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Heart of Steel: Concert
Reviews
Like An Ever-Flowing Stream
Wacken Open Air 2003
By Michael De Los Muertos
Pictures and Commentary by ICE MAIDEN
Saturday, August 2, 2003
My second day at Wacken didn't start out well. At breakfast at the
hotel I met up with PsychoBall, a friend from the Disgruntled Metalheads
message board. He'd come all the way from Australia to see Wacken, and I
decided to take the shuttle bus to the festival site with PsychoBall and
his girlfriend. Unfortunately we waited almost an hour in front of the
shuttle stop and the bus never came. We joined forces with a British
metalhead who'd also been waiting for a ride, and got into a cab with a
wizened old driver who couldn't have been less than 75 years old. He put
the pedal to the metal and gave us one of the most hair-raising taxi rides
I've ever had in my life. We were doing 110 miles an hour if we were
standing still!
After this white-knuckle experience, there followed a very long trek
through the main Wacken camp site. I always love seeing the camp,
populated by metalheads of so many nationalities flying their flags and
playing their music. Unfortunately it was getting even hotter. Of the
three days of Wacken, Saturday was the warmest. But despite the various
tribulations, I arrived at the True Metal stage midway through the
THYRFING set, and I'm certainly glad I did. These traditional Viking
metallers are finally starting to enjoy the good reputation that they
deserve. Mixing pounding, punishing metal with some (retooled) traditional
Scandinavian musical elements, these maniacs spat forth a pretty
impressive set of meaty, guitar-heavy stuff. The energy level was very
high and, despite sweltering in the heat and baking in the direct
sunlight, the fans responded very well. Thyrfing performed while smeared
in fake blood--in fact the day before I noticed the lead singer of the
band, half his face covered in blood, standing in the crowd near me
watching one of the bands. At the end of the set they tossed several
plastic cups full of faux hemoglobin into the crowd. One impacted on the
ground barely two feet away from me and splattered spectacularly. For the
rest of the day it looked like I'd been an innocent bystander at an ax
murder.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I really wanted to get to site in time to see
THRYFING, but, unfortunately, it was not to be. As I sat in the hotel
breakfast room, whom did I see at the table next to me but all but one of
the members of Twisted Sister. Damn, Dee Snider looks like a very typical
(and large) New Yorker out of his make-up! One of the Finns had told me
that he was an enormous fan of TS, so I went and introduced myself and
asked if they would autograph the only thing I had available (a hotel
napkin with "Guten Morgen!" written across it) for Otto. They
were happy to oblige. After talks with them and then more chit chat with
the Evidence One guys, I realized I needed to hightail it if I wanted to
catch TWISTED TOWER DIRE.)
It was very hot, but I was determined to see MALEVOLENT CREATION, who
went on the Black Metal Stage immediately after Thyrfing finished. I've
seen these down-home American deathsters before, once at the now-defunct
Satyricon club in Portland, and recalled being very impressed. This time,
however, they didn't do that much for me. Technically competent and
unfailingly brutal, they just didn't seem to push the energy level that
high, and I didn't detect a lot of enthusiasm coming either from them or
the crowd. But, certainly they know their stuff and do it well, because it
was definitely thick, caustic, very traditional and savage death metal.
Malevolent Creation was playing at the same time as another band on the
Party Stage, that being TWISTED TOWER DIRE. Ice Maiden really wanted to
see them and so did I, so I quit the Black Stage and wandered over to
where these American power metal icons were in mid-performance. TTD has
been a constant supporter of Metal-Rules, and although I don't know
anybody in the band, Ice Maiden does. Nonetheless, while others in our
party seemed to really enjoy their set, in my own opinion I did not care
for it. They played very standard, no-frills power/traditional metal and
despite my passion for that genre I couldn't get excited about it. TTD
ended with a cover of Iron Maiden's "Moonchild," which I think
was a little more than this band could handle. The vocals just didn't fit,
and the tightness and well-oiled-machine quality that Iron Maiden brings
to the tune just couldn't be replicated. I expect the other Metal-Rules
writers to disagree with me regarding the Twisted Tower Dire set, and they
are at full liberty to do so. I just wasn't impressed.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I love TWISTED TOWER DIRE. I think the
"Isle of Hydra" is an incredible album, and this relatively new,
old-school-style band, along with Jag Panzer, seem like some of the best
classic-style metal that America is currently offering. Tony Taylor, on
vocals, actually came across to me better live than he does on the albums.
