Moin Wacken, it has been a while since we last heard this famous phrase. But starting on the 26th of July we were able ”in once again rainy Germany” to hear this phrase for another whole week. This year we were very lucky with our designated arrival path to the campground cause it brought us super close to the Holy Ground. I was able to see the Faster and Harder stage the moment I came out of my tent. So I say welcome to the party in my backyard!
The weathergods gave us a little trip down memory lane while setting up the camp. Remember all the mud from last year? Well it was back and this time immediately on the first day. Thank goodness I had an extra pair of rain wellies with me. (Yeah I learned from last year) Once again I was surprised by the amount of stuff people always bring with them and how it always fits in the cars. It must be a magic trick or something.
After setting up the camp for this year, I took a little stroll over the new plaza and it looked bigger this year than last year. Some major changes were made with the Welcome to the Jungle stage being moved to the left back of the plaza field. The Wasteland stage and the little area around it got a massive upgrade and was moved outside of the plaza field and even bigger as well. The size of the plaza was much better in my opinion and it felt less crowded and packed the first few days while the Holy Ground was still closed.
In preparation for the chance of rain, they’ve made sure that this year there were a lot of hardened paths or paths with woodchips available. It must have been very ironic that all these extra measures weren’t as much needed this year as the previous ones. The weathergods do have a funny sense of humor.
Monday was still a bit of a cloudy day but no other than Wacken’s favorite Mambo Kurt was there to brighten everyone’s spirit. After him it was up to Mandowar performing on a truck-like stage in front of the Holy Ground and even the sun couldn’t be stopped from giving us a little appearance. It was a bit chilly in the evening but Alien Rockin Explosion was there to give us a bit of warmth all the way from Spain. Tuesday we had a fun and good performance from The Ukeboys to beat the weathergods because a shine edition of Wacken would be nice.
I was pretty amazed by how Wacken Open Air managed all the visitors and the much needed toilet and shower facilities. On the campsites there were lots of hubs with dixies and a bit less hubs with flushing toilets and showers. Not once did I have to wait longer than 3 minutes for a toilet and there were always showers available every time I went. And I went almost every day! The only thing you should never forget to bring is your own toilet paper, especially when going to the dixies. This experience was pretty much the same on the infield, there were enough facilities available and it never felt like a big quest to go to the toilet.
Wednesday
Welcome to the official 35th anniversary of Wacken Open Air! And what is a better birthday gift than a full day of sunshine. Believe it or not but it was warm and sunny! And what a difference that makes for the entire experience. The Metal Battle already started that day at the Headbangers stage with the Swiss band Expellow, the winner from last year giving a performance. This metalcore and hardcore band gave a lovely performance even when the speaker decided to stop working for a few minutes. It was time to open the Holy Ground for the lovely ladies of Lovebites. And what a performance they gave. Asami’s voice really took over the Holy Ground for that moment and showed us ladies can make heavy metal.
For a few years, Wednesday is an extra day with a bit of a theme. This year it was Gagamania set around the tour Hämatom is playing this year. So the first warm up for this event were The Butcher Sisters also known as TBS. But before we get to that, we got a little surprise performance by Blaas of Glory wandering around the infield. The Dutch group from Zwolle who is famous for their version of ”The Final Countdown” had very soon a small crowd gathered around them. A good and nice warm up for TBS who really continued the party, with some German songs like ”Bauchtasche” and ”Sonnenbrille”. The typical festival gear people have with them. We got Rick Roll’ed, a dildo was thrown into the audience and many beers were thrown into the air. A chaotic but amazing performance. After TBS there was a little break at the mainstage so time to calm down a little bit with The Gathering performing at the Louder stage. They changed the position of the stage this year. Last year you could hear a lot from the Faster and Harder stage while being at Louder now that wasn’t the issue anymore. Performing with a special setlist based around 30 years of ”Mandylion” and celebrating exactly 30 years since their first Wacken performance, who according to the crowd 6 people were there as well. Anneke van Giersbergen her voice really brings you in a sort of trance. I really saw people enjoying the progressive rock tones and vibes from this band.
After the little break it was time for Electric Bassboy, the DJ project from Electric Callboy, and what a party. There are no words, cause I was clearly out of breath during the whole performance, to describe what a show these people were giving, including some crowdsurfing on a huge inflatable unicorn.
