It could be seen as a post-apocalyptic vision of the future conjured up by George Orwell or Ridley Scott: thousands of eager young clubbers descend on a circle of concrete, an ampitheater of sorts, ringed with stages and marquees, the vague pulsating of music can be distinguished, a turn of the head left and it's crunchy guitars. Turn right and it's throbbing techno, strobe lights and lazers shooting up into the night sky - illuminating the imposing, rusting structures of obsolete monster-machinery while countless cars and buses ferry around the perimeter of this curious micro-cosmos in the heart of rural Saxony-Anhalt.

Industrial history meets musical future

This former open-cast mining site near the township of Gräfenhainichen, in Eastern Germany, is known as Ferropolis, a reference both to the iron structures which ring the festival site and their sheer size. 2011 saw Melt! Festival, one of Germany's key summer festivals, invade the former industrial site for the 14th consecutive year, setting up stages in-between the hulking mining ruins to present some of the best in new domestic and international music, a multi-genre event which has grown year for year since its foundation in 1997.

In addition to some 120 acts taking to the stages, this year's Melt! also saw a first time collaboration between the festival organizers and the Bauhaus trust from Dessau, who ran a series of workshops and events exploring the relationship and parallel between music and architecture. The Bauhaus already have a connection with the Melt! site; 15 years ago they were responsible for it being granted historical monument status.

Fashion-conscious and innovative

This year's event saw some 30,000 festival-goers make the pilgrimage to Gräfenhainichen and all came suitably dressed. The seething mass of dancers, moving in unison to whoever happened to be on the stage, made for entertaining viewing - some kitted out in vivid neon colours, others wearing glitter make-up, some in regulation jeans and T-shirt. It was a crowd of stark contrasts.

The music program at Melt! has, of course, developed over the years from a more or less purely indie-rock event to one which embraces genres such as electronica, techno and hip-hop. While space is given over to some of the biggest names in music - The Streets, Paul Kalkbrenner and Digitalism were all present, there is still room in the program for rising new stars.

The festival's booking team seems to be more adventurous with each year, obviously keenly aware that, just as the way music is accessed has opened up and broadened the palette available to us, so too should their festival reflect this diversity of tastes. The booking could almost be described as avant-garde when you consider the art-school expressionism of Planningtorock, the aggressive digital hardcore of a reformed Atari Teenage Riot and the epic orchestrations of Arcade Fire should all share the same stage.

Diversity without borders

The festival program certainly offered something to appeal to all tastes and is run under the motto "Grenzenlos" or "without borders." Crystal Fighters certainly appealed to fans of aggressively hardcore music while hip-hoppers bounced to beats from K.I.Z, for those with a slightly more melodic taste, José González was on hand to do the honors.

But while the Big Names are most certainly a draw, many travel to Melt! for the simple reason that the bold booking will invariably mean they discover something they've never heard before. A popular new discovery for many was British musician Jamie Woon, making his first appearance at the festival, who combined spiritual lyrics with catchy electro-pop.

Shortly after Woon's performance, 22-year-old DJ Nicolas Jaar took to the stage with his curious combination of electro dance beats with smatterings of jazz, soul and hip-hop thrown in for good measure. As he rocked the crowd with a blatant disregard for the conventions of genre, he may well sum up the entire Melt! ethos: that borders don't matter in music. After all, you have to offer something particularly special to attract crowds from all over the continent. And Melt! most certainly does.

Text: Magnus Rosengarten (gb)
Editor: Louisa Schaefer