Scott Waldrop and Dave Boyd on guitar really know how to shred. I was
pleased with the set, until the last song, the Maiden cover. Doh! Not
quite the right call, guys. Still, all-in-all, a great performance-I think
we can expect more great things from these guys in the future.)
 
 
 
 
Backstage again--with, guess who!--the Finns. Saturday afternoon
presented an unusual lull on the Wacken bill, with not that many bands
playing that were particularly interesting; however, after lunch and some
more beers, several of the Imperium writers decided to make another
attempt at the Wet Stage, this time to see CALLENISH CIRCLE, a newer Dutch
band that focuses mostly on a thrash style. I went with Niko, one of the
Imperium reporters, and we ventured to the Wet Stage. Sadly, conditions
there were even worse than they'd been the day before. A huge crowd had
gathered for Callenish Circle, too many to fit in the tent, and because we
approached after the set had begun we were forced to stand just outside
one of the doorways. Even standing there, the heat coming out of the Wet
Stage tent was literally like a blast furnace. I wouldn't be surprised if
it was 105 degrees in the tent. We could endure about two songs of
Callenish Circle, which were very good and catchy, but from where we were
standing the acoustics were not good so I don't even feel very comfortable
trying to review them. Finally the heat drove us away yet again. I really
believe the Wacken management should think about making the Wet Stage an
open-air stage. There's no reason whatsoever to have it inside a tent, and
to ask the bands to perform in a 105-degree sweatbox filled with cigarette
smoke on a weekend that has been (on more than one occasion) the hottest
of the year seems almost cruel. Thus, having missed two bands I wanted to
see because of heat conditions on the Wet Stage, my main suggestion for
Wacken 2004 is: TAKE THE WET STAGE OUT OF THE DAMN TENT!
I lost Niko at the merchandise booth, but met up with none other than
Francesco and Cristiano, the bassist and vocalist, respectively, of
Stormlord and both writers for Rock Hard Italy magazine. They were front
and center for CARPATHIAN FOREST, the next band I saw. The Finns were very
enthusiastic about this band, but the Italians thought they were a joke.
Having seen them I tend to agree with the Italians. Carpathian Forest
plays old style Norwegian cold-as-ice black metal, and they did so with
aplomb. However, they looked and acted absolutely ridiculous. Didn't
anybody tell them that corpse paint tends to melt in 90-degree heat? With
all of that black and white stuff running down their faces and dripping
onto their spiked gauntlets, bullet belts and leather straps, they looked
like a cadre of BDSM fanatics that had each taken a mushy York Peppermint
Patty right to the kisser. The guitarist, who weighed close to 300 pounds,
pulling down his pants to expose his butt on the big-screen monitor
between the stages was another (non) winning moment. What were these guys
thinking? I had the vague sense that the entire Carpathian Forest set was
a tongue-in-cheek self-parody, but of course traditional black metal must
be totally serious at all times, so this can't have been the case. Anyway,
maybe I got the point and maybe I didn't. I gave up the ghost midway
through and retired backstage to the press tent.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: About this time I ran into the Royal Carnage
crew again. Markgugs was covered in "blood" from head-to-toe.
Although he had a smile on his face, with the amount we had all been
drinking I wasn't sure that he wasn't wounded. Nah-he was another
"fatality" of Thryfing. I found CARPATHIAN FOREST amusing.
Between rants about their "homosexual bandmember" who was
apparently late, the vomiting, and the ass-exposing, these guys were kind
of fun. I had always thought of them as sort of grim, serious,
frost-bitten North types-I guess not.)