I always love to see how metalheads embrace all different kinds of music, because this set was clearly very different from what we’re used to. But it doesn’t matter, be it metal or EDM us metalheads know how to party! After them we got a surprise. The bullhead was speaking and announced the first few names for next year! After that it was time for Hämatom and their Gagamania set. Starting in the atmosphere of an asylum while lead singer Torsten ”Nord” Scharf was dragged onto the stage by little people wearing a straitjacket. During ”Erzähl es meinem Mittelfinger” no other than sidequest king Alea from Saltatio Mortis joined the stage. During ”Scheiße kommt – Scheiße geht” drummer Süd was crowd surfing on a drumkit with the poop emoji. Playing loads of fan favorites, they were the perfect headliner from the first day of this party edition.
Thursday
After yesterday’s heat we needed to cool down for a bit. A more cloudy day with a few drops of rain was the recipe for the second day. With the Harder stage now open and running as well. It was time for Europe to take over the stage. There were many people gathered for this performance. Serving a good mix between all time classics like ”The Final Countdown” and some new stuff from their latest album ”Come This Madness”. The band and Joey Tempest were in good form.
During the day Spectral Wound played their set at the W.E.T. stage. The first notes they played sounded so calm, but for everyone familiar with black metal it was clear what was coming our way. And they delivered it beautifully! They instantly managed to catch my soul and make me feel like I was in a trance-like state, as black metal often does for me. The only thing that could have made the experience even better was them playing at night, instead of during the day. But at the time the weather was still cloudy and gloomy, so we had that going for us at least.
Whilst Europe was getting ready to play on the Harder stage, Saltatio Mortis was playing a short intimate show in the VIP area. They played their bagpipes around the campfire (which sadly wasn’t burning) and a lot of people gathered round to enjoy. There was one brave little girl with down syndrome that wanted to dance closer to them and it was a beautiful sight to see her doing just that. Completely unbothered by everybody around her, even the people dressed up as Krampus and White Walkers didn’t deter her. It made me tear up a little bit to see this play out, this is what the metal community means for a lot of us. The chance to be who we are, unapologetically and to be accepted and cherished.
After Europe it was time for Savatage. Using a lot of AI video’s in during the songs it was a nice visual show to watch. While a ”Handful of Rain” was playing, the sky decided to treat us to some rain. But that was only for a short period of time. During ”Believe” we had a beautiful homage to Criss Oliva sung by Jon Oliva through a video and Zachary Stevens joining the song and finishing it super strong. It really moved, touched and brought me to tears seeing many ‘tough’ metalheads sniffing and crying and getting hugged by other metalheads. That is the real power of metal music and one of my favorite moments of the festival.
After Savatage it was time for a very old ”first timer” Def Leppard had their debut at the Harder stage and you could tell people were looking forward to it. It was loaded with people, but it was a tough job for them to keep the crowd entertained. The involvement of the crowd went really up and down and so did the pace of the songs. During the classic ones like ”Love Bites” and ‘‘Pour Some Sugar On Me” the crowd was really involved. But during other songs and especially the two new ones. The crowd barely responded.
I personally think the time of the performance was the best option for them.
Where Spectral Wound was still playing during daylight, MISÞYRMING did get a spot during the night and under an almost full moon no less! Together with Adam “Nergal” Darski, they performed Behemoth‘s “Sventevith”. These men gave it their all during this performance, their energy throughout the whole set was amazing. It was raw, it was hard and it was beautiful. And seeing Nergal perform is always a treat in my opinion, no matter what he does. He has a great stage presence and he gave an emotional delivery. By the end of the show, most of the men had sweat their corpse paint off, a sign of a job well done!
After Def Leppard and MISÞYRMING we spent some time at the Headbangers stage with Cowgirls From Hell playing a nice DJ set. Still running high on the energy of the previous shows, I really enjoyed this and danced the night away.
Friday
The third and one of the busiest days for us, this day started early with a show from Vreid at the Harder stage. Frontman Sture Dingsøyr gave us a very stern and serious performance, which suits the Norwegian black metal genre perfectly and I immediately noticed how clear his voice sounded live. Because they played fairly early during the day, there weren’t that many people in the audience. This was a shame, they definitely deserved more. With their new song “The Skies Turn Black” they made a tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne, one of the godfathers of our beloved metal genre. This was a very nice touch, since Ozzy meant so much for a lot of us, both musicians and music fans alike. About halfway into their show, Vreid introduced us to not one but two guest artists to perform “Loving The Dead”! On vocals we got Agnete Kjølsrud and on the guitar we got a surprise with Jackass’ Partyboy Chris Pontius! The contrast between these serious Norwegian musicians and Partyboy was hilarious. Of course Chris Pontius isn’t called Partyboy for no reason, so whilst they were performing he stripped down into a red thong and quickly smeared some semblance of corpse paint onto his face. This made Agneta almost break into laughter, I could see she was struggling to keep a straight face. At first glance, the presence of Chris Pontius might seem like an odd one, but this is no mere coincidence. He and Vreid‘s bass player Hváll actually gave a press conference the day before about a documentary they have been working on. There isn’t a clear release date yet, but somewhere in 2027 we can expect to see more about “Outcasts of the North”, a documentary about the Scandinavian metal scene. We should definitely keep our eyes peeled for this one, because judging by what I’ve seen so far it’s going to be awesome.
Time to enter the Wackinger village for the first time this week. Listening to Cruachan from Dublin playing nice Celtic Metal the village is the perfect setting for this genre. The village looked bigger this year and felt less crowded due to more space. The village is a favorite place to hang out for many metalheads because the food is amazing over there and it’s a nice space for a little break. Cruachan played a lot of Irish favorites and songs that had been in the Irish top 50. Keith Fay said his voice wasn’t the greatest today. But in all fairness I didn’t notice it at all.
Meant to play last year but now back better than ever it was time for Saxon to take over the Harder stage. And damn what a show and a performance gave these oldies. The crowd was really up to it and waited a whole year to give their all. In my opinion I think if you would have put Saxon on the time of Def Leppard you would have a better closure of that day. Cause these men know how to do metal and they deserved more than just being a little warm up for Judas Priest that night.
From Saxon we moved on to the next stage for some melodic death from Gothenburg with In Flames. During their first song we noticed that Anders Fridén‘s voice still needed a bit of a warming up, but when the second song “Deliver Us” hit, all was good. He seemed to effortlessly alternate between clean and distorted vocals. “In The Dark” started playing with some technical difficulties, where the vocals couldn’t be heard. But this didn’t seem to bother the crowd very much, who were singing along from the first note. Overall In Flames gave a show with a very energetic and positive vibe which the audience answered in kind. When it was time for “The Chosen Pessimist” Anders took a step back and sat down to deliver the song in a very heartfelt and emotional way. This created a small intimate moment in an overwhelming wild and energetic show.
The most beautiful thing about Wacken Open Air is the amount of different rock or metal genres are represented over here and given the opportunity to take over. Bear McCreary is maybe a name you might know from some famous movie and game music. But he was here at the headbangers stage with his band showing that he does more than just film music. Completely different but damn he knows how to rock. His new album ”The Singularity: Ekleipsis” was released a few hours before his performance at Wacken. He gave a perfect mix of songs from that album but also some of his tv and video game work. Alissa White-Glutz joined as well on stage to perform the official ”Wacken Anthem” live for the first time.
While Bear McCreary was performing, another first time band had their debut in the Wackinger Village. The Balkan Boys from Dubioza Kolektiv took over the village with their avant-garde dub rock. Transforming us all into Balkan Boys with each song passing by. I saw people dancing, rowing and really enjoying this performance.
During a well deserved break at our campsite, I noticed one of our mates talking about a weird issue they had with some of the security at Wacken. Several people with anti-fascist symbols and/or symbols representing diversity
their clothing had been denied access to the festival terrain. This actually shocked me pretty hard, since I’d never had expected this to happen at a metal festival. Since this happened, Wacken has also issued an official statement about this incident, stating that these actions were never in line with their values. They are taking a clear stand against right-wing extremism and I’m happy they’re doing so. I personally don’t care about people having different political views, as long as they have respect for others and don’t discriminate. We don’t always have to agree on everything, but everyone has the right to feel welcome, especially at a festival like Wacken Open Air. This is exactly the reason why it felt so important to me that they made a massive group picture of the crowd before Def Leppard‘s performance just the day before. A special “one crowd” group picture that has since been made into a special edition t-shirt. I should be somewhere in this picture, although probably way too far to the back to be recognized, but it’s the important message that counts and I can’t wait to receive this amazing memento in the mail soon! Let’s just hope this whole right-wing debacle was just a small spot on an otherwise very safe, welcoming festival and we won’t be seeing any of this in the future.
During the day you already saw them. The old school rock metalheads wearing the t-shirts, patiently waiting, had Saxon as a really cool warm up and now it was finally time.
Judas Priest took over a super crowded infield and was welcomed with open arms. During the first two songs singer Rob Halford was a bit off key. But it couldn’t be bothered by the crowd and loads of crowdsurfing and moshpits was the response from the crowd to their performance. During ”Hell Bent For Leather” Halford came on stage with a motorbike and really gave his all which was super appreciated. But you can notice the age is starting to play up a bit. Halford’s unique high voice struggled with the last three songs as well. But they kept the spirit up and announced they will be back. So let’s see what the future will hold for this old school amazing cool oldies.
From where we were standing during Judas Priest, there was also a small incident occurring where a visitor became unwell and fainted. When this happened, everybody stopped what they were doing and we all banded together to get him the help he needed. This was very impressive to see and I want to give a big shout out to all the medical volunteers that worked so hard during Wacken to make sure everyone is safe. After this incident, some of us decided to go to the Wackinger Village to calm down a bit with FAUN, whilst the other half stayed behind to watch the rest of Judas Priest.
After Judas Priest, Emperor was performing at Louder. Completely different but this Norwegian black metal gave a good performance and we could continue with the many moshpits and finish the day satisfied.
Saturday
The Final Countdown uhmm I mean Final Day and it will be mainstage day. Starting the day with Orbit Culture, we were already blessed with loads of sunshine and sweaty backs. By now the toll of a week’s worth of festival is noticeable and we kind of laid back a bit enjoying the show Orbit Culture gave us. The sound was very heavy and thick, there might have been some issues with the mixing going on, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t give us an amazing show. Niklas Karlsson’s deep vocals rumbled into my soul and really managed to take me with him into his performance. If only I had more energy at the time!
By the time Lamb of God was getting ready to play many more people gathered around the stage for them in the burning heat. Even though it was hot as hell, this didn’t deter the crowd whatsoever and they went wild with moshpits, circlepits and headbanging.
Airbourne on Faster was a really good performance. Starting off immediately with a high speed tempo and there wasn’t a moment where Joel O’Keeffe took a small break. He went into the crowd as well and gave us many beer showers and he even was throwing shots of beer into the crowd.
Then we had a band who isn’t unknown to the people of Wacken but their new leading lady is. I am talking about Arch Enemy and what a warm welcome Lauren Hart had. She started the performance super strong and I was blown away by her voice and the range she had. After a few songs she introduced herself officially as ”the new chick” of the group and told us that from the moment she joined the group she heard nothing more than Wacken, Wacken and so far we don’t let her down. Kinda a bit of a downfall for me. It was that they decided to stop earlier than the given time on the schedule. 15 minutes before the finishing time they went off the stage.
Time for an ultimate favorite of me and I think the entire Wacken if I have seen the footage. The charming men of Powerwolf gave us the show of a lifetime. The crowd went nuts and wild. Loads of crowdsurfing people and moshpits as well, which for me was a bit too much distracting.
I was too busy paying attention to what happened around me instead of the show. Which I think is something Powerwolf doesn’t deserve. Their show is a full on masterpiece and it really deserved the credits it got from the crowd. I later heard the entire infield was packed with people and everyone was singing along and jumping. What more can a band ask for.
After Powerwolf it was time for the Promoter’s farewell and the announcement for next year’s Wacken. The announcement kinda got overruled by the crowd screaming and shouting for German Beer. I think it is safe to say that the change of beer this year wasn’t the best choice Wacken made.
Luckily Swedish metal band Sabaton was there to brighten up our spirits with their special song, ”Noch ein Beer” while drinking the beer. The fireshow and the temperature of that day really made everyone super sweaty. Joakim Brodén had four plectrums stuck on his head at some point which looked very funny. As we can expect from Sabaton they were the absolute headliner for this anniversary of Wacken by delivering an absolutely good and clean performance. After Sabaton, Alestorm was there to close this party edition of Wacken with their folk power metal music. Having huge inflatable rubber duckies on stage you could see they were up for a good party.
But the crowd including myself was tired and done. You could see the infield slowly getting emptier and emptier with each song. I think having them on the Friday evening was a better spot because the crowd was too tired to really dance to this music.
But like most things. This year’s Wacken has come to an end with 50 bands announced for next year, including Dethklok and Five Finger Death Punch.
It’s only less than 365 days till we can go back to the Holy Ground!!
Written by Marian & Milou
Photo’s by Antonie
