Spanish techno giants Cristian Varela and DJ Pepo will team up again on November 22nd at Awakenings to close the event with a 2-hour set of Techno with Spanish flair.
Op vrijdag 28 november staat de Studio 80 in het teken van de allesbeslissende strijd tussen goed en kwaad. Om dit muzikale gevecht van een goed eind te kunnen voorzien zijn voor deze editie van Carnivale een aantal superheroes uitgenodigd.
Hmmm, strange. I made this topic but got logged out while I was typing my story (freaking long, I know). Well, this is what I was trying to post in the first place:
Wow! What a great Festival this was! Such a great location, nicely organised, not to big, alot of different styles of music and DJ's..
We left on thursday 14-07 on 7.13 by train from Amsterdam to Hannover, there we changed to the train to Magdeburg and finally took a train to Dessau. When we arrived in Dessau we took the bus which took us to Ferropolis. We finally arrived at about 16.15 at an almost totally empty campingarea. Our tents were like the fourth and fifth tent on the closed campsite to the festivalterrain. The other two areas where still empty . Luckily my brother HmZ brought a bottle of wodka and something to smoke so we had a nice first evening.
The weather was overall very good all the days. Really warm and sunny.
On friday morning we went to Grafenhainichen to do our groceries and to eat something. My brother and I didnt bring any food and drinks except for something on our way because there was a supermarket at the campsite. Unfortunately for us they hadn't thought of us early arrivals so the supermarket was closed and not even supplied yet. So we decided to walk to the nearest village which was about 20 minutes away. It was a nice walk in the sun and we quickly found a nice little restaurant where we ate something. We walked back with our stuff and prepared for the first night.
We saw alot of artists on friday and missed even more. It was a bit of a blur thanks to Beck's gold. We had alot of fun though. Michaeal Mayer was nice and Dominik Eulberg dissapointed me a bit from about half way his set. We missed alot of DJ's that we planned to see because of the nice atmosphere on the campsite and later because of Beck's Gold . Friday was a bit of a blur ;). Finally I rolled homewards to my tent at about 10.00..
On saturday there were also playing some interesting DJ's like: Underworld, LTJ Bukem & Mc Conrad, Jake Fairley. Acid Maria, Anja Schneider, Andre Galuzzi.
Underworld was really nice. They played some of their wellknown tracks aswell as some new ones I guess. I'm not really up to date with there reportoir but there were some songs that atleast I didn't know yet so.. The atmosphere again was great here, everyone jumped up and down and danced and danced and danced.. Underworld gave away a nice show and they seemed to be really having fun and enjoying the nice audience. After Underworld there was Laid Back. I didn't know them but some of our new german friends wanted to see them so we did. And it was really nice. It were three older men playing some nice reggea/dub songs. It really was laid back. It was then when I realized how nice it is to attend a festival where all kinds of different bands from different genres are playing. After the intense Underworld show it was really nice to hear something totally different and as relaxed as Laid Back. They played some good songs and it definately a good band. Solid performance from them.
After Laid Back came LTJ Bukem & MC Conrad. They've been to Holland a few times and I never was able to see them and now I was at this small festival somewhere in eastern Germany and I could, so I did. They performed a nice, intense show with alot of the wellknown UK drum&bass, of course with the typical LTJ Bukem sound. Unfortunately the great soundscapes and midranges I like so much from LTJ were pushed to the background a little bit too much in my opinion. The typical Drum & Bass beat from LTJ Bukem really need these sounds to stay interesting. After a while the show became a bit boring as you were hearing the same beat in the same rythm over and over again.
After LTJ Bukem we went to the Big Wheel stage. This stage was build on/in one of 'dem Bagger' some really huge digging machines. These machine's are like 30 to 40m high and well over 100m wide and they look really awesome. Rust, enormous wheels, chains, cabins, etc.. in one word amazing. Check out some photos at www.meltfestival.de for an idea.
At the Big wheel stage was Acid Maria playing a nice minimalistic set. We only heard a little part because Anja Schneider started at 5.00 and damn, this lady really plays some great music! Freaked out minimal with some nice industrial sounds and very nicely mixed also. I really, really enjoyed her set and so did all the other people there. I want to mention the atmosphere here once again, it was just great. Alot of happy, crazy people partying hard! Just great to be amongst such a nice crowd.
Satisfied and tired we went back to our tent at about 8.00. Our train left from Dessau at 11.15 (atleast that was what my brother told me..) and it was atleast a 45 minute drive. Because we also had to breakdown our tents and pack our things we decided it was a better idea to stay awake and then sleep in the train. With our german friends and neighbours we sat next to our tent in the nice morning sun which became warmer and warmer quickly and drank our last beers and bottle of wine and relaxed untill it was time to start packing. They were so nice to bring my brother and I to Dessau Hauptbahnhof with their car. In Dessau we said good bye and left for the train which was actually leaving at 11.21. But because we couldnt find the trainstation right away we were just on time.. The train was about to leave but the traindriver was so kind to wait for us (you germans are alot nicer then the average dutchman thinks!!) and we were on our way..
Melt was really a great Festival. Similar in atmosphere with Sonne, Mond und Sterne only I think even better. There were showers and a supermarket on the campsite and there is also a lake where you can swim. You're officially not allowed to swim there but no one bothered. The lake at the Bleiloch (SMS) is nicer though. I didn't see one policeman or car or anything, no drugscheckpoints along the way or on the campsite. Friendly security at the festivalterrain and a great festivalarea. The town near Melt is small and not really interesting but it has a good and cheap supermarket and there are enough bars and restaurants to eat or sit at a terras. The weather has been very good and so was everything else. The only downside I can think of was the fact that the campsite supermarket was finally open and supplied on saturday (or late friday) which was not good for people who came by train. There are 3 campsite, 1 where your car is allowed. This campsite is pretty far away from the festivaltrerrain but there are shuttle busses (which were fairly big) driving along the campsites to the festivalterrain all night. From the closest campsite it's like a 15/20 minute walk.
You can also eat alot of different things on the festivalterraing which was nice. There was also and arabic tent where you could smoke a waterpipe and drink really nice tea. Unfortunately you couldn't put your own 'tobacco' in the waterpipe, hehe.
It was great to visit Melt and I can recommend it to anyone who's looking for an intimate, diverse festival with a kickass location and a very nice, social and plain good atmosphere.
Music Tip: Duplex, Multifunktionsebene, tttrial & error, silizium ep
. Luckily my brother HmZ brought a bottle of wodka and something to smoke so we had a nice first evening. 