One of the bands staying in our hotel, and whom we'd partied with at
the hotel bar, was a relatively newer German band called EVIDENCE ONE.
They teed up on the Party Stage at 3:15--now approaching the hottest hour
of this very hot day--and gave quite a memorable performance. They played
straightforward, catchy, hard-rock influenced traditional metal, coming
off as one of the truly fun, light-hearted, feel-good bands of the
festival. They had a surprising amount of very enthusiastic support from
the crowd, and it didn't matter what they played--there were fists pumping
in the air and horns thrusting skyward throughout every song. These guys,
all having come from other bands, are obviously seasoned professionals and
knew exactly what they were doing. For forty-five cheerful minutes
Evidence One made us forget about the blazing heat, and that wasn't an
easy task on Saturday.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I was up into the wee hours drinking in our
hotel bar with the band and crew of EVIDENCE ONE. This "All
Star" project has members of Domain, Frontline, and Shakra (none of
which I had previously hear of), including the doe-eyed Thomas
"Hutch" Bauer on bass and what turned out to be an incredible
Rami Ali on drums. Because I had met the guys the night before, I
figured I'd check them out. Incredibly, they lit the Party Stage on fire
with their Rock 'n' Roll-style of classic metal. At first, there was only
a very small crowd (I think few others had heard of them, either). By the
end of the set, the field behind the Party Stage was full and folks were
cheering madly. Excellent set, and I got a signed drum stick at the end!
Woohoo! I felt like a groupie at an '80s show, and, given the respective
ages of me and the band members, we could have been just that!
 
 
 
I caught the first bit of EIDOLON, the Canadian power metal band.
Although my initial reaction was good, my feet were starting down the
slippery slope into the valley of pain that is Wacken on the third day. I
decided to head back stage and find the Finns' tent. There, Little Miss
Blood Bath and crew gave me drinks, snacks and hilarious conversation. If
you want to have some fun, hang out with Finns-they are insane. From the
backstage area I could hear the strains of DARK FUNERAL, but decided I had
better save my energy for the afternoon that was yet to come.)
 
 
The next band I saw was not one I had really been meaning to see, but
once again I met up with friends from the Disgruntled Metalheads board and
went with them to the Black Metal Stage to hear SOILWORK. I haven't ever
been a tremendous fan of this band although some songs are pretty catchy,
but I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. What I heard I
didn't particularly like. Soilwork does have a disturbingly mallcore-ish
quality to them (editor's note: You are on crack! I love Soilwork!! :P), and it really didn't sit well with me or many others in
the overwhelmingly traditional-metalhead Wacken crowd. Also, strangely
enough their technical set-up was flawed. The vocals sounded very muddy
and the guitars were distorted. I could hear static on the PA system and
there were a few technical flubs during Soilwork's set. After four Wackens
it's been my experience that it's extremely rare at this festival to have
sound/technical problems that rise to the level of being discernible by
the audience, much less negatively affecting a band's set. Perhaps
Soilwork was victimized by a poor sound set-up, or perhaps they just
sucked. In any event this set was one of the few real clinkers at Wacken.
As with the day before, on Saturday I had to pace myself because of the
conditions. I was now not too far from dehydration and heat exhaustion,
and desperately needed to sit down backstage for a while. I found that Ice
Maiden, Viking God and the entire motley crew of Finns--which had
multiplied during the day!--had colonized a table in the central part of
the backstage area. We ate, had some beers and traded notes on the bands
we'd seen for the past two days. Finally as the heat began to abate there
was discussion of returning to the stages for the evening's final bands.
Two beers later I was good as new and ready for more.
I'm surprised KATAKLYSM was relegated to the Party Stage. They seem
like a band that has enough clout to be able to play one of the main
stages. They could certainly perform well enough to. These Canadians gave
us a grinding, ultra-brutal re-education in the finer points of death
metal. Their music has a great moody quality to it as well as being
traditionally brutal, and their style came across very well even in a live
setting. Very impressive set.
