Wacken Open Air 2023 – Part 1 (Wacken Journey & Day 1)
August 2nd – 5th, 2023
Wacken, Germany
By Billy@Themetalpit.org
Wacken Open Air 2023 was held from Wednesday August 2nd through Saturday August 5th. This was my tenth Wacken festival with my first going back to 2011. I was really looking forward to this year as it was my first Wacken since 2019 due to global pandemic issues in 2020-2022. I was experiencing a series case of Wacken withdrawal. I arrived in Hamburg, Germany a couple days early as I always do to experience the wonderful German city and culture (and beer). Unfortunately it was cold and rainy each day I was in Hamburg and all the locals told me it rained the majority of the past week. At this point, I knew this guaranteed a wet and muddy Wacken 2023. The long running Wacken motto is “See you in Wacken rain or shine” and you can count on either very hot dry conditions or rain & mud (or even a combo of both). Northern Germany weather is always unpredictable and the best defense is to pack expecting all weather extremes.
Pre & Post Wacken Party at the Nightlight Heavy Metal Bar in Hamburg, Germany
My first and last stop in Hamburg each year is always the Night Light heavy metal bar in the St. Pauli neighbourhood of Hamburg. All the metal fans arriving from around the world meet at this pub every year to enjoy some good cheap German beer and discuss all things Wacken & heavy metal. I often meet some of the same people here every year but always make new friends as well. Everyone bonds instantly over their love of Heavy Metal. On my two visits this year, I met some festival goers from Germany, Australia, Italy, USA, Canada, UK, Sweden and Taiwan. The crowd can grow very large and often flows into the street. I’ve had some incredibly late nights here over the years with last call at approximately 5am. They also sell some very cool T-Shirts (pictured) for just 20 Euros, a great souvenir. The more crowded picture was the day after Wacken (Sunday) and the less crowded pic was two days before Wacken (Monday).
Arriving on the Wacken Festival Grounds (Tuesday)
I use the same coach bus service provider every year taking me from Hamburg (or the Hamburg Airport) to the Wacken festival grounds. The company offering this service is “Mondial Events & Travel GMBH” (a Wacken travel partner) and it costs about 30 Euros each way and must be pre-booked as they sell out. Like most of my past trips, I arrive one day early (Tuesday August 1st) so I get fully settled on site ensuring I’m ready to go for the first bands on opening day.
Given all the rain in Northern Germany leading up to the festival, the Wacken grounds were flooded this year and most of the cars, vans and campers driving onto the festival grounds were getting stuck in the extreme mud. All the vehicles were being pulled in one at a time by giant tractors creating massive lines of cars on all the roads in this part of Germany. Thousands of vehicles parked along the the side of the roads waiting to get in. The line was moving so slow, some were BBQ’ing beside their parked cars. Thankfully my bus service had a special bus lane that allowed us to pass everyone in line. My friend who who was joining me was coming from Canada and arriving on Wednesday morning on the same coach bus service.
Things were abnormally quiet on the Wacken grounds on Tuesday as so many people were stuck in the car lines for up to 24 hours at this point and Wacken organizers requested travelers in cars / campers to delay their trip until they could get more of the cars in the existing lines onto the site campgrounds. Wacken organizers arranged for parking areas throughout Germany where festival goers could pull off the road and delay their arrival to ease traffic congestion. Many local German residents were taking stranded people into their homes, talk about Wacken spirit.
I was able to check into my “tent rental”, get my festival wristband, pick up some food and beer at the festival market and get my pre-booked locker set-up to store my valuables. This was unlike all my previous trips where the festival would normally be close to max capacity by this point. I heard only thirty thousand people were on the grounds at this point one day before the big show was to start. I was even able to get my Wacken 2023 T-shirts (pictured below) with absolutely no lines, that never happens.
I spent the evening having a few beers in the tent area with my camping neighbors. Pro tip – Attach something to your tent if you use the tent rental campgrounds since all tents in each row usually look exactly the same, especially in the dark. I always attach the Canadian flag to my tent and it’s a great conversation starter with my new neighbors.
