melt dome 2028

Not a festival for the like-minded — a temporary village square where very different lives meet.

melt dome is the core format of melt — a universe of event formats searching for the smallest common denominator of a society that is increasingly individualised and polarised. Every three years, the festival travels to a new place to create real, physical encounters between people with very different realities of life. After Olten 2024, the next edition is planned for summer 2028 in the Lucerne area.

Over four weeks, ten curated theme days alternate with days on which only the bar is open. Each theme day is shaped by one main actor — an institution, brand or organisation, called the “biotope” — and four further contributors, the “symbionts”, who stay present all day and take part in each other’s contributions. Dialogical, performative and participatory formats make a change of perspective tangible.

At the centre stands a new, reusable dome with a weatherproof roof — 12 metres in diameter, for up to 100 people. Around it, an open landscape and the bar remain accessible to everyone, without any obligation to consume. Solidarity ticketing with free tickets for every theme day, barrier-free planning, a supervised retreat space and a live stream keep the festival open to all.

melt dome is carried by the non-profit association Zusammenspiel, under the artistic co-direction of Yannick Portmann and Julian Stettler, and is being professionalised in collaboration with the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU), supported by an Innosuisse Innocheque.