Fusion

It's been about a week since Fusion… I've sat down a few times to try and write about it, but I'm finding it hard to accurately describe the experience in words… anyway, here's what I've got...


Spread across ten stages, five days and who-knows how many square kilometres of a disused military airfield, Fusion is - in a word - massive! Though it's hard to truly grasp the magnitude of the audience - as there's no point where everyone is in a single given location - I'm told it pulls a crowd of around 70,000.

Like everything else about the festival, the line-up is epic - at least in terms of the number of acts playing. Despite this, I entered the festival only recognising a few names on the bill.

One of those names was the creative duo known as Kollektiv Turmstrasse. Having been wowed by their emotionally-driven sound many years ago (at another outdoor festival, during a local act's set), it was great to finally hear and see them outdoors.








Another must-see live-set was that of Oliver Schories. Having missed his recent sets in Berlin, I was glad to finally catch him. Taking to the stage directly after Nicone and Sascha Braemer's party-pleasing set of techno and tech-house, his distinctly deep, melancholic beats washed over the crowd.  From the outset, a clear difference in sound-processing was apparent. In comparison, Schories' set was a lot more bass-heavy and not as bright (except for the absolute high-end frequencies) - a trademark of his sound, really.





Upon arrival, late Thursday evening, I made it my mission to quickly scout-out the different stages and try to get a feel for the site. The level of detail is something that really needs to be seen first-hand. Having been running for more than fifteen years - and in the same site (I'm pretty sure) - it's clear that the organisers have built it from the ground up, adding more eye-candy each year. In terms of aesthetic, it has a kind of jumbled bric-a-brac vibe to it... constructing objects from what's available.

I spent the first night sleeping in this hangar
as my sleeping bag didn't arrive until the
second day (a logistics mishap…)

All in all, Fusion was an absolute blast. I'll definitely be doing my best to return next year.