2023-08-06 17:50:00
This year’s Wacken Festival will be remembered for a long time: rain and mud lead to an entry stop, more than 20,000 metal fans are not allowed on the site. Anyone who makes it there still celebrates.
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The 32nd edition of the heavy metal festival in Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, ended last night. 61,000 visitors celebrated there, which according to the organizers were significantly fewer metal fans than the 85,000 originally expected.
Because of the muddy space conditions, the organizers had imposed an admission stop on Wednesday for safety reasons for the first time in the history of the Wacken Open Air (W:O:A). According to the police and organizers, after the rain-related chaos on arrival, the departure initially went without any problems.
Departure mostly complete
“Thanks to intensive communication about the special circumstances, the departure is going very well,” said a festival spokesman for the German Press Agency. Around 50 percent of the guests had already started their journey home during the night. According to this, 90 percent left by noon – the majority of them independently. “Currently, only six of the approximately 60 tractors are in use to tow away a few cars,” said the spokesman. According to him, the departure was mostly over in the afternoon.
“It should slowly come to an end,” said the police at the time. Already at noon she had reported that the traffic was flowing and “everything was as expected”. Overall, the cars are largely clean. “Mud is down,” said a police spokesman.
Metal greats like Iron Maiden, Helloween and Doro Pesch played in the mud-covered Wacken this summer. For the first time, the festival lasted four days – there were more than 200 concerts on nine stages. “It hurts us a lot that part of our metal family couldn’t celebrate with us,” said festival co-founder Holger Hübner on Sunday. Unfortunately, this step was unavoidable so that the festival could take place at all. “The real heroes and heroines of the W:O:A are therefore those who stayed at home or had to turn back.”
Great solidarity in the community
Co-founder Thomas Jensen emphasized that despite a bad start, “then we managed to get in a good mood”. It was an experience “with countless moments of goosebumps, grandiose concerts and an incredible sense of community”. The great solidarity in the community and far beyond fills the organizers with gratitude.
According to them, anyone who already had a festival ticket but was no longer allowed on the site has a right of first refusal to buy tickets for the upcoming festival. In addition, the ticket price of 299 euros per person is to be refunded. According to their own statements, the festival organizers are missing out on income of several million euros.
“It’s a third of our revenue,” said festival co-founder Thomas Jensen. It’s not that difficult to calculate mathematically. “23,500 times 299, and then you get pretty close somewhere.” According to Jensen’s bill, income of more than seven million euros is missing.
Police: “The safest Wacken Open Air”
On the other hand, there was positive news from the police and rescue services. “That was by far the safest Wacken Open Air – also in relation to the slightly reduced number of participants, it somehow welded us together,” summed up Chief Police Director Frank Matthiesen. Officials registered very few crimes. The head of the rescue team, Volker Böhm, also stated: “Nothing serious happened here.” Paramedics would have provided 2,500 relief services and brought 120 visitors to hospitals.
For the 33rd metal festival next year (July 31 to August 3, 2024), the organizers announced the first 33 bands on Saturday evening – including the Scorpions. The German rock band already played in Wacken in 2012 and will be one of the headliners in 2024. Other performances by Amon Amarth, In Extremo, Blind Guardian and Knorkator are also planned. Advance sales for the W:O:A 2024 should start at 8 p.m. that evening. (dpa)
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