drum Ensemble playing a killer afternoon set at the sun drenched sleepless floor, before Eats Everything kept the techno flowing at the big wheel stage. Disclosure had a lot of people asking why they weren’t given a main stage slot in order to accommodate the army of fans crammed into the Gemini Stage tent. DJ Koze was another highlight, before Modeselektor backed up again, this time playing some harder techno whilst teaming up with Diamond Version. I was somewhat skeptical about a SBTRKT dj set knowing the strength of his live show. However, absolutely killed it! Finishing strong when he mixed Moderat’s Rusty Nails, into Kendrick Lamar’s, ‘Drank’ into his own hit ‘Wildfire’. It was an unexpected storm of tunes that got the Gemini tent heaving. Solomun brought in the sunrise at the Big Wheel Stage and dropped some massive party tracks to an adoring crowd.
Walking in Sunday afternoon, it felt like the festival had turned into a giant recovery party. The Melt Selektor stage had closed, the crows were far thinner than the previous two days, and the energy lower. However as the night developed, the atmosphere returned to the strength of the previous days. Apparently everyone took a bit longer to wake up on Sunday. Flying Lotus brought his glitchy beats, rhymes and visuals to the main stage and Simian Mobile Disco dropped a flawless dj-set at the Big Wheel.
If the crowd looked thin at the main stage in the afternoon, it was a different story when Atoms for Peace greeted the adoring masses for their headline slot. They gave the crowd a long set, playing tracks from Amok as well as Thom York’s solo work. As the end began to near, a strong crowd decided to expend whatever energy they still had left for 2manydjs who played a blistering to close out the gemini stage. The techno faithful once again followed Heinrich’s cart out of the festival towards the thumping sounds of Ellen Allien at the sleepless floor.
Melt was an experience like no other. If you’re looking for massive artists, in an environment that feels like your neighbors party, and a setting that will make you stare in amazement for hours, then don’t ask any more questions. Just empty your account, book a flight for next year and start working on an excuse to tell your boss why you need to fly to the other side of the world to listen to music. You won’t regret it.
