Wacken Open Air

Festival Report 2011

Text: Tobias Nilsson Photo: Lunah Lauridsen

The unholy mother of all metal festivals, Wacken Open Air, would be the last summer-festival for us in the year 2011, and what better way to end things, am I right?

Arriving midday Wednesday allowed us to check out some of the sights and the non-musical attractions that Wacken has to offer, something which the tight musical schedule of the main festival days rarely allow us to do. Thus, after arriving safe and sound, with very little queues to speak of (they still know how to organize this thankfully) and getting settled in a camp of friends, we headed on over to the Bullhead City tent. Quite a few things were going to happen in here, including such diverse activities as wrestling fights, miss wet t-shirt competitions and something known as oil catching (to this day, I still have no idea what that is about), but as we were in a very positive mood, first day of the festival and all, we decided to catch the Masters of Comedy show. A little metal mixed up stand-up couldn’t hurt right? Well, maybe it could, at least understood in this way; everything, and I mean everything! was in German, which basically meant that we were in a hot, crowded tent watching strangely (often silly) dressed people on stage, listening to a lot of other people laughing at what to me was completely incomprehensible...
Admittedly, there are bound to be some Germans present, what with the festival being in Germany and all, but all we had to enjoy ourselves with was the participation of the genius known as Mambo Kurt and a strip act with a slightly Arabian flavour, both parts good in their own right but not quite enough to keep me satisfied through the rest of the stuff.
We also had plans about catching some of the fight- and fire-shows in the Wackinger village, but honestly, a little walkabout and a tour over to the bar seemed more appropriate at the time, something which was followed by a trip back to the camp to meet up with more friends and some free drinking (as in beers brought along). It is a wonder how time flies in moments like these, and soon we had managed to miss all of our planned activities, and still we had a great time!

Thursday arrived, and with the music came; not that we had very tough schedule before us as the Thursday is mainly dedicated to the two main-stages alone, but we were still faced with an ugly choice right from the start; should we go and check out D:A:D’s press-conference where they were going to perform a few songs off of their upcoming album followed by a meet & greet, or should we head on over to the Black Stage where Skyline officially opened the festival up.
In the end, we decided to go with the latter, as we had had great fun at their show in 2010, and we had a strong suspicion that Doro might show up again. Well, that she did, as well as Tom Angelripper (Sodom, Onkel Tom), Udo Dirkschneider (U.D.O., ex-Accept) and Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), all of which have written songs about Wacken (Tom Angelripper’s is the only one not named an official Wacken hymn).
For Boltendahl’s performance of Wacken Will Never Die we were treated to something special; you see, previous to this year’s festival, the organizers had arranged an online singing competition where the winners would be allowed to sing this song live at the karaoke stage. However, when Boltendahl heard of this competition, he figured it would be more fun for everyone involved if they got to sing it together with him on the large stage instead; thus a group of nervous but happy youngsters were now up on the Black Stage, singing their hearts out for the vast crowd. Cool!
Moving along, the day also held splendid performances by two of Germany’s, and the worlds for that sake, most notable power metal bands; Helloween and Blind Guardian! All this musical greatness was only leading us up to the pinnacle performer of this year’s Wacken Open Air, the Prince of Darkness himself; Ozzy Osbourne!
But before we got this far, I should not fail to mention that we did lend our ears to some more comedy though. This time it was at the hands of one Bülent Ceylan, a Turkish/German comedian of some fame we were led to believe, and as we hadn’t quite given up on the fun stuff yet we eagerly awaited his act. Sadly, it would turn out that this was yet another all-out attack at our lacking German skills, and rather disappointed we left early to find a bar where we could drown our sorrows in an ice-cold Beck’s.
Osbourne on the other hand did not disappoint; because of the extreme crowd at this show, it was quite impossible to get anywhere near the stage, unless you had been waiting all day, but we found ourselves a pair of decent enough places a little further back and enjoyed a show which blew all of my expectations out of the water! I have seen Ozzy on stage a couple or more times before, but never have I seen him so present and alive as I did here, and it was worth every penny!

