A day as a Wacken reporter

A great thing about Wacken is that there are new things to experience each year. Normally, I experience Wacken as press to write a report and sometimes other stuff. This year I joined the team of the festival newspaper Festival Today for a day. I’ve always been curious how they work and how the paper gets printed, and this year I got the opportunity to find this out!

I spent the day with reporter Michael Althaus, a journalist that normally works for the Norddeutsche Rundschau. It was his second year of working for Festival Today. One thing that surprised me was that many of the reporters aren’t metal fans. One of them said that they would visit such a festival normally. Still, they claimed to enjoy the friendly atmosphere at Wacken very much. The reporters focus on finding enthralling stories of Wacken fans and villagers. Maybe you’ve read about these stories in the newspaper of the past days.

First, some pictures needed to be taken for an article. One of the reporters was dressed up as a tent robber and then the assault on their own tents could begin. We met up with some campers that decided to provide themselves with sun energy during the festival. It worked out pretty well with the weather during this year’s festival! Another nice story that we heard about was about the family that live across Germany and meet at Wacken every year. The eldest member of the family was a woman in her 80’ies. Hopefully we’ll still be able to attend Wacken when we reach that age!

The day also included meeting with the team who keeps the festival grounds clean, villagers who bake cake for a good cause and a visit to the metal church where Faun played on Wednesday evening. Besides looking for extra ordinary stories, the reporters also look at how most of us enjoy Wacken. Pole sitting, meeting new people, camping and having a drink every now and then. So when all the work is done, all the articles are sent to Itzehoe. The newspaper is put together and printed here and transported back to Wacken for all of us to enjoy the following morning!

Thanks to the team of Festival Today and especially Michael Althaus for giving me this opportunity. See you in Wacken 2014! Laetitia Abbenes

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