Dockville – you were really cold this year. And rainy. And yet, and YET with arguably one of the deepest line-ups in years, you were absolutely amazing. The little Hamburgers of this city have rocked the rain away, and you know that you gotta twist a move to shake that crawling cold off. The atmosphere really has been especially great this year.
MS Dockville marks the end of an art-packed month around the festival area on the island Wilhelmsburg, only a few minutes from the city centre. During the month leading up to the festival from mid-July, all forms of art are equally celebrated during MS Artville, Lüttville, Kunstcamp, Butterland Open Air and Vogelball: there a sculptures, paintings, photos, handicrafts and everything you can imagine really. A lot of electronic music under the starry skies too. From a travelling point of view, this is the time to visit this fair city of Hamburg.
And this is precisely what makes MS Dockville so fun. The nature of the festival area – with trees and crickets at night on one side and the Elbe river and harbour industry on the other – and the traces of the numerous art installations of the weeks before. And then there is the music. No less that eight stages and oh my, this year saw SOHN, Flume, Jagwar Ma, Cashmere Cat, Kaytranada (attached above), Dream Koala and oh so many more great artists playing wonderful sets despite the not very festival like meteorological conditions.
Who cares though. The main stages hosted memorable performances by Mø, Kakkmaddafakka, Warpaint, Milky Chance, Wild Beasts, Nils Frahm, Die Antwoord and Swedish rapper Yung Lean – the latter two quite frankly raising more questions than they answered for Team Poule. Out of control. And British underground mega stars Breton played their heart out on Saturday, very ecstatic, attached below.
However, it’s the little things happening around the festival area that make Dockville so nice and such a great time every year. Hamburg art collective Krautzungen for instance hosted a range of bands and DJs inside a little white cube, fitting as much as 20 people maybe, in the middle of the festival area. The legendary Kirrin Island and Enna played a powerful set – despite killing the electricity, twice. Add a good amount of fog machine into the mix and you get quite the exciting setup – photographic evidence above.
So, while the weather definitely could have been a downer this year, Dockville was once again a spectacular experience. The combination of art and music within the very green and yet sort of industrial setting of the festival area really create an atmosphere that is unlike any other festival. Dockville, if you will have us, we will be back next year.
