Wetterleuchten Festival in Innsbruck

1905 metres above sea level, high up on the Nordkette mountain chain is a music festival called Wetterleuchten (which means summer lightning).

It is an intimate/local festival that runs for two days, basically the music is on for 24 hours. I used the word local here because most of the acts and organisers are from the area, but the festival goers were from all over Europe and I met some from the US too.

We were fairly lucky with the weather, being on the mountain side, the weather can change rapidly, one year they had snow which sounded eventful!

It was quite cloudy to begin with, then the sun came out, then it rained, then it stopped. Nothing to complain about though, one year I was at the Glastonbury Festival, a month’s worth of rain fell from the sky in 4 hours, there are too many words to describe how that was.

The hills are alive

There was only one stage, but other areas hang out with music, such as the main building where you can drink a beer on a bench and look at the magnificent views of Innsbruck city and the surrounding valleys – sunset and sunrise are a must see, this view never gets old!

5am timelapse.

There was a nice mix of music, mostly electronic; Trip Hop, Break Beat, Dub, Reggae, Dance Hall, Afro, Hip Hop, Electronica, Experimental, House and Techno and sub genres in between. Philadelphy + Arestokids were the only “band” that played – as in live guitars.

tAKtAttACKERS began as the sun started to set, two MCs and a DJ got the crowd pumping with their energetic set, rapping and singing over Reggae, Dub and Hip Hop tracks. I added some of their vocals in the video.

One of tAKtAttACKERS

Also playing live using sequencers, drum machines and synths were Midas104, Philipp Quehenberger and my favourite of the night; Roman Rauch and Precious K.

Midas104 playing live.

Although there were some technical issues, which happens – it’s live. The sound was fantastic and right up my street – deep and tech house with a balearic touch. The crowd were loving it and the hills were definitely alive with the sound of music!

Roman Rauch and Precious K live.

In between acts were fellow Innsbruck DJs Marek Gasparin and DSOME. The full program that played can be found on the Wetterleuchten website.

Camping on a mountain

I love the fact that the tents were scattered over the huge area up at Seegrube. There are different levels of altitude because you’re basically staying on the snow park and areas around the jumps. The idea of camping out on the mountain is great, that as well as being at a music festival is fantastic!

Camping on top of the world.

To finish off…

Philipp Haider and his sax.

Along with the video, I also produced and co-wrote the music using saxophone samples recorded by Philipp Haider. Philipp is the Activity and Program coordinator for Alte Music Innsbruck and we met whilst organising the collaboration with them for the Crankworx video. He played a nice jazzy style which fitted nicely over the house track. Check it out in the video.

See you there next year 😉

All photos by me.

Follow more of my filmmaking and music production adventures on Instagram and Facebook