A few months back my classmate, Rosie Apples cordially invited me to attend a festival that I had never heard of, to a country I have never been to before, and with people I have never met.
I didn't quite know what I was letting myself in for. It was such a risk that I just had to check it out. Ryanair flights were seriously tempting and the prospect of a holiday over the summer that a student can afford is something unheard of.
Anyway, this is my Journey of Melt! Festival 2010 with lots of writing & photographs from myself that I am sure may even surprise some of you greatly.
Arrived at the campsite after trying to navigate the Berlin Metro which was pretty awesome, really nice and clean, few problems on the train after realising if you are in the wrong seat you are kicked out which was.... surprising. Had to sit in the part of the train where they keep all the bikes, a little annoying, but nonetheless I didn't care, I was on holiday and just keeping positive.
Arrived at the campsite greeted by Claire & soon after the great Nicholas. At first it felt like a normal english festival campsite, with lots of drinking and organising. This soon changed as our neighbours, who were all so amazing got on well and we would start a good old England VS Germany drinking contest which provided us with lots of fun, and free beer.
What surprised me the most about Melt! was that it started and ended so late in the day! First bands would be on at about 3-5pm and they wouldn't stop until 8am most days. There was a stage that had non-stop DJ's from friday afternoon until sunday morning. Completely nuts in my opinion.
So here we go, Melt! festival 2010 as captured by myself, wish my camera didn't run out of battery, and was so annoyed I didn't bring out any 35mm cameras. Great to see so many people still using analogue photography.
Jamie XX put on a fantastic set
Sunset over the lake whilst watching Jamie XX
Bubble boy @ Pantha du prince
An incredible first day with lots of bands & DJ's that I was completely blown away by, most of them I didn't even know what made their set even more enthralling.
Bench Gemini stage
Bench Gemini.....again.
More amazing lights
Bumped into Wyn from my old university Ski & Snowboarding team, good to see they are going worldwide! Such a surreal moment.
Stimmung! ( Good vibes/party)
Yeasayer put on an incredible lights show!
Converse crane with amazing visuals.
Jonsi's visuals were probably some of the best from the whole weekend
Bigger view of the crane
Took so many photos of the cranes, but they were so amazing to look at!
The xx & short video of the ending. I don't take videos of gigs, and really I should have just enjoyed the ending, but hey, at least I get to share what we all saw which was amazing:Untitled from Liam Ricketts on Vimeo.
Some guys put on a really good campsite rave right outside where I was camping which was ridiculous. Never seen two Lidl trollies full of speakers, DJ equipment, a generator, and more cables you can shake a stick at. But this was another awesome thing to witness people running to pretty much your campsite from all over the festival to see these guys play. They are called Schluck Den Druck ( Which means swallow the pressure) :
Short video of them playing, which was pretty cool!:
Untitled from Liam Ricketts on Vimeo.
Sunday was a pretty awesome day, lots of chilled out bands like massive attack who closed the converse main stage, Broken bells did an amazing set at around sunset, was perfect, as the lack of sleep really did get to me on sunday afternoon!
Have never seen juice cartons with tape to sling it from your shoulder, was also one of the only ways to smuggle booze into the festival, as you would lift up the flaps and pour your desired liquor with a refreshing carton of lidl's finest OJ.
Broken Bells set with yet another Crane ( wish I had access to get up there!)
Changing of Dj's/ the mess left behind
VIBES. A very important part of the festival. I can't believe how chilled out and friendly everybody was that I met! I was even more surprised when people would talk to you as soon as they knew you were English. I regret not taking a language in a school. Knowing thank you & counting from 1-3 in German did get me by, but jeez did I feel like an idiot!
I would say this festival was such a turning point in my life in so many different ways. As a photographer, an artist, a person in general. My general perceptions of people, european festivals, and myself have all changed greatly, and I am pleased to say for the better too.
HUGE shout out to everyone that I met at the festival, I have been completely bombarded by emails from all you incredible people that I have met, and its so great to still keep in touch as you are all fantastic people and I really enjoyed getting to know you all.
Thank you so much, and hopefully I will see you at Melt 2011!
Greetz
Liam
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