Wacken Open Air may be at the orgasmic pinnacle of metal festivals, but this year XXX takes on a different meaning, and a whole new reason to make the metal party even bigger.
There’s was lots of half-naked bodies, grunting, high pitched shrieking and riffing climaxes – this XXX porn came in the form of Europe’s biggest heavy metal party. Wacken Open Air is 30 – with the meteoric history this festival has had, the already phenomenal gathering had more celebratory undertones than usual.
2019 promised massive stage shows, rivers of beer, seas of black and a good time all around. Every year the event is a spectacular no matter what may hinder, but how does the heavy metal Mecca enter its dirty thirties? Would there be signs of age – worn out or mature like a fine wine? Here is our journey through this years edition of the festival:
Wednesday
As tradition dictates – Wednesday is the party day.
While the festival has not officially begun, metalheads begin piling into the festival locale as early as the Monday preceding. Wacken has evolved to a stage where dedicated folk are spending a weeks holiday at the festival, and it’s easy to understand why.
It’s mass coming together of friends, even if you haven’t met them yet. People of similar interests and personalities, ready to throw the world behind sheltered in the northern German forests, serenaded by the esteemed bards of heavy metal.
If I could I would definitely plant myself here as early as possible, but as I don’t live in Germany it’s a bit trickier. A traditional Wednesday arrival will have to do.
We arrive at Wacken to the traditional welcoming – a rush to the Wackinger Village grounds to the scent of our favourite hunks of meat on a skewer, a tankard full of cold beer and the musical swashbuckling of the first band we saw, Lagerstein. A perfect band to open the festivities, slinging brews, friendly body charges and a lot of yo-ho-hoing
Our Wednesdays are usually dedicated to the party – a lot of drinking, eating and meeting perfect strangers to again get a feel for the festival we have been missing since last year. Over the years the people have become just as important as the music, and really feed into the brilliant times always had here. If Valhalla had an earthly form, it would be here.
While we continue our Viking style debauchery into the night, we certainly do have the time to check out a few bands such as the high-flying Angelus Apartida and the theatrically entertaining Monstagon, who definitely turned heads by basically putting on a snuff-film style performance. Sacrifices of women and bankers included of course. It’s a XXX party after all!
Thursday
As one would expect, there isn’t much sleeping that happens at Wacken Open Air. It only happens once a year, so why would one need such a thing? You party, you rock, drink and eat well into the night to knock off for a couple hours, and wake up to do it all again.
Today the real festivities begin – the official opening of the festival. The shots of Jagermeister, jugs of mead and litres of beer the night before were just to get you started.
With the main music not actually beginning until the afternoon, there’s plenty of time to get yourself nourished should you need to. One thing Wacken does not lack is a variety of excellent food, especially in the Wackinger Village. For us, the hair of the dog consisted of a slab of roast pork and a litre of fine ale, making our medieval ancestors proud and being metal as fuck in the process.
Getting acquainted with new discoveries was how we spent the early afternoon watching Indian sensations Bloodywood and Hungarians turned Irish pub band Paddy & the Rats. Eyes turned on Skyline as soon as the main stage opened however, the traditional opener of the festival featuring Wacken founder Thomas Jensen.
As Thursday’s focus has developed overtime to host some colossal performances, there are fewer bands to see through the evening, but my oh my have they delivered over the years. That doesn’t break routine this evening with hugely energetic performances from Australia’s Airbourne, and power metal legends Hammerfall serenading the North German sunset.
The highlight of the evening however was the titans in making Sabaton delivering their first headline performance at this festival. While there were initially some eyebrows raised slotting them into a headliner position given their relative youth compared to other bands, all those questions were put to rest as their performance across the two main stages of Wacken – making use of one stage to host all former members of Sabaton playing with the current ones on the other.
Turning this massive stage into a theatrical war zone, pumping their battle-laden hooks to an audience of 75’000 – that is the perfect epitome of a Wacken evening.
Friday
Such explosive performances build the excitement for the first full day of music. From dawn to dusk there is always something to see.
Over the years Wacken has become such a prestigious place to play for both growing and established talent that each full day boasts a remarkable roster. It makes it logistically difficult to fit in everything you want to see, and most of our morning is spent over a makeshift war table to plan the course of action of the day – which bands to see.
