By Tamara Funck
The excitement is rushing in! Only a few days are left until the big week starts in the charmingly small town of Wacken.
And there is so much to do beforehand!
Now is the time to check the lineup and get used to the official Wacken App in which you can select your favourite bands and automatically generate your time table.
My favourites are:
- Beast in Black, which were opening for Nightwish during their las tour. They guarantee a great show with a sound inspired by game scores and exciting fantasy stories to sing about! So don’t miss them on Friday on the Faster stage!
- Anneke van Giersbergen, who is also not unknown in the festival world. A good friend of Floor Jansen, she supported her on Floor’s Solo tour and is bringing another style to the Wacken stages this year. A must listen to, for all people who want to refresh their ears in-between heavy drums and screams, and also for everyone who appreciate the quiet sounds.
- And of course the legends Suzi Quatro, who is an icon of female rock musicians, and the Scorpions, who are a steady force in the music industry! There are some musicians you just have to see live if you ever get a chance, even if you are not a big fan, and that is the case for these two musical acts, that guarantee a great show and a lot of musical expertise!
But this year’s line up doesn’t make it easy to decide where to go! For instance, you’ve got the Scorpions on Harder stage, Corvus Corax getting the crowd jumping with their folk beats on Wackinger stage and the ever musically growing Opeth playing on Louder stage, all at the same time, so it will be a hard decision to make on Thursday evening!
We’ll see which one will be my highlight after next week!
First, I need to check my tent and equipment. There is not much that you need, especially because on the festival ground there will be the farmers market. A place where you can get food for breakfast and all the essentials, or stuff that you forgot. So don’t worry if anything is missing or if you want to travel light, you are not left alone and it’s possible to buy what you need at hand.
But of course a tent is mandatory for a wholesome festival feeling!
Camping tips and tricks
Since especially the Wacken Open Air is rocking, rain or shine, there are some nice gadgets you shouldn’t forget. The tent should be water- and windproof of course and it can help to have a small space as a « mud room » in front of it. Some tents already have this mud room built in.
But it also helps to have a tarp on the ground where you put your tent. For some further insulation, a good hack is to take a picnic blanket with you and put it inside your tent as flooring, and a tarp over your tent or seating area for some cool shadow can’t be wrong either.
It is also advisable for all those who come by car to have another tarp for the car. In case of a storm, it’s mandatory to sleep inside the car and a tarp helps to keep the temperature lower than outdoors during the day.
To reduce the travel weight I will take only a few pieces of clothing with me, which can easily be washed by hand and are dry fast. For all females, or even males, if you make that extraordinary fashion choice, you can take a pareo with you and wear it in different styles or even as a scarf, in case it gets cold and rainy, or just use it as a second blanket.
If you take a foldable washing bowl with you, you can even wash your clothes by your tent or use it for refreshing and cleaning yourself if you don’t like a public shower. However, the showers should be clean and they’re included in the ticket price.
Another tip is to take a piece of curd soap with you. Unless you have very sensitive skin you can use curd soap for everything, from hair to toes and also for washing your clothes or dishes. But don’t use it permanently on your skin; for a few days it shouldn’t be a problem but it can dry out your skin in the long run.
If you don’t have a pareo with you, you should take a shawl or a hat with you in case it gets super sunny and you need to cover your head or need to cool down with a wet cloth. And for all those who wear glasses or just sunglasses, put a strap on them, so that you won’t lose them while headbanging or during a mosh pit!
Something valuable to take with you is a foldable bottle (which you should get in the check in area when you get your wristband, if everything goes as in previous editions). At every toilet station you can get drinking water and refill your bottle, which is quite important for the rest of the day when you enjoy your beer, cider or honeymead.
What to expect in the holy ground?
As soon as you are set up at the camping ground the fun can begin! I am especially excited to see the viking area « Wackinger village » where the medieval spirit will come to life and you can taste some honeymead and other delicious delicacies. The music is strong and quaint. You can listen to some old instruments and sing to folk melodies with all your might. Here is where the medieval sound will come back to life in our century!
You can see Van Canto, Equilibrium, Blackbriar or Corvus Corax here, just to name a few bands who will definitely get you drinking and dancing together with them!
The complete opposite is the Wasteland area where you can find crazy post-apocalyptic artists. A heavy and dusty mood emerges here and you can hear sharp and harsh sounds. Dive into the noise and feel free with Persephone, Evile, Schwartzheim, and many many others.
Those are just a few of over 150 bands which are in this year’s line up. It is a great variety for my first time W:O:A!
In total there are nine stages and additionally a vast variety of activities from Metal Yoga in the morning to Late Night Shows and Karaoke in the evening.
So there will be a lot of fun things to do for everyone and I am super excited to enjoy my stay at W:O:A with everyone to the fullest. There are still tickets left at the ticket market, so if you are a last minute Metalhead, you still have the chance to buy a ticket there! Please note, that W:O:A doesn’t have a box office, you need to purchase your ticket online!
And for those who rather want to enjoy the festival on their own couch, there will be a live stream on Magenta TV (may only be available in Germany)!
I can’t wait to see you all in front of the stages and celebrate the music that brings us all together!
Peace and Rock on!
Follow Metal Mad TV, me, Joan and Stefanie on our socials to keep up to date with our Wacken experience!
Info/Sources:
https://help.wacken.com/help/de-de
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