After a two-year Corona break, the Wacken Festival is starting again. 75,000 fans are expected. About half of them are already there.
Wacken – Faster, harder, louder – even before the official start, the boxes on the smaller stages of the heavy metal festival in Wacken should be really cranked up on Wednesday. The actual start of the Wacken Open Air (W:O:A, until August 6th) is on Thursday. According to the organizers, the festival is sold out with 75,000 visitors. Metal fans have been traveling north for days. “The journey is going well and more than 50 percent of the space will probably be occupied by the evening,” said festival co-organizer Thomas Jensen on Tuesday of the German Press Agency.
Heat start at Wacken: Warning about too much alcohol at high temperatures
According to the police, a lot of arrival traffic is expected on Wednesday. Black T-shirts and cowls already dominated the scene in town on Tuesday. “Finally normal people again,” said festival visitor Nina Still. The weather seems to be good according to the current forecasts. According to wetter.com , it should remain dry at up to 29 degrees on Wednesday. It will be even hotter on Thursday with 33 degrees, but the sky is expected to remain partly cloudy. Summer thunderstorms are not excluded. Friday and Saturday will be significantly cooler with a maximum of 21 degrees.
At least on the first two days, festival-goers should behave appropriately in the heat, drink plenty of water and avoid overexertion. Heavy alcohol consumption could also become a problem on such hot days. The Federal Center for Health Education (BZgA) warns: “Heat and alcohol don’t mix. When the sun is burning, alcohol works faster and more intensely in the body. Especially on hot days, too much alcohol can lead to circulatory problems or even loss of consciousness.” Summer heat leads to increased sweating. “Alcohol removes more water and valuable minerals from the body. That increases the risk of heat stroke.”
Wacken Festival: Big names of the metal scene back after the Corona break
Greats of the metal scene like Judas Priest want to play in the north until Saturday. A total of 200 bands are expected. Also present are Slipknot, Powerwolf, Hämatom, In Extremo, Lordi, Slime and Venom. The anticipation of Wacken Open Air is great. At the so-called Wacken-Wednesday, Avantasia and Epica, among others, get down to business on the third-largest stage. A Cologne carnival cult band is also there for the first time: the Höhner. Separate tickets were sold to festival-goers for this stage. In 2023, Wednesday should then become the official festival day.
In 1990, 800 heavy metal fans celebrated for the first time in the small northern town. After that, the festival got bigger and bigger, most recently 75,000 people came regularly. More than 95 percent of the fans had exchanged their tickets for the festival, which was canceled again last year due to the corona pandemic. The rest of the tickets were raffled off via a waiting list. (md with dpa)
