Stylewalker - We are all mediatized » Melt!06 – Looking back to a great festival

Melt!06 – Looking back to a great festival

July 20, 2006 on 2:45 pm by Thomas | In Friends, Melt!, Music, Stylewalker | 6 Comments

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.

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Comment by nat — 20/7/2006 #
bummer we didn’t meet! should’ve known you’d be there, too.
anyway, rad fest! and your footage brings back some of the best bits. thx for sharing.

Comment by lesan — 20/7/2006 #
[...] lesan: bummer we didn’t meet! should’ve known you’d be there, too. anyway, rad fest! and your footage brings back… [...]

Pingback by Stylewalker.Net - Right out off the dirty clubs » Berlin’s cooles open air location — 21/7/2006 #
That looks like fun!

Comment by Mr. Beer Belly — 30/1/2007 #
[...] It’s interesting: Two years ago, I was one of a few people who wrote about the Melt! festival and one a few people who posted their festival pictures on Flickr. YouTube didn’t exist back then. Last year, there were tons of pictures and videos. And this year, there are even many, many blog posts about this amazing festival on an extraordinary site, not to forget the Melt-forum which has an impressive way of self organization – one half of the people bitches about prices, the growing size, quality of the music and the other half defends their favorite festival with enthusiasm. So I watched many many videos on YouTube, scanned Flickr and the blogosphere just to get you the best and most relevant material on this year’s issue of one of the greatest festivals on the planet. “…ein unerwarteter Schub von rechts und schon liege ich. Alle großen Momente meines Lebens (Fummeln bevor Anatomie in Bio drankam, der erste Jägermeister, Pilzragout auf’m Dorffest) ziehen nochmal vor meinem Auge entlang. Doch dann zieht mich die Hand, deren Anhängsel gerade für mein Fallen verantwortlich war, mit einem Lächeln wieder hoch. I can feel the community!” Read the whole hilarious review at Wertaufholer [via Andreas] [...]

Pingback by Stylewalker - This is a conversation » How was Melt festival 07? — 25/7/2007 #
[...] at a festival often is a magical moment, especially when it’s the last gig on that stage. I remember Roni Size and Dynamite playing extra long into the sunlight, same for Goldie next year as last show on the big [...]

Pingback by Stylewalker - Music. Lifestyle. Science » Final shows at Melt08 — 25/8/2008 #