Melt Festival 2010

After venturing to MELT! Festival in Leipzig, the East of Deutschland, for the past two years I thought a third was only fitting. The festival has a capacity of 20,000 festival-goers and takes place in an outdoor iron museum surrounded by the beautiful Lake Gremmin. However, this year there was one element ultimately different from the previous; the weather. Earlier years punters enjoyed mini tornados, sinister storms and raucous rain, and this year there was none of that. Not a drop. Well, not really. Only thing was it was too hot. 30-35 degree days with no shelter for relief drove campsite dwellers to the lake. Coming out smelling like pond was of little matter if it prevented that stroke of the sun. The dreaded sunstroke. Over at the festival it was another story. In the evenings the music extravaganza would begin.

On the first day we take an earlier trip to the festival site to catch a glimpse of Texan folk rockers Midlake performing on the Converse Main Stage. Suffice to say, their 4:30pm slot draws a small crowd but an impressive one none the less. Four hours later the site has very much filled out with eager punters ready to see electro pop Kitsune darlings Two Door Cinema Club before Delphic, Health and US band Yeasayer. By midnight lullaby whispers by the XX are followed by the popular indie pop strumming of Foals.

Day two sees more scorching sunshine which calms down as the early evening presented itself. At 6:45pm New York electro synth duo Holy Ghost offer their disco dust delectables followed by Hurts, Friendly Fires and Miike Snow. Over at the Intro Zelt stage Darwin Deez and band create high energy music complimented with a collective humour and a whole lot of dancing. Mid-evening introduces French DJ Douster with his experimental mixing and his infamous Africa track, and Canadian electrofunk duo Chromeo play a whole set of their classics followed by sibling A-TRAK. Montreal born producer and DJ Tiga closes the Bench Gemini stage with a mega two hour set that has those up the front suctioned to the fence while ecstatically running on the spot. By the end of the set we’re lethargic and sluggish to say the least. We’re pooped. But it was well worth it. For the two hour period Tiga’s posse was positioned to the right of him, cheering him on, taking photos and generally doing what all entourages do best, thinking rather highly of themselves. At MELT! 2010 the temperature was high but our spirits were cooler.