On the official Wacken site they’ve published this stunning photo of Wacken at night. Check out the large version, it’s wicked.
Dave got some photos of our campground at night. I think they illustrate that it was FUCKING FREEZING quite well…
Brrrr!
I was checking a couple of facts on the Wacken Wikipedia entry when I noticed that there’s a couple of extra bands listed for 2010 in the entry: Devour The Masses and Crysis. They’re not listed on the official Wacken site (German or English versions – the German version often gets updated first) and a Google search does not bring up anything. According to the edit history of the page, Devour the Masses was added a couple of days ago and Crysis at the end of August.
Of course, the fact that it’s on Wikipedia does not make it true (duh). But it’s interesting nonetheless, yes?
The first instalment of my Wacken travel diary is up on Metal as Fuck: The Wacken Diaries – 01: Festival Countdown. Installment two is coming real soon now.
Metal as Fuck also has a few photo galleries from Wacken:
I’ve started putting my photos on Flickr – my Ballroom set is up, anyway – but Dave has done a much better job already with most of his up: Europe 2009.
They don’t waste any time, do they?
The first bands announced for Wacken 2010 are the mighty Immortal, and serious but out-there medieval metallers Corvus Corax.
I’m pretty impressed that announcements are being made already. Perhaps the organisers learnt their lesson from 2009, when they got hammered on their own forums and elsewhere for not releasing any information about the line up for such a long time – meaning the information when it did come couldn’t possibly live up to the hype and anticipation that surrounded it. Last year’s first band (Machine Head) wasn’t announced until mid September, before tickets even went on sale.
Whatever the reason, I’m excited as hell (don’t forget, any picture can be improved by adding Immortal to it) and will be eagerly awaiting further announcements, as always!
So Wacken came, went and fucking destroyed.
My full festival diaries will be coming soon to Metal As Fuck, so I’ll link them here when they’re published. For now though, we just have the inevitable feeling of sadness that it’s over for another year
Sometime while we were recovering from the festival in Hamburg (festival recