The 31st edition of the heavy metal festival in Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, ended on Sunday night. According to the organizers, 83,400 fans celebrated at the Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) – previously they had always spoken of 75,000 visitors for the festival, which had been sold out for a long time. On Sunday, return traffic was in full swing.
Metal greats like Judas Priest, Slipknot or Powerwolf played in Wacken this time. More than 200 bands performed on nine stages. The Swedish Amon Amarth gave an acclaimed surprise concert right under the huge metal Wacken skull between the main stages on Thursday.
“The Wacken Open-Air is back – finally!”
Metalheads enthusiastically stormed the so-called infield on Thursday. “The Wacken Open Air is back – finally! We missed the festival as much as the fans did,” explained the organizers Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen.
The Cologne dialect band Höhner performed on Saturday. “It’s absolutely amazing what happened here today,” said singer Patrick Lück of the German Press Agency (dpa) after a performance accompanied by much applause. At times it was like a home game for the band.
The police spoke of a peaceful course of the festival. There have been crimes in the lower double-digit range, said a spokeswoman for the dpa. “It’s very quiet for 80,000 people.” According to the organizers, the fire brigade only recorded operations in the low double-digit range. The number of crimes dealt with by the police even fell by 60 percent.
According to the Nordkirche, the 19 festival pastors were in demand. “We are visited significantly more than in 2019,” said state youth pastor Annika Woydack. “Although most people are very happy to be able to celebrate, for some the huge crowd is unfamiliar and causes disorientation, fear or even panic, for example.” The past few years have left their mark.
Record: highest air guitar solo in the world
After a two-year break due to the corona pandemic, there were a few start-up problems in Wacken. On Wednesday, the traditionally busy arrival day, there were long queues in front of and on the site in addition to traffic jams. The organizers later apologized for this. Visitors paid for their food and drinks there without cash.
Record-breaking things happened in the air on Saturday morning. The Hamburg musician Johannes “Johnny” Ritter played an air guitar solo in the basket of a hot air balloon 327 meters above the site – according to the organizers the highest in the world so far. A record judge from the Record Institute for Germany (RID) officially confirmed this. The RID markets itself as the German-language counterpart to the Guinness Book of Records.