Wacken Open Air (, abbreviated as W:O:A) is a heavy metal music festival, held yearly since 1990 on the first weekend of August in the village of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It has been called the world's biggest metal festival, or the "Mecca of heavy metal". The four-day event involves around 200 bands, is attended by around 85,000 metalheads from more than 80 countries, and takes place on a 240-hectare site including campgrounds. Wacken has two main stages and several smaller stages, as well as areas with stalls, beer tents and entertainment; including a medieval-themed 'Wackinger' village and apocalyptic-themed 'Wasteland'. Wacken Open Air has long focused on traditional heavy metal and extreme metal genres such as power metal, speed metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, doom metal, industrial, symphonic and folk metal. Locals had always been involved with the festival. However, in recent years Wacken has included more mainstream and alt-metal bands as headliners, become more commercialized and attracted non-metalhead 'festival tourists', upsetting long-time attendees. Several documentaries have been made about Wacken, and many bands have recorded live albums at the festival. WOA also runs the Wacken Metal Battle, an international battle of the bands contest for unsigned bands.
Recorded Here
Recorded or filmed here, from this catalogue:
- Immortal - Live at Wacken 2007 The Seventh Date Of Blashyrkh - Immortal, released August 6, 2010 (
NB-2511-9). Recorded At.
History
From the en.wikipedia article Wacken Open Air (CC BY-SA 4.0), revision 1374703487.
Background
The idea for Wacken Open Air was conceived in 1989 when Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner visited a restaurant together. Both lived in Wacken and were friends, Jensen played the electric bass with rock cover band Skyline. From its beginnings until 1992, the band was composed of Ines Jeske from Vaale (vocals), Thomas Jensen from Wacken (bass), Peter Huhn from Wacken (electric guitar), Dennis Schoppe from Itzehoe (keyboard), and Andreas Göser from Wacken (drums). Skyline was one of the first regional Metal and Rock cover bands at that time. The band was regionally known, working its way from appearances in village pubs and gigs at biker meetings up to an appearance as supporting band of "Extrabreit". Hübner was a disc jockey with a focus on Rock music and Heavy Metal. Jensen and Hübner developed the idea to organize an open-air concert in a gravel pit in Wacken and persuaded Skyline drummer Andreas Göser and Jörg Jensen, Thomas Jensen's brother, to help make it happen. The pit had previously been used as a meeting venue for up to 3,000 members of biker club 'No Mercys', and hence was suited for their plans and gave an opportunity to attract motorcycle fans. From the beginning, the focus of the event would be on Rock and Metal, and in contrast to other single-day festivals such as Monsters of Rock or Super Rock in Mannheim, there would also be camping grounds.
Early Years and Growth
The first two-day festival took place in the gravel pit on August 24 and 25, 1990 and barely had 800 visitors. The performing bands all hailed from Germany, and apart from Skyline, bands like 5th Avenue, Motoslug, Sacred Season, Axe 'n Sex, and Wizzard played. The first festivals were organized privately, with the technology being built on a trailer borrowed from a local trucking company and the stage being a DIY construction. In subsequent years, too, most of the tasks were carried out by the small team. Until August 1994, for example, ticket orders were organized privately by Andy Göser's mother Regina Göser and security duties were performed by friendly motorcycle clubs up until 1996. In 1991, the number of visitors increased to 1,300, and with Skyline returning, Bon Scott, an AC/DC cover band from Hamburg, Gypsy Kyss, Kilgore, Life Artist, Ruby Red, and Shanghai'd Guts joined them on stage for an all-regional roster. That same year, the skull logo was designed by Mark Ramsauer after the basic shape had been determined by Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner. The cow skull refers to the venue, a meadow for cows, and to Jensen and Hübner as "boys from the village". In 1992, the program changed to include internationally renowned bands such as Blind Guardian and Saxon for the first time, and the number of bands rose to 26, listing bands from Sweden, the US, Ireland, and Belgium. The organizers used a professional stage with lighting and PA for the first time and secured cigarette brand Prince Denmark as a sponsor. That year, the Party Stage was set up in the DJ tent next to the main stage, where cover bands and fun projects were to perform exclusively. The additional post-concert costs for refuse disposal on the campground and the significantly enlarged security, among other things, meant that the organizers recorded a loss of around 25,000 D-Mark that year. With the reunion of the band Fates Warning at the festival in 1993, Wacken Open Air had a special feature and also made a name for itself in the following years with unusual band constellations and reunions. At the same time, Doro Pesch and other well-known bands made for interesting appearances, which resulted in a new record attendance of 3,500 customers. Simultaneously, the team tried concert organization and, under the moniker Stoned Castle Promotion, held a Motörhead concert for 2,000 people in Flensburg. A show with Dio/Freak of Nature became a disaster with only 167 tickets sold, and together with the Open Air, which again recorded a minus, the organizers incurred debts of around 350,000 D-Mark. As a result, Jörg Jensen and Andreas Göser left the team; Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen remained, as did Jörn-Ulf Goesmann for another two years, continuing to run the Wacken Open Air despite the debts for which their parents had provided guarantees. During the same year, Thomas Jensen's mother died and Holger Hübner had a serious accident; the year went down in Wacken history as the "year of the plague". On its fifth anniversary in 1994, the financial situation stabilized and the festival finally broke even. The line-up remained professional and featured many internationally known bands from the metal scene. 4,500 tickets were sold. Due to the rising costs of refuse disposal, tickets for the camping grounds had to be purchased separately, and pre-orders received a free T-shirt. The festival was not profitable. However, for the first time, national media became aware of Wacken Open Air, especially Rock Hard magazine and the TV station VIVA with its Heavy Metal program Metalla.