With a cheeky breakfast kebab and a light ale the day was set, deciding to kick the morning off with a personal favourite band of Equilibrium. Perfect mood music to get started with their epic folk metal ringing through the PA at full volume – it’s an 11:00am start, but the metal legions certainly show their dedication by flocking to the main stage in droves for this performance. Also helped that beer is available for purchase right in the crowd!
Some big bands lined up for the next couple hours unfortunately faced a safety issue due to a torrential storm impending. Eluveitie’s performance was cut short, and Cradle of Filth was moved to the evening to a much smaller stage. Both still managed to produce outstanding performances, and respect to the Wacken staff for the organisation ensuring safety of the metal folk.
It’s pretty much the main stage for the rest of the day as it plays hosts to some colossal acts that have unique taglines behind their appearances – Demons & Wizards, the brainchild of Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth and Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian performing live in a first series of shows, likely to be the last as well. Simply blown away by this super group. And a gathering to say farewell as legendary thrashers Slayer play their final show in Germany forever (until the reunion we’d hope!). While it did feel like a standard Slayer show, the spirit of the biggest metal festival on the planet certainly seemed to impact the band, where frontman Tom Araya seemed a bit emotional at the end.
The evening drifts towards it’s close with Opeth filling the cool air with gothic charm, slotting in perfectly in the early morning hours. The final band of the evening was the surprise for me as it was hugely entertaining, not being from Germany I had never heard of them before – Hämatom. Dressed in delightfully bizarre outfits and full of energy, they managed to pull in a great crowd full of energy, even after a full day of moshing and slugging pints.
Saturday
The final day is always such a bittersweet feeling at Wacken Open Air. It’s the last day of the festival, but that also traditionally means the party is about to peak. That point is certainly iterates with metalheads out in force jubilantly slugging their first beer before the first band of the day comes on.
Our first trip was to see Subway to Sally, who in past years usually close out the festival when playing. This year it was on an earlier slot, but they certainly know how to get the party going. Of course I don’t understand any of it, but the crowd enthusiasm to this band is absolutely fantastic, and makes it so much fun to be involved regardless of any language barriers. Metal unites after all.
The rest of the afternoon was spent walking between stages to view some of the smaller bands such as the Chinese power metallers Dream Spirit, one of the more fascinating additions to this years line up, as well as chatting with fans, getting some ales down and revelling in the final hours of the festival. Every Wacken tends to go by too quickly, but we always make the most of it every year.
Towards dusk we mosey on over to see rock legends Uriah Heep, having a career that’s spanned 50 years and influenced countless numbers of bands, it was a must. I will admit I don’t know a lot of their discography, but having the opportunity to see these gentlemen bring their musical experience and talent to the worlds biggest metal festival certainly did not go amiss.
The rock noblemen draw us into the evening where the cool evening air begins to set, and provide the scene for Austria’s werewolves of Powerwolf. Having seen this band a few times now at this festival, they have gotten bigger and better with their performances as their fan base has increased. With a recent number 1 album in Germany – surely this band would light up the night…and that they did. Making full use of Wacken’s main stage, pyro and flames shout out into the sky raising voices afar with their anthemic hymns. One of the best performances of the festival.
As we reach our final bands the bittersweet feelings set in stronger, but departing the festival would not come without one last performance surprise. Admittedly I’ve never been the biggest fan of Parkway Drive, and having seen them quite a few times I decided to give this one a miss – that is until the opening where the band entered the stage right from the back of a 60’000 strong crowd, flares blazing.
The whole spectacle was brilliant, and definitely convinced me to see the performance through which turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival. A truly invigorated show of force from the Australians worthy of a close out for the festival.
Such an eclectic performance deserved a couple post show brews, and banter with the friendly folk who were making their way over to hear the industrial pulse of Eisbrecher who brought some sweet electric chills to the night air.
The final band of Wacken was always due to go out in style, with my personal favourite band Rage playing a full set with an orchestra covering the entire Black in Mind album. Another stunning moment, yet again bittersweet as those final moments ring out and Wacken is done for another year.
It was another great Wacken, and a party worthy of its 30th anniversary, everything was there – great friends, good beer, sublime music and of course all that unpredictable weather!
We are certainly looking forward to see what number 31 has to offer, and we will see there rain or shine.
Cheers to the worlds greatest festival!