Day 1 (Wednesday)
I woke up in my tent around 7 am after a cold rainy night excited to see the first bands of the 2023 festival. I checked my phone first thing and was shocked by all the messages from Wacken organizers on social media and the Wacken phone App. Wacken announced a full arrival stop informing ticket holders no one else would be allowed on site due to the flooding and muddy conditions. They told everyone to stay home and not come. My friend who just arrived in Hamburg that morning from Canada called me asking if he should still come. We figured he should at least give it a try as it appeared the people on pre-booked bus service would still be allowed in since the busses don’t drive on festival grounds (they drop you at the gate).
I have to admit, I was worried the festival would be cancelled. Nothing like this has ever happened in the 30+ year history of the festival. I started thinking through a Plan B on how the hell I would get out of there if the festival was cancelled (My pre-booked bus was only scheduled to pick me up on Sunday). Wacken organizer communication said they would try their best to hold the festival but it would be a day-to-day decision. It didn’t sound good and a couple a few tents over who made the trip from Australia actually packed up and left that morning fearing a sudden evacuation and all the chaos that would cause. I couldn’t believe they just left after such a long expensive trip.
This was definitely my saddest of all Wacken days stuck in my tent in the pouring rain and not knowing if I made the journey from Canada to Germany for nothing. In the end, only fifty thousand of the eighty five thousand ticket holders were allowed on site. Many people arriving in Germany on this day from around the world had to go back home with no festival (Wacken social media site comments were getting pretty nasty by those not allowed in).
After an hour of pondering next steps, I left my tent to get some breakfast and a few beers were definitely in order. The muddy conditions made it extremely difficult to walk and it was a major effort to avoid slipping. In true Wacken spirit, everyone was helping those who fell immediately. My feet suctioned into the mud with every single foot step.
Oddly enough, I experienced similar Wacken conditions in 2015 but it didn’t cause nearly as much chaos as it happened towards the end of the festival after everyone was already on site. After breakfast and a few beers with some Finlanders I just met, I was walking back to the tent and noticed my friend was there. They let him in and my spirits immediately improved as I knew I didn’t have to go through this alone.
Scheduling Confusion
The weather gods started to cooperate with the rain slowing down ensuring site conditions didn’t get much worse. We were informed the festival would move forward on Wednesday but to expect weather delays. The concert stages opened a few hours late and bands were not playing in the original running order all afternoon. We were very confused not knowing when bands would start and the delays were getting longer than first communicated. All this is incredibly unusual for Wacken which normally runs like clockwork every year (but understandable due to the extreme weather conditions). I was just happy we had some bands to see today so I was willing to be flexible. We got some band updates through the Wacken phone app but the detailed running order never got updated. I really wanted to see the German thrash band Holy Moses for the first time ever but I’m not even sure they played that day. I missed a number of bands I wanted to see on Day 1 so we just decided to see what we could and be happy with that.
Sable Hills
I finally got to see my first band of the day in the mid-afternoon called Sable Hills from Japan playing on the Headbangers stage. This was by total accident as I was trying to find another band at this time but they sounded good and I was tired of going stage to stage trying to figure out who was playing where. Sable Hills were a cool mix of thrash, hardcore and death metal that worked well in the live setting. It clicked with me (and the broader audience) right away. The band was super energetic with great overall stage presence. The crowd was unusually large probably because Sable Hills were one of the only bands playing at this time.
Nervosa
Finally got to see the band at the top of my Day 1 list – Nervosa on the Louder stage. A few hours late but better than never. This show required a brutal trek through the mud from one end of the festival grounds to the other but it was worth it. Nervosa are an all-female death / thrash metal band from Brazil and worked the crowd into a frenzy despite the fact everyone was getting soaked in the rain. Their setlist included tracks from all their albums and some new material from their soon to be released record. A very memorable performance and my fist time seeing Nervosa live. It was cool to see them playing on one of the larger stages which are often reserved for more established acts. I don’t normally mind crowd surfers but they were a pain at this show as their boots dripped mud on everyone below. What a mess. Or maybe I’m just getting old?