On the Black Stage, DARK FUNERAL was the next noteworthy entry on the
bill. I'd seen them before when they opened for Manowar in the spring of
2002, and this time I don't think they did as well. I keep wanting to
refer to them as "black metal lite." Yes, it's got enough
traditional trappings to still be "true" black metal, at least
in the opinion of some, but it seemed diluted to a certain extent by what
bordered on catchiness and groove-type elements. This is not necessarily a
criticism, but just an explanation of why I don't think Dark Funeral
belongs in the same box as purer bands like Immortal. Nonetheless like
most black metal bands I think Dark Funeral does better in a club setting
than at a big festival. Their sound and energy was just too scattered to
really command a crowd of multi-thousands, and while the exact same set
would bring down the house at a small indoor venue, they were dwarfed by
the enormity of Wacken all around them. Maybe this is an unfair review,
but it's how they came off to me.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Back to the Wet Stage to catch ANCIENT RITES.
This was another band that I was REALLY looking forward to, and one which
I'm sure I won't have the chance to see again in the near future. I've had
"Dim Carcosa" on repeat in my CD player since it came out, so I
was quite excited. BLARGH. Of course, I couldn't get into the tent or even
see inside where the band was. And the tent sides even muffle the sound of
the band-accordingly, I can't comment on the band, but I will say for the
bazillionth time that the WET STAGE MUST BE BANISHED FROM WACKEN.)
The next set was one of the ones I had been looking forward to most:
STRATOVARIUS. The last time these Finnish power metal gods played Wacken,
in 2000, a pyrotechnic blew up in Timo Koltipelto's hand and seriously
injured him, although he managed to finish the show. This time
Stratovarius seemed more relaxed and certainly as if they understood and
enjoyed their larger and more popular stature. Playing favorites like
"Black Diamond" and "Hunting High And Low," naturally
the crowd was completely into them. With the temperature finally falling
and dusk beginning to settle over Wacken, it was very easy to slip into
the haze of metal-addled mania that comes with the very best Wacken
performances. I loved all of Stratovarius, although I do confess the set
didn't seem to have quite as much energy as they did when they played in
2000. Everyone in the crowd was acutely aware that this may be
Stratovarius's last performance for quite a while--or possibly forever.
Wacken was the final date on Stratovarius's European tour, and they will
be on a hiatus for at least a little while. Somehow after their lackluster
last album I have a feeling that temporary break may be longer than people
expect. I don't count on seeing Stratovarius again for a long, long time,
so I definitely got my fill of them on this evening, and they pulled off
one of the better sets of the festival.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: I have to agree that Strat was more
"mellow" than the previous times I've seen them. They are,
however, incredible performers, and "Visions" and "Against
the Wind" were high points for me.)
 
 
 
 
After Stratovarius retired I faced one of the few agonizing moral
choices of the festival: should I see Nile on the Black Stage, or Sinner
on the Party Stage? I decided to do both, but after I came back from an
unsuccessful attempt to dart backstage for a few minutes--Slayer was doing
their meet-and-greet, and their private security guards had the entire
festival grounds tied in knots--I found the Party Stage closer so I went
there first. SINNER turned out to be another one of my favorite sets. This
very traditional German band, blessed with the wonderful talents of
Mat Sinner, treated the Party Stage crowd to a memorable assault of
powerful steel. Sinner's vocals were right-on and the guitar sound was
exceptionally crisp. As usual, the crowd was populated mostly by Sinner
die-hards, and the response for this band was exceptional. The only
problem during this set was the "noise bleeding" from the Black
Stage, where Nile competed for attention. I hated to give up Sinner midway
through, but I definitely wanted to see one of the best death metal bands
in the world today, so I wandered back to the Black Stage.
