Venue Hunting: Wacken Open Air

I was originally going to do my first venue hunting post on 70k Tonnes of Metal, but with a bunch of bands announcing their inclusion in the 2013 Wacken Open Air, it seemed right. Not to mention that this year's Wacken was held last weekend. Keep your eyes open for my 70k Tonnes of Metal post eventually.

A small portion of the crowd

Wacken Open Air (or Wacken as I'm going to abbreviate it) is the largest heavy metal festival in the world. It was started in 1990 in the small German town of... you guessed it, Wacken. Before the festival, nobody knew this place existed. The first Wacken Open Air was a small festival meant to showcase German bands. There were 800 attendees. Now, it's the temporary home of more than 80 000 metalheads annually. More than 70 of the biggest names in metal (along with some local bands) play their sweet sweet music. And as it is with many other festivals, the majority of attendees pitch a tent and sleep in the camp grounds for the three days.

Wacken regularly sells out months before the actual festival. For this year's, tickets sold out on November 29th, 2011. The festival itself wasn't until August 2nd, 2012. Additionally, despite the 2012 festival just ending, the following bands have already announced they will be playing next year.

See anything you like? If not, check out this year's lineup. If you don't at least recognize some of the bands on here, you really need to listen to more metal. Or at least read more of my blog. If you do recognize the bands here though, I'm sure you're currently salivating.

Agro, Amaranthe, Amon Amarth, Aura Noir, Axel Rudi Pell, Betontod, Blaas of Glory, Boilers, Broilers, BugGirl, Channel Zero, Chthonic, Circle II Circle, CircleIICircle, Coroner, Corpse Garden, Cradle of Filth, Crimes Of Passion, D-A-D, Danko Jones SW, Dark Funeral, Darkest Hour, Dead By April, Decapitated, Delain, Devil´s Note, Dimmu Borgir, Dio Disciples, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Djerv, Dodheimsgard, Ease of Disgust, Eisenherz, Electric Hellride, Electric Wizard, Endstille, Eschenbach, Exuviated, Faanefjell, Forbidden, Frantic Amber, GammaRay, Gehenna, Ghost Brigade, Gone Postal, Gothic, Graveyard, Hamferd, Hammercult, HammerFall, Helmut, Henry Rollins, Henry Rollins - Spoken Word, Hone Your Sense, In Extremo, In Flames, Inquisitor, Insomnium, Kamelot, Kylesa, Leaves´Eyes, Leningrad Cowboys, Machine Head, Manimals, Manticora, Massacre, Megaherz, MindthreaT, Ministry, Mono Inc., Moonspell, Napalm Death, Nasum, Oomph!, Opeth, Overkill, Paradise Lost, RavenBlood, Red Fang, Riotgod, Russkaja, Rust2Dust, Sacred Reich, Sanctuary, SAOR Patrol, Saturnian, Saxon, Schandmaul, Scorpions, Sepultura, Sick Of It All, Six Feet Under, Soar Patrol, Suffocated, Suicide Silence, Sylosis, Testament, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Bosshoss, Torfrock, U.D.O., Unearth, Victims Of Madness, Vogelfrey, Volbeat, Volxrock, Warbringer, Warpath, Warrior Soul, Watain, Winterfylleth, Winterstorm, Wölli & Die Band des Jahres, Yaksa

Almost every metal band has a video of them playing at Wacken. It's quite an experience. I think that every metalhead should have the chance to enjoy Wacken at least once. I've never been myself, but I do plan on going sometime in the future. After all, who wouldn't want to be in a giant area surrounded by thousands of metalheads?

-Zombie Viking

P.S. The festival is pronounced V-ah-kin, with a V sound at the beginning. It's a German thing, don't ask me.