Lehmkuhl Avoids A Meltdown

Stefan Lehmkuhl believes Melt Festival was lucky to survive the battering it took as the strong winds and rain that tore through Europe July 17-19 bore down on central Germany.

On the opening Friday night, a storm put one stage out of action, but Lehmkuhl and his team switched its lineup to another stage that wasn’t to be used until the following day.

At 4:30 a.m. on Saturday, the live entertainment – which usually goes on until 6 a.m. – was cut short when another heavy stormed rolled in.

“I think we were a little lucky to get away with it so well,” he said, following a weekend that left one fan dead when wind lifted a tent arena at Slovakia’s Pohoda Festival and forced the evacuation of part of the campsite at Spain’s Benicassim Festival.

All of the main international acts at Melt played a full set.

“We managed to find ways around the problems as they happened, and the determination for the event to go ahead and be a success also showed in the bands and the crowd,” he explained.

The acts helping Melt make heavy weather of it on the old Ferropolis open museum site at Dessau July 16-19 included Oasis, Glasvegas, Kasabian, and Polarkreis 18.

Lehmkuhl has also booked this year’s Berlin Festival, now on the old aerodrome site at Templehof. The Aug. 6-8 lineup includes Deichkind, Pete Doherty, Jarvis Cocker, The Rifles, Saint Etienne and Digitalism.