 I must have stayed at Sinner longer than I anticipated, for sadly I
only caught the last few minutes of NILE. Once again I wished I would have
seen more of the set! I've seen Nile twice before and thought each time
that the nuances of their sound are so fragile that it's difficult for
them to come across as well to a live crowd as they do on their
carefully-constructed studio albums. However, this performance at Wacken
was probably the strongest live show I've seen from them. As you might
expect their hyper-technical style presented an almost impenetrable wall
of sound, but it's around the "edges" of the sound where good
death metal makes its mark and I perceived those nuances much better than
I expected to at a large open-air festival. The Nile guys were naturally
going crazy, molesting their guitars and beating the holy bejeezus out of
the drums. I heard only about two songs of Nile before they were done. Too
bad! Hopefully one of the other Metal-Rules writers caught more of the set
than I did; I confess I was "Sinning" (pun intended) during most
of Nile.
By this time in the evening I was starting to fail physically, with my
back very sore and the rest of my body wrung-out and exhausted from
battling the heat for the better part of three days. However almost every
person who came to Wacken was beginning to assemble around the True Metal
Stage for the ultimate headliners of the festival--the almighty SLAYER.
There was no way I could not be there! Actually by this point I'd been
having Slayer-related problems for much of the day. Their vast private
security army apparently demanded--and received--different treatment than
all the other bands at Wacken. For example, when two of the members of
Slayer were in the press tent, the entire tent was closed and cordoned off
to anyone who did not have a specific appointment to meet them. No other
band did this--earlier in the day I had walked right into the middle of
the Rage press conference, and there was no problem. When the Slayer guys
went to the meet-and-greet area, their guards blocked off the entrance to
the backstage area for a brief time. I understand they're one of the
biggest metal bands in the world, but something about this rankles me.
There were dozens of other bands on the bill at Wacken, and press
representatives from all over the world, all with jobs to do, stories to
file, pictures to take and places to go. What gives Slayer's people the
right to disrupt everything? I've never had these kind of problems at
Wacken before, and I hope they aren't repeated. Come on, guys. We love
you, and there probably are people out there who hate you whom you should
be careful about, but when it comes to Wacken we're all in this together.
Slayer also took the stage late--something no other band at Wacken did.
The energy building up to their opening number was, predictably, like a
volcano about to explode, and the fury that erupted when they finally came
on stage was formidable. It was quite something to hear Tom Araya's
tortured matter-of-fact shout soaring over the raging Wacken crowd,
especially during "War Ensemble," an early entry in the set
which happens to be my favorite Slayer song of all time. They also spent
some time on their newest album, God Hates Us All, but gave a fair number
of nods to the old stuff that probably most of the crowd wanted to hear.
Guitar work was perfect, and the drumming, as you might imagine, was
almost inhuman. The reason why Slayer are so good is because it's almost
impossible for them to slip up. After 20 years of scorching the world with
their blistering, attacking form of hyperspeed thrash metal, they know how
to give a show, even at a huge venue like Wacken. However I think they may
know a little too well. Slayer have never been known for their crowd
interaction, but tonight's performance, technically exceptional and
emotionally walloping as it was, seemed even more aloof and disconnected
from the audience than the one previous time I saw Slayer in the summer of
2000. Indeed just watching Araya and company it seemed to them that this
performance was "just another day at the office." Their music
was extremely powerful, but there wasn't a lot of energy coming from them
as performers. Don't mistake this as a bad review of the Slayer set--but I
do believe there was a missed opportunity. Arguably the biggest metal band
on the planet, playing the biggest metal festival on the planet, should
have milked it for all it was worth. Where was the shouting, the interplay
with the audience, the focusing of all that incredible amount of energy
that was burning off from the mosh pit and the rest of the crowd? Why
weren't King and Hanneman stomping around like utter maniacs? Why was Tom
Araya just standing there for the whole time? Slayer was a pretty powerful
firecracker, but it might have been a nuclear explosion. I just thought
they could have put more into it.
