When it comes to music festivals, the experience is as much defined by the location as the artists booked to play. Would Coachella be Coachella were it not in the surreal landscape of the California desert? Or how would Sónar
go off were it not for the vitalic Barcelona audience that fills the Center of Contemporay Culture? MELT Festival—located a quick 90 minute train ride from the European party epicenter of Berlin again gains much of it’s stature from it’s amazing venue, Ferropoilis, an outdoor museum of massive modern industrial machines located at the site of an old strip mine. It is within the gigantic arms of these Transformer-esque monsters that the mid-sized fest (about 20,000 attendees) gains it’s magic.
What makes MELT special is the blend of industrial and rural. Almost all of the festival-goers camp for the weekend, meaning that a great deal of memories are made away from the concert stages. Tanned europeans swim in the neighboring lake while drinking endless quantities of canned beer and Jagermeister hauled in from local stores. One special musical—the Sleepless Stage—pumps beats day and night, meaning those who wish to never rest are given the propulsive beats to keep going.
Inside the proper grounds, fans pack to see headliners The Streets, Robyn and Boys Noize on the main stage, while themore sonically adventurous catch sets by sonic oddities Atari Teenage Riot, D.A.F. and PLANNINGTOROCK. And of course, DJs from M.A.N.D.Y. to Modeselektor to Richie Hawtin keep the dancers moving on two outlying areas. In fact, it’s easy to choose one stage and forget the rest of the festival exists at all.
Of course, this being central Europe, rain is an inevitable part of any summer festival weekend. But the clouds held off until the closing hours of Sunday, by which time the dampness did little to aleviate the enthusiasm of those who would certainly be taking Monday off of work. Rain might not make for the best time at a three-day outdoor event. But to the best of our knowledge, nobody melted.
Check out the complete set of MELT 2011 photos in our gallery.
Atari Teenage Riot
D.A.F.
Cold War Kids
The Streets
Check out the complete set of MELT 2011 photos in our gallery.
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