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For 20 years, Melt Festival in Germany has set the bar with legendary line-ups and this year was absolutely no exception.

Icons have come to Ferropolis, known as the City of Iron, in Germany to grace the stages of Melt Festival. Björk, The XX, Lana Del Rey and Florence and The Machine have stepped out to the throws of adoring crowds in the middle of summer to join the up and coming acts. This year, Melt Festival managed to top itself with an enviable line-up on the 19th – 21st of July.

With a roster of trailblazers headlining, and some of the freshest rising acts, it’s hard to curate what exactly the highlights of Melt Festival were when pretty much all of it could have been. Embracing their diversity, Melt Festival is proud to promote a festival where the restrictions of labels do not apply. Between beautiful beaches and massive iron giants, Melt Festival has cultivated a reputation of not only having their headliners lead the way, but the crowd in fact are trailblazers in their freedom, spirit, creativity and passion.

It sounds cliche, but some festivals have their rise and downfall of being solely niche to a specific genre of music. Melt Festival truly encapsulates the message of ‘there’s something for everyone.’ With stages oscillating between hard techno sets, soulful sax samples, grungey guitar riffs, thumping 808s and punchlines, there’s more than enough to feed your hunger.

Taking to the stage this year seen Jorja Smith, Stormzy, Bon Iver, Skepta, Mahalia, Four Tet, Kaytranada, Arca, Honey Dijon, Job Jobse, Gus Dapperton, Slowthai and Duckwrth to name just a few.

Check out Notion’s Highlights below and we will see you there next year.

  • Photography by Ben McQuaide

Britain’s newly crowned sweetheart, Jorja Smith, took to the stage to get the crowd into their feelings with her emotive, poetic and haunting lyrics for the new R&B generation. Providing the ultimate chill summer vibes, Jorja has the ability to tug on the heartstrings all the while being caressed by her smooth honeysuckle voice.

A perfect way to start off the festival – following Jorja when the night was still young, Virgil Abloh and Helena Hauff provided tunes to send you into the early morning hours where you can let yourself go on the dancefloor, or even find yourself. Carrying on the rest of the weekend was up to powerhouses Skepta, Stormzy and Slowthai who all brought their powerful and talented performances, ensured to leave a memory in your heart.

Set over 6 incredible stages, Melt Festival brought their a-game to this year’s festival. Packed full of incredible talent, we can’t wait to escape to Germany again and have our hearts and ears melted.

  • Photography by Ben McQuaide
  • Photography by Ben McQuaide
  • Photography by Marc Prodanovic
  • Photography by Ben McQuaide
  • Photography by Marc Prodanovic
  • Photography by Christian Hedel
  • Photography by Lea Kalinowsky
  • Photography by Lea Kalinowsky
  • Photography by Marc Prodanovic