Alas I could not finish out the Slayer set. My back was in intolerable
agony.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: My plan was to catch the beginning of NILE,
then go back to the Party Stage for SINNER. For some reason, Nile chose to
use virtually no lights, so my efforts to take pictures failed. I had
recently seen NILE in a smaller venue, where I could get up close and
really hear them. This time I was really caught up in the crowd and after
the first few songs that I watched from the photo pit, I realized that I
had better find my place for Slayer if I wanted to see them at all.
Snaking my way through the crowd, I ran into ChiefB, Markgugs and their
friends. They took turns leaving to bring back drinks for the rest of us.
I realized that there was NO WAY to go up front to take pictures and then
push back into position to watch, so I decided to just stay put and enjoy
myself.
Momentum really built for SLAYER-who, in true prima donna fashion, were
late to start their set. This was perhaps the first time I saw a late set
at Wacken. That said, I didn't really care. The Royal Carnage crew are
awesome, fun folks, and we started getting a bit blitzed while we waited.
And waited. Soon, Markgugs and I started begging for someone to remove our
legs at the knees to relieve us from the pain of standing. The torment was
so painful as to be funny. Still, there was no way to sit down, as we were
being pressed in by literally 32,000 people arranged around us. We weren't
going ANYWHERE. And I mean that when I say it-Markgugs actually ended up
having to…er…relieve himself in his empty beer cup (I told you I'd
include it, buddy!).
It was all worth it. Yes, Slayer were late and apparently full of
themselves. Yes, there were apparently some sound difficulties on one side
of the stage. Yes, the music wasn't as loud as it could have been. I
didn't care. SLAYER were true to their name. Playing virtually all of
"Reign in Blood", I found myself screaming along with literally
everyone else through favorites like "Dead Skin Mask" and
"South of Heaven." It was a Supreme Metal Moment. One of those
times when you realize how lucky you are to enjoy something, and to be
able to enjoy it with thousands of people who feel the same way. Anything
I could say about this set would seem like hyperbole, so I'm not going to
bother. This was all about arm-in-arm, bang-your-head, balls out metal in
the middle of a field in Germany, and I enjoyed every minute of it.
By the end of the set, I was wiped. Physically and emotionally, I think
I was done. Markgugs literally dragged ChiefB and I to see SONATA ARCTICA.
If I was going to stay for anything, I wanted it to be VADER. However,
that afternoon I had hung out with the Finn who is the Japanese Manager
for SA, who, it appears, came up with their strange name-apparently, he
was looking for a word that captured their classical training and
instrumental technicality, as well as their Northern roots. Sorry, but I
still think it is a silly name. ;) In any case, ChiefB and I passed out on
the grass in front of the Party Stage for about two songs before we
realized we'd had enough. Definitely time to go backstage and hang out.)
I went backstage to recuperate, and saw the telltale signs of Wacken
winding down--the last parties backstage, bars beginning to run out of
drinks, and the now-stifling reek of the boggy marshes that had been made
of the grassy areas near all the fences where people had been pissing for
the past three days. It was now actually chilly, as the nights tend to be
at Wacken. Nevertheless despite my fatigue I wasn't going to miss VADER.
After the climax of the Slayer set I ventured forth one more time to catch
the Polish death metallers in rare form. Ironically Vader was the very
first band I ever saw at any Wacken, in 2000, and tonight it was my last.
It was a shame that more people weren't gathered around the Black Metal
Stage to watch them; perhaps everyone was just getting too tired. Their
set was amazing! Grinding, gut-churning and utterly toxic, played with a
tremendous amount of energy and enthusiasm, these Poles knew they were
among the very last acts of a great festival and they wrung everything
they could get out of the experience. By now it was dark and the
flickering of the monitor screen, the play of the stage lights and the
flames from the ignited cow's-head logo above the stages was casting an
eerie bluish-orange light over the rubble-strewn remains of the Wacken
field. I watched Vader and headbanged for as long as I could stand it.
Finally there was nothing else to do. Vader finished and I trudged
backstage to rejoin my party.