Even though the Wacken organizers had pushed the time the music started, we still managed to oversleep a little, thus relieving ourselves from the choice of whether we should see Ensiferum open the Black Stage or if we should go see Primal Fear as the first band to play the Party Stage this year.
Instead, we waited until it was time for Suicidal Tendencies to rock out on the True Metal Stage, after which we were faced with a new dilemma; Morbid Angel, which we had seen deliver a killer concert earlier this year, on Black, or Van Canto, who were completely new to us, over on Party...
We decided to bet on a safe horse and went to see Morbid Angel, but as it turned out, they were nothing like they had been the last time around and after becoming more disappointed with every song played, we decided to cut our losses and head on over to Van Canto instead. This could not have happened at a better time, as we were greeted by a great rendition of the Sabaton hit Primo Victoria; from there on out we were sold!
After the German a capella group were done there was some spare time before the next band we were going to see entered the Party Stage, and thus we met up with some friends, Danish and Venezuelan, for a sit-down and a beer in the sun. Soon enough it was time to head back to the music, where Rhapsody Of Fire was now waiting for us, and the clock was only five in the afternoon!
If this sounds like an intense day to you, you are exactly right! (if not, you are obviously younger and stronger than I, and congratulations are in order)
Anyway, after this it was time for our one and only (thank God!) run in the W.E.T. Stage, with first a batch of Bullet, and then a dose of Suidakra. Three mayor common denominators here; superb shows, too short time and finally too small a stage. Bullet could easily have rocked the Party Stage with great success, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Suidakra would have fit well on the Black Stage. Not as a headliner of course, but an early to mid afternoon time would probably be perfect. As for now, I was only glad that it didn’t seem to occur to people that they could occupy the entire tent; just as it is with filling busses, you here got a crowd who stood in the middle, and a whole lot of people crowding the entrance thinking that everything beyond must be full...
Two more shows below the belt, and we headed on out in the early evening for some refreshments and a stroll before Kyuss Lives! appeared as the next to see, this time over at the Party Stage, the most heavily frequented stage of the day. The well-played stoner rock can be called a lot of things, but an energy boost it was not, so it was surprisingly relieving to have Airbourne next on the list. Two AC/DC clones in one day? We must have been mad...
Anyway, the Australian shooting stars provided us with just the right amount of energy to be able to hold the distance and see Apocalyptica close down the second day of the festival at three o’clock night-time on the Black Stage.

Wacken did not intend to let us off easy though (when have they ever?), and the next day started bright and early in front of the Black Stage with yet another Finnish band; Moonsorrow. One might have argued that night-time would be a better fit for these guys, but they pulled off an excellent show nonetheless.
After this the ball just kept on rolling basically, and we managed eight (well, seven and a half to be precise) more shows this day or varying style and quality. Kataklysm wasn’t up to par with what they have done in the past, but they did have something special up their sleeve, then we moved on to Dir En Grey which took me quite by surprise as they had completely changed their sound from what I remembered, over to Iced Earth and their farewell gig to vocalist Matt Barlow which was followed by an all out thrash attack by Sepultura.
So far, we had not seen anything but the main stages this day, and so it would continue, at least musically. You see, after this great run the main names of the day were drawing ever closer, and we started out with a magnificent cast of people doing the Avantasia show for us, and after this it was straight back to thrashville with Kreator who once again wowed us with their intensity. As Motörhead was next we could finally take a well deserved break, which was spent strolling through the open metal market (never reached the inside of the paying area this year, so I hope I didn’t miss anything special) and a quick peek inside the Wackinger Village, which seemed to have quite a different layout this year. For one thing, some of the stands had been moved outside and now stood in the same area as the biergarten just outside the festival area entrance. This was certainly a good thing, as I remember how incredibly crowded the village got last year during concerts; as we didn’t catch any shows in there this year I can’t say how the pressure was this time around but I could see from the program that the festival hadn’t put as big names in there this year as the last one either...
Back at the Black Stage, it was time for this year’s final Finnish entry, and who more fittingly to take this place than Children Of Bodom? By this time, the semi-moist weather of the day decided to go for broke and provided us with some pretty intense showers; finally we got to try out the rain ponchos we had purchased early in the summer, and we had a great time! As we were located quite far over to the True Stage side of the area, we also managed to catch some glimpses of what Eläkeläiset were doing over at the Party Stage, and it seemed they were having a ball as well.
We didn’t put much faith in Subway To Sally, as we had been profoundly cheated by their announcement last year, but this year they did actually show up in person, and after the promoters farewell and thanks, they ended this year’s Wacken with fire and flames on the True Metal stage. We watched it from afar with a friend, and afterwards there was really nothing to do but head for the nearest bar to see if there was any party left to be squeezed out during the few hours before we would get sent home...

Looking back at it all, I am impressed to think about how many quality shows we managed to run through this year. To tell the truth, the line-up, with few exceptions, hadn’t looked all too promising this year, for me at least, but there were many names which I wanted to just because they were there anyway, and as Wacken had managed for once to create a running order with almost no clashes it got to be some pretty long days even without the ‘super-pullers’.
What also needs some special accolades is the full instalment of working water toilets in the festival area. Even though the lines got pretty brutal, it was nice with something more fresh than the dry potties at a festival of this size.
Musically, Ozzy (whom we sadly couldn’t get close enough to, to do a proper review) was worth every penny, which I believe I have mentioned already, and even though the sound was far from satisfactory, Iced Earth made one hell of a performance as well (Matt, you will be missed (again)). Which brings me to another thing, namely the sound; this was generally far superior to what Wacken have provided in the past, and many of the concerts were a delight to hear as well as see. Some few exceptions of course, but it was nice that the exceptions were on the bad side for once.
Bad shows then? Well, as I’ve mentioned already, Morbid Angel and Kataklysm failed to impress me this time around, but on the other hand, there were so many bands doing good and/or excellent shows that you won’t hear me complaining.

From what I heard, the 10000 x-mas tickets for next year were sold out in 45 minutes after release, and the festival did announce no less than seven great acts for 2012 already during the festival, so I do hope that the chance for me visiting this northern blast again will be a possibility. After this there is really nothing more to say I think, except; see you in Wacken, rain or shine!

Latest uploads: