Deichkind Photo by Substrat@FlickrSo, first of all: Melt!-festival this year was amazing! It was quite an experience and I think there’s few people who weren’t happy with it. For the visitors, the organizers, the artists, it was just some some incredible days in the sun, in an extraordinary environment with the best music one can imagine. Again, it was like having a party for some 15 000 people.
Yes, I am totally excited about Melt!, not only because I had a great time and met so many interesting people; it’s just this feeling to be part of something special and to share moments to remember. And thanks to YouTube and Flickr I can document all those exciting moments with (moving) images. One year ago, that was not possible.
Mediengruppe Telekommander Photo by BBY@FlickrFirst, I took care of Hot Chip who were really annoyed by one sound technician who started argueing with them in quite an arrogant way, still, in the end, there were flashed by the audience and had a really nice gig. Also, I was surprised by DJ Hells massive set and very amused by the typical munich party gang he was accompanied by (highheels galore!)..
Before, Mediengruppe Telekommander, another “protégés” of mine rocked the stage with their straight-forward electro-punk. Very nice guys, as well.
But the big bang was yet to come, and again, it were one of “my artists”, Deichkind, that in the early saturday morning performed a show which is already called “concert of the century” on YouTube. After their energized and highly psychedelic beginning with a bouncy castle, pyramid hats, pogo sticks and a trampoline they decided to let the crowd enter the stage. Watch this moment of collective ecstasy which caused concern beyond the securities, quite some damage on stage but that feeds Melt!’s myth as an extraordinary place to be..
The second day on a festival always is a special one. People get to know each other, some kind of “common vibe” starts growing and everything seems to be even more fluid and smooth. “My” bands that day were Peter Licht who gave out text sheets so that the people could sing along, and two of the most influentious electronic musicians of the last decade: Aphex Twin and Roni Size. The first one involved wheel chair basketballers on stage who danced and moved and played some ball. Again, a really special moment on the festival, I was especially surprised that so many people (many, many more than for the Pet Shop Boys a day before, I have to say) stayed concentrated and listened to Aphex’ difficult and cumbersome music. Here’s a little video:
My personal highlight was to meet Roni Size and DJ Dynamite. They arrived late, ordered some brandy, Sprite and ice and got on stage. Somewhat stressed they seemed to be, yet very professional, there were some problems with the turntables and they had to start with quite a delay. DJ Dynamite was so annoyed, he even asked me, if they could stop earlier. “Wait for the sunrise, man”, I told him, and I was right. In the end, they played one hour more than they were supposed to, really amazed by the euphoric audience and the sunrise. “It’s been so long, I didn’t play in the sun..!”, Roni Size said afterwards and drove home to Brighton, a little ill, but definetely with some good memories of Melt! Here’s a video.
Roni Size:
So, my work was done, 7h on sunday morning, but the party was about to begin. With all the Intro-crew and festival organizers we celebrated a successful festival and took a final bath in the lake after having danced “Krawall und Remmi Demmi” one last time.
One great festival, one great people, thank you all for being there!
Last but not least, a video in good quality (it’s just a matter of time until every internetvideo looks like this) from the Dominik Eulberg set:
On Flickr there’s thousands of fotos, try the Melt-Cluster and on YouTube you will find many Melt!06-videos.