Another Hot Melt

At that size, it’s hardly a niche festival, although its reputation has been largely founded on Lehmkuhl’s knack of clocking warm acts just as they start getting hot. Melt’s image also owes a lot to its unique site, an old open-cast mine at Gräfenhainichen, eastern Germany.

It’s overshadowed by a half-dozen of the huge diggers and cranes that used to shift the coal.

It’s called Ferropolis, or “City Of Iron.”

The festival sells out every year because it’s apparently on most young Germans’ lists of cool places to go.

Melt’s image also projects outside Germany as about one-third of the crowd at this year’s festival would have come from abroad.

“The weather was perfect, all acts were on time, and the crowd made for a euphoric festival experience,” was Lehmkuhl’s take on it all. The acts helping him cook up another hot Melt included Atoms For Peace, Azealia Banks, Babyshambles, Amon Tobin, and Django Django.