Melt Festival in the City of Steel

Melt Festival in the City of Steel

22 July, 2008 | 2.57AM

• Section: Music News Topics: Beatport Blog
• Written by: Amanda Connon-Unda

The first important thing to know about the Melt Festival experience is the immense presence one feels when surrounded by giant industrial machines from the mid-twentieth century.

These machines form the impressive and expansive background for the five stages of amazing music for three days and nights.

Ferropolis, “the city of steel” (or iron) is where Melt festival has been for several years, and it is an open air museum near Dessau, Germany.

Just to give you an idea of the size of these machines, we’re talking 30 meters high, 120 meters long, and some of them even weigh in at nearly 2000 tons.

Ferropolis is in the middle of the countryside in an area that has been stripped of trees by open-cast mining.

Taking a look around the site, I was reminded of the scale on which large industrial projects like these have altered the environment, all over the world.

At the same time, one can think back to the time when the massive machines were made and promised a better future in mining technology.

Much like future-oriented early techno music, these machine inventions too were inspired by hope and optimism for the uses of technology.

The large machines beg the question of thoughtful attendees, “What will the legacy be that we leave behind with our large scale environmentally altering inventions of today, which might change natural landscapes of tomorrow?”

Will our micro-chips and computer processors litter large garbage dumps the world over?  It’s already happening.

Check out the Manufactured Landscapes trailer below for a film that depicts massive computer and electronics garbage heaps in China.

However, in addition to the eerie aspect of Ferropolis and it’s retro-futuristic look, it’s also a place that inspires hopeful ideas about how altered landscapes can be creatively used to host such amazing events as Melt festival.

What better a place to hold a techno music party? Warehouses and industrial zones have often been sites for underground events catering to underground sounds before they’ve blown up in the mainstream (if they ever do).

This just follows the tradition of putting techno in a place where it feels comfortable - amongst immense machines.

Suggested listening music for Melt festival musing:

Artists who performed at Melt’s Gemini Stage on Friday:

The industrial influenced electro sounds of
Miss Kittin and The Hacker

The simple techno pop of Booka Shade

Transphormer album by Alter Ego (You can’t get any more robot sounding than ‘rocker’)

M.A.N.D.Y.

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