Ticket sales for the 1996 festival again started sluggishly, despite a headliner like Kreator and numerous internationally renowned bands such as The Exploited, Gorefest, and Crematory. Management tried to prevent another loss by securing more acts and finally managed to get Böhse Onkelz to perform. The engagement of the controversial band also led to criticism, and some bands canceled their gig in Wacken that year. Cologne band Brings canceled at short notice, and offered to refund their fans' ticket prices. As a result of many visitors flooding the village in 1996, the inhabitants of Wacken voiced their concern over an event of this size being held in the local gravel pit. Uwe Trede offered to relocate the festival site to his own property and the areas previously used as campgrounds and took care of the acquisition of additional land. With the W.E.T.-Stage, a third stage was set up in 1997. The "Wacken Evolution Tent" was to be made available primarily to newcomers and bands without record deals. That year, the number of visitors reached 10,000 for the first time, with Rockbitch's erotic stage show causing a scene.
Peak Years
Over the years, the size of Wacken Open Air has grown continuously, and now dozens of bands and tens of thousands of visitors flock to the festival. Even though the organizers said in 2006 that 62,500 visitors were "the limit of what is possible", changes were made to the structure of the festival grounds the following year by allocating a larger area to the "Party Stage". In addition, tickets could no longer be purchased directly on the festival grounds to reduce the number of spontaneous or ticketless visitors. In 2007 and 2008, the festival had already sold out as a result of advance ticket sales; for W:O:A 2009, tickets had even sold out by the end of 2008. The tickets for 2010, too, sold out months in advance. While the festival originally only lasted two days, the performances have been lasting from Thursday to Saturday, i.e., three days, for some years. Thursday became a "Night to Remember", with mainly "classical" Heavy Metal bands appearing, such as the Scorpions in 2006. On the actual Party Stage, younger and more modern bands play as a contrast to the "Night to Remember". In addition, the event is accompanied by a rich complementary program; in addition to a merchant area – obligatory for music festivals – a beer garden has been operating since 2000, in which the Wacken Firefighters' marching band opens the festival before its official start. On Thursday in 2007, the "Hellfest Stage" was initiated. Since 2009, there has been a "Medieval Stage", where mainly Medieval and Folk Metal bands play. The fact that many well-known bands, including the Scorpions, Saxon, Twisted Sister, Dimmu Borgir, Slayer, and Helloween, have recorded live DVDs at Wacken, shows how esteemed the Open Air has since become. Ahead of their farewell tour in 2004, Die Böhsen Onkelz also performed an extended set at W:O:A. Since 2002, the so-called "Metal Train" has been traveling from Munich to Wacken and back before and after the festival to bring fans to the Northern German village and provide a matching entertainment program. Bus tours from Scandinavian countries, especially Zurich and Sweden, but also from Austria, are organized each year and used by several hundred fans.
The "W:O:A Soccercup" has been taking place annually since 2002. This football tournament, which started with nine teams and takes place on Wednesdays, has grown over the years and has been held in World Cup mode with 32 teams since 2007 (a one-off event in 2011 featured 36 teams). The international teams register in advance and are composed of festival visitors. For the tournament's 15th anniversary in 2016, a band was featured and took part for the first time: Serum 114 formed a team with several fans and were able to win the tournament. Although it is meant to be a fun tournament, in which creative outfits and names take precedence over athletic performance, the award ceremony after the tournament has been held on one of the stages since 2013 and prizes can be won. The festival is one of the Metal scene's highlights of the year. Nowadays, about a third of the visitors, some of whom arrive quite some time before the official start of the festival, and the majority of the bands come from abroad. According to the organizers, 2018 saw visitors from more than 80 nations attending the festival. The number of participants increased to 75,000 in 2008 and included 65,000 paying guests. In 2008, the festival sold out twice (W:O:A 2008 in spring and W:O:A 2009 on December 31, 2008). As is common with festivals of this size, Wacken Open Air received criticism for its hygienic conditions, prices, security personnel, as well as for the overcrowding and commercial orientation of the event. These points of criticism were addressed by making further substantial investments in the festival's fixed and mobile infrastructure. In 2008, the organizers also contributed 1,000,000 Euros to the expansion of Wacken's local outdoor swimming pool in order to make the festival even more attractive to the residents and visitors of the town. Since 2006, the festival has been running an online radio station called Wacken Radio, which broadcasts Metal music around the clock. It is being produced in cooperation with RauteMusik as of February 2014.
