Jose Gonzalez - Summer Festival Guide

More acts for Melt!

We are particularly looking forward to José González’ acoustic performance this year. Besides his gig with Junip, the Swedish singer-songwriter is about to be the first to climb the Gemini Stage on Sunday. After Kings of Convenience’s wonderful acoustic concert in 2010, González is about to ring in the last festival day with delightful feel good atmosphere in 2011 – continuing the tradition.

Patrick Wolf also found his way into this year’s line-up. In 2009, he made the clouds disappear with his extraordinary performance, and in 2011, he will make everyone jump for joy with his new album. The Californian Cold War Kids and the British Noah & The Whale will also perform songs off their 2011 albums. We Have Band, on the other hand, keep on proving that they are true pros on stage with their debut WHB.

In terms of electronic music, we have also something to offer: Richie Hawtin is now part of our line-up, joined by Chase & Status and Fake Blood, who will perform live for the first time at Melt!. Also performing live: Azari & III as well as Nôze, who will arrive with his band. Addison Groove completes the Melt! Selektor Stage’s line-up.

With Matt And Kim as well as The Hundred In The Hands, we welcome two duos from New York that will definitely score with their energetic live shows. These New Puritans rather dedicate themselves to experimental soundscapes. With the Danish When Saints Go Machine, we also have fantastic newcomers on board, The Sound Of Arrows present us with fairy tale synth pop, and Crocodiles conquer the stage with a rough version of Dandyism. Dirty guitar sounds are the legendary Berlin band Mutter as well as Duchess Says’ forte.

Melt! Anthem
You should also mark the 18th of April in your calendar. At noon, we will upload this year’s Melt! anthem to our website (http://www.meltfestival.de/hymne), which will be available for free. We won’t tell you who wrote it, but we go way back. Another clue might be our slogan “U Melt! My Heart”.

Groove Presents
This year, we are also looking forward to a fantastic premiere: our media partner, Groove, curates 24 straight hours at Sleepless Floor for the first time. Under the banner of Groove Presents, the German magazine for electronic music and club culture brings us established and upcoming labels and their artists. Uncanny Valley are the first to arrive with Jacob Korn (live), The Moroders, and Albrecht Wasserleben. Wolf + Lamb send Gadi Mizrahi, No Regulars, Maayan Nidam and Miss Fitz. The Smallville delegation is comprised of Christopher Rau, Smallpeople aka Dionne & Julius Steinhoff. Last but not least, Stroboscopic Artefacts is represented by Lucy, Edit Select, and Dadub (live).

Melt! Pre-Party
The Audiolith crew’s parking lot raves have been an integral part of the Melt! cosmos since always. They had always been the perfect but unofficial opening party of Melt! Festival till last year. Then the boys officially came on board. Since the pre-party got bigger and bigger, we simply moved the debauchery from the parking lot to the Intro Zelt so we wouldn’t disturb the neighbours too much. In 2011, the pre-party will once again be held on Thursday night (14th July) with an obvious Audiolith presence. Frittenbude will conquer the stage together with Egotronic, Mediengruppe Telekommander are about to perform songs off their new album (a Audiolith/Staatsakt collaboration), various Audiolith DJs will fuel Melt! madness among the crowd and a secret special guest is also going to show up. Once again, the pre-party’s capacity is limited. Like last year, you have to pay a EUR 5 cover charge (incl. fees), which will be partially donated to charity. Tickets for our pre-party are only available as etickets here (www.meltfestival.de/tickets) in combination with a festival ticket only.

By the way: last year’s pre-party was sold out. So if you want make sure that you actually get in, we urge you to buy your ticket in advance.

Melt! Train
Our hotel train rides again! Last year, our beds on wheels option for Melt! premiered. In 2011, a train will ride once more to the festival site in Ferropolis as part of our environmental project M!Eco.

In collaboration with Cool-Tours ( http://www.cool-tours.de/) and MixeryFunTravel (http://www.mixery-fun-travel.de/), we charter a Euro Express train, which will depart from Cologne. The train is stopping directly in front of the festival grounds. The best thing about it: every passenger will have his or her own private bed on Melt! Train including sanitary arrangements for four days. To assure that only Hotel Train passengers have access to their departments, special wristbands will be handed out.

One compartment of the train is also equipped with its own DJ and a bar run by Cool-Tours. The bar will be open during the journey as well as during the day on location. New this year: Cool-Tours offers daily breakfast for EUR 19, which can be ordered in advance or on arrival. Train attendants will care for your needs the entire journey.

Return journey plus four overnight stays will cost you EUR 99 (per person, festival ticket not included). To guarantee that you will be booked in a compartment with all your friends (up to six), one of you has to book single tickets for all the others. So if you book a compartment with six beds this will cost you EUR 594.

Book your ticket via Cool-Tours here ( http://www.festivalreisen.de/index.php?cat=c16_Melt%21.html). Further info on eco-friendly travel options to Melt! will be posted here (http://www.meltfestival.de/de/melt_reise) soon.

Tickets
3-day ticket valid for Friday, Saturday and Sunday: EUR 104 plus booking fee and EUR 5 garbage deposit
There will be no 1- or 2-day tickets availabe for Melt! 2011. In the price included are camping and parking (from Thursday 15.07. 01:00pm until Monday, 19.07. 03:00pm).
Tickets and Infos available under www.meltfestival.de/ tickets only.