Skindred
My friend really wanted to see the UK band Skindred so I joined him for the show. I heard of the band before but didn’t know their music at all. I quickly learned Skindred play a unique blend of metal, reggae and some hip hop. It was another tough muddy journey to the Faster stage and we arrived with no time to spare to see Skindred kick off their set (again by luck, we were actually looking for another band at this time slot). I was a little surprised, the audience loved Skindred and were very familiar with their music jumping up and down in unison to the unique beats. It wasn’t exactly my personal taste but my friend loved the performance. Also surprising that they played one of the biggest festival stages at Wacken but I guess Skindred is much bigger in Europe vs. North America.
After the show, we made our way to the beer garden and had a few beers and some much needed food. Wacken always provides a good selection of food options and there’s something for all tastes. I stuck with some German basics, two bratwurst sausages in buns loaded with mustard. I wish Wacken had more beer options but it’s largely limited to the brewery co-sponsoring the festival which was Krombacher this year (at least it’s better than Beck’s in previous years). We made some new friends with a few Germans at the beer garden. The beer gardens were one of the few covered areas on the festival grounds to get out of the rain.
Battle Beast
Day 1 was heavy on Power Metal and especially female fronted power metal / symphonic metal. The next band we checked out on the Louder stage was Battle Beast from Finland who I think I’ve seen at least once at another festival. They were a musical blend of symphonic and power metal styles. I really enjoyed vocalist Noora Louhimo with her dynamic powerful vocal approach and dramatic stage presence. The band was equally strong delivering an energetic power metal set. Lot’s of melodic catchy choruses that the large crowd sang along to. All the bands including Battle Beast were thanking the fans for enduring the terrible weather to watch the shows.
Doro
It was finally dark out and all the main stage lighting was in full effect (an incredible sight that never gets old) and the trademark bull head hanging between the Faster & Harder stages was fully lit up in flames. The day one headliner was Doro performing songs from her solo career and her band Warlock. I loved the older Warlock material which was heavily represented in the setlist but the highlight of the night was all the amazing guest stars joining Doro on stage. Doro did duets with Hansi Kursch of Blind Guardian, Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, Udo Dirkschneider of Accept and UDO fame and Sammy Amara from the Broilers. Other guest musicians included Mikkey Dee & Phil Cambell from Motorhead, Uli Jon Roth (Scorpions / Solo) and Chris Caffrey (Savatage / Solo). A very entertaining performance with an incredible light show and fireworks. Doro is a German hometown favorite and drew much of the fifty thousand people to her performance. I’m glad I got see her and loved her duet singing Anti-Social with Joey of Anthrax (video attached).
Beyond The Black
The last band of the night for me was another female fronted symphonic / power metal band from Germany called Beyond The Black. I’ve seen this band a few times at other festivals and they are always a crowd favorite. Big catchy memorable choruses, lots of guitar & keyboard soloing, symphonic musical interludes and versatile vocals courtesy of Jennifer Hagen. The crowd was unexpectedly large at the Louder stage despite the band sharing the same time slot with the days Headliner Doro. I left the Doro show a little early to catch the ending of the Beyond The Black set and I think many others did the same based on the crowd size.
It was a Wacken day like no other with multiple issues working against attendees and organizers including long weather delays, scheduling chaos and difficulties moving around the festival grounds but everyone was so just thankful the organizers were able to save the festival. Shows started to run according to schedule by the early evening. Although I missed a few bands I really wanted to see, I had a fantastic time with my international metal brothers and sisters on the holy grounds. I should also note my photography / videos will improve notably for parts 2-4 of my Wacken coverage as the band scheduling issues were fixed, the rain slowed significantly and it became easier to get through the mud as the festival progressed.
That closed my first day at Wacken 2023. It was midnight and I was covered in mud, soaked from all the rain and exhausted from an entire day of walking through deep mud all day. I suspect the week I spent in Dublin, Ireland just before the festival at all the Irish pubs potentially contributed to my exhaustion on Day 1 as well. All that said, a bad day at Wacken is generally better than most regular days.
Random Shots of the Day