The event sold out ten times in a row between 2006 and 2015. For the 23rd edition of Wacken Open Air, the sale of an "X-Mas Package" started on Monday, August 8, 2011, shortly after the end of that year's festival, and was sold out within 45 minutes. Tickets for Wacken Open Air 2015 sold out after just 12 hours on August 4, 2014 – just a few hours after the end of W:O:A 2014. The X-Mas Tickets for W:O:A 2016, which cost 10 Euros less and whose buyers were entitled to a free T-shirt, were completely sold out only 20 minutes after the start of pre-sales. Booking office Metaltix' servers were highly busy. In the minutes before the start of the pre-sale, the pages were no longer accessible; after that, data traffic had to be limited by wait lists. In 2013, the "Full Metal Church" took place in Wacken for the first time. Marking the local church's 150th anniversary, the team, together with the parish, organized a concert by the band Faun, which was framed by two readings and sermons by "Volxbibel" author Martin Dreyer. Both the concert and the services were completely overcrowded by festival visitors.
Prices for the festival have risen and are currently at a level similar to other major Rock festivals, such as Rock am Ring and Hurricane Festival. After several years of success in which the festival sold out within hours, the first 60,000 tickets for the 2017 festival were sold in mid-2016. 55,000 tickets were sold within the first hour. By the end of April 2017, the festival was almost sold out except for a few remaining tickets. The price for the festival ticket was 220 Euros, but there was no fee for early arrival campers, who often set up their elaborately designed accommodations before the festival begins – partly to get the best spots near the festival grounds. In addition, all toilets and showers were free in 2017. The festival sold out within a few days each in 2014–2016. However, the last tickets for the 2017 festival were sold after 309 days, a mere 2 months before the start of the festival, even though only 10,000 tickets remained after the first day of sales. This was a matter of speculation at first, and reasons such as the changed security situation or the price development were taken into account. Regardless of that, the festival sold out for the 13th time in a row in 2018.
On April 5, 2018, Thomas Hess, the festival's production and former security director, died. He joined festival management in 1996 as a former tour manager of Böhse Onkelz and was a key figure in festival management alongside the remaining founders and the Trede family members, who organize the camping areas and supervisors as subcontractors. He contributed to the festival's management, operations, and structure. For W:O:A 2019, all 75,000 tickets were sold within the first four days of sales, making this the 14th time in a row that the festival completely sold out.
Since the Covid Pandemic
On April 16, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 edition of the festival would be canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The organizers created an event for that year called, "Wacken Worldwide", featuring well-known bands performing on a mixed-reality stage, along with interviews and other interactive features. It was the biggest livestream event of 2020. The first set of bands were announced on August 1, 2020 for the rescheduled festival for 2021. On June 1, 2021, the promoters of Wacken Open Air announced that the festival would not take place this year, again due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and was scheduled to return in the summer of 2022, with more information and details to be announced in September 2021. 2022 was the first edition that was able to take place since the COVID-19 pandemic. Headliners were Powerwolf, Slipknot and Judas Priest. The 2023 festival sold out in a record time of 5 hours. Headliners were Iron Maiden, Heaven Shall Burn, Doro and Helloween. For the first time in the festival's history, they had to announce a ban of motorised vehicles due to heavy rainfall and storm alerts. This announcement came on Wednesday morning, the day before the festival was supposed to begin. The police estimated 50,000 festival goers were able to reach the festival by the time the ban was announced. The people who were not able to reach the festival were offered a refund. The 2024 festival sold out, once again in a record time of 4.9 hours. Bands included Amon Amarth, KoЯn, Scorpions and Blind Guardian.
Overview by Year
The following chart shows the development of prices and visitor numbers of past festivals as published by the organizers. Prices refer to the total amount per ticket (incl. parking and camping) in pre-sale (without additional fees). The price for the 4-day 2023 edition (299.00 EUR) has been adjusted accordingly.
Sources
- Wikidata entity Q157845.
- en.wikipedia, Wacken Open Air (revision 1374703487), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- ja.wikipedia, ヴァッケン・オープン・エア (revision 106370259), CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Photograph: Nightwish - Wacken Open Air 2018-1769.jpg on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, by Andreas Lawen, Fotandi.
