Dispatches from the Holy Land: Steff Metal at Wacken Open Air
Thursday, August 25th, 2011 by steffmetal
Hi fellow metallers and miscreants! I just got back from Wacken Open Air, the greatest heavy metal party on earth, and thought I’d share with you some of my adventures in the holy land of heavy metal.
I'm stoked to be at WOA for the second time this year
The Wacken Open Air festival began in 1990 with a handful of German bands on a farm in rural Germany. Since its humble beginnings, Wacken has grown to one of the largest and most beloved heavy metal festivals in the world – attended by 75,000 metalheads from all over the world including, this year, a huge contingent of kiwis, and some sheep.
Our campground sheep
In the middle of the night, someone stole one of our sheep. We’re glad they never brought it back.
We arrived two days before the music began, giving us plenty of time to enjoy beer with our friends and browse the metal and medieval markets. Here, metalheads can find everything from clothing and patches to drinking horns and replica weaponry. I blew the budget at my favourite sock stall.
CDH perusing the shops in the metal market
Viking horn! (if you don't blow it correctly, it sounds like a farting elephant)
The first must-see band at Wacken is the Wacken Firefighters. This is the volunteer fire brigade from the town itself, performing classic German drinking songs in all their brass band glory, while a horde of drunk metalheads link arms and dance. It’s brilliant fun and I even got my crowd-surfing on!
The Thursday was a quiet line-up for me, with Helloween blasting power metal classics and my favourite band, Blind Guardian, taking the stage for a headlining slot. With the band playing flawlessly and the crowd singing every word, this was a magical set and the perfect end the first day of music.
Happy metalheads at the Wacken Firefighters
Friday was my busiest festival day, starting at midday with Ensiferum and not finishing till 3am with Apocalyptica’s mist-soaked cello instrumental set. The highlights of Friday were definitely Van Canto – a heavy metal cappella group – and Judas Priest. I’ve never seen these legends perform live before, and their show – one of the first in their epic farewell tour – slayed. Rob Halford is still pulling out some amazing vocals.
The Shining, at Wacken Open Air
On Saturday I got to catch one of my favorite indie acts, Norwegian jazz metal band the Shining, who played a half-hour set on the WET Stage at the same time as Iced Earth. Tobias’ Sammet’s Avantasia stole the day with a flawless, energetic performance, accompanied by special guests Bob Catley (Magum), Hai Hansen (Gamma Ray, Helloween) and Michael Kiske (formally of Helloween). After some epic dinner hotdogs (mine was covered in chilli. Sweet), we dove into the mosh-pit for Kreator.
And just like that, another Wacken was over. We had only to pack up our beer bottles, say goodbye to new friends and old, and leave the hallowed festival grounds. Until next year, WOA. Horns up \m/
Goodbye Wacken! Till next time!
You can see more Wacken photos at the official Wacken gallery.
Who am I? I’m Steff. Born in New Zealand, raised on a steady diet of metal and out-of-print archaeology books, I’m now a freelance writer, accessible formats producer, and full-time iron maiden.
You can keep up to date with all the metal madness at my Steff Metal blog. I update 4 times a week with reviews, articles, advice and silliness about living the metal lifestyle. And, for alternative biz owners, I run a creative business community for the dark side at Grymm & Epic.
Keep it brutal \m/ Steff
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