There was, of course, one last party at Wacken. We, the Metal-Rules
people, and the Finns must have partied until three AM, downing our last
drinks together and hashing over what we'd seen and experienced. When we
finally parted from them, the trip home proved to be particularly
excruciating. For some random reason the Wacken police had closed off the
street leading back to Itzehoe through the Wacken village. We wound up
literally in a cornfield several towns away from Wacken and did not make
it back to our hotel until dawn was beginning to paint the sky. By then I
was too tired to care. Wacken was over for another year, and there
remained only the pictures, the review, and the glorious memories of three
days of skull-crushing metal madness.
 (Ice Maiden's
Commentary: The party Saturday night was actually one of
the highlights of the Wacken experience. Large groups of us gathered,
including one guy who called himself a "professional festival
fence-jumper", who apparently spends his free time trying to get in
free to large festivals. He looked like he was going to hide behind me
when one of the "Metal Guard", the security guards for Wacken,
came over to our table-but the guard was off duty and just coming to share
a drink with us. It wasn't long before tables were trying to out-sing each
other to "We're Not Gonna Take It", and our table formed an
all-male kick line. Herman Li, guitarist for DragonForce with his
ultra-long hair, brought us a bottle of vodka and he and I started doing
imitations of "Cousin It." It was actually about 4:30 am before
we headed out, and, even then, no one was really ready for the party to
end. A big, big set of hails to the Finns, the Royal Carnage crew, Herman,
etc. PERKELE!)
In a way, experiencing Wacken in memory is the best way to do it. The
heat doesn't seem as unbearable, your feet don't hurt as much as they did
in real life, and the tribulations you invariably endured to get here (and
to get home) seem trivial by comparison to the wonders you experienced. My
mind is now cluttered with glorious remnants of metal songs and
performances, great bands, good friends, good times and happiness, and as
the festival fades in time it begins to crystallize into the indelible
glory of one of those great times you'll remember forever. I say without
hesitation that the four times I've been to Wacken all rank among the most
fondly-remembered experiences of my life. Standing there, so many
thousands of miles from home, listening to one of your favorite bands in
the middle of a huge crowd of metalheads from all over the world who can
share your wonder and awe at being there--I can think of few other
situations I'd rather be in. Wacken is over for now, but the metal flows
forever onward into the future--like an ever-flowing stream.
(Ice Maiden's Commentary: Next year is Wacken's 15th
Anniversary, and special events are already being planned. See you all at
Wacken 2004!
Here is a little bit of interesting information provided by the
Wacken organizers regarding the logistics of this year's event:
n
1000 people staff built up a 100 acre festival site in less
than two weeks
n
There were 500 security guards, 200 medics, 50 police
officers and 4 fire brigades
n
The Wacken crew set up 15,000 m fence, hung 5,000 view
covers and blocked in addition still 1,300 m stage and inlet lattices. 500
signs attached and 450m emergency routes were built
n
The steelhands built the 4 stages from 100 tons of steel ,
70 generators produced the same electricity needed for a small town
n
There were 350 mobile toilets and 380 fully-flushable
toilets
n
45,000 rolls of toilet paper were used, not counting all
that brought their own
n
There were 300 showers and 50 washbasins resulting in
120.000 m³ of waste water that had to be disposed of
n
7000 crew meals were prepared and eaten in two catering
areas
n
There were 61 bands, requiring 500 hotel reservations and
300 shuttle travels with altogether 8 shuttle vehicles. But the W:O:A
vehicle park had to offer still some more. 5 Nightliner, 3 fork-lift
trucks, 4 wheel loaders; 2 jeeps, 2 pick-ups, 1 touring bus, 2 tractors, 3
trucks, 2 recovery vehicles, 2 General German Automobile Association
vehicles and 8 toilet suction cars were 24 hours at work. And in two days
they picked up garbage , which filled 40 trucks
n
There was for the first time a video wall between the two
main stages, 4 LED´s for permanent information and a lot of visitors got
their information by cellphone.
n
Evidently, there were no major incidents.
Hails to the Wacken organizers!
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