Wir meckern nicht bei kleinen Macken.

July 15/Friday was the beginning of a long, fun-filled, action-packed weekend. I was up at 4am to be out the door by 5:15. Adam and Eddie picked me up from my house. We loaded up the car and were off! The drive was just under four hours. Once we arrived, the madness began!  After we got our camp site set up, we took a much-needed nap. In the evening the fun really began. Our tent was set up on the farther corner of the farthest camping ground, which meant it was a 30 minute walk from our tent to the festival grounds/stages. I was absolutely amazed by the festival grounds. It was immediately obvious how much effort went into every single detail. The festival, called Melt!, was located in Ferropolis. According to the internet, Ferropolis is "the city of iron, which is an open museum of old huge industrial machines in Gräfenhainichen, a city between Wittenberg and Dessau, Germany. It contains machines from the mid-twentieth century." It's on a peninsula in Lake Gremmin, which is located north of Leipzig. It's hard to describe how amazing everything was staged, but there was nothing left to be desired. There was everything from lights, to well-placed disco balls, to incredibly comfortable hammocks. Anyways, I'd never seen anything quite like it. Throughout the evening, we saw performances from M83, Tame Impala, Boyz Noise, and Ben Klock. My favorite was M83. I'd never heard them before and loved their entire set. We watched the sun set over the lake, and then rise again in the morning on our walk back to the tent.

Saturday was a gorgeous, warm, sunny day. We spent four hours on the beach. The water was quite cold, but that didn't stop me from swimming. I was one of a handful of people who actually went swimming and didn't just wade around. It was an excellent decision (and actually counted as my shower for the day). As I was walking back to the tent, I stopped at the water filling station. A few people walked up at the same time as me. One of those girls dropped her glass cup in the sink, making a loud noise and causing everyone to turn to look at her. As I looked at her, her friend looked at me. We locked eyes and he said to me, "You don't look like you've showered yet!"(in German) and then whipped out his water gun and soaked me. It was the epitome of a perfect festival moment. That evening we saw Two Door Cinema Club, Peaches, Jamie xx, Maceo Plex, Andy C, Solomun, and Kollektiv Turmstrasse. Jamie xx was probably my favorite from the night, though not by much. I enjoyed them all equally. Again, we got back to the tent as the sun was rising.

Sunday was the last day of music, but perhaps the best. It rained in the morning and we spent most of the day laying around the tent, chatting, relaxing, and napping. We went for a short walk in the afternoon. On our walk we saw a couple of cool things. Some people a few rows down from us had built a volleyball court with a few things that had been laying around. They were in the middle of a rather intense game when we walked by. Someone else had constructed a little dog out of beer cans, complete with a leash, and was towing it around. There was a third set of people who had laid banana peels in the middle of the sidewalk. Anytime someone would get close to walking on them, they'd hoot and holler and heckle. People at festivals never disappoint. It was a much-needed "lazy" day after two long days of going going going. I also finally took a shower! Showers cost 2€ a pop and were communal. It was nice to wash off the grim and regain some of my dignity. That evening was by far the best. We saw Chvrches, Disclosure, Bob Moses, and Digitalism. Digitalism was my favorite from the night, possibly even from the entire weekend. Just like that, the music festival was over. We made it back to our tent around 2am and fell asleep immediately.

Eddie, myself, and Adam on Sunday

The weekend was more or less a blur of fantastic music, hanging out with two of my best friends, and wandering around the camping and festival grounds. It was everything I hoped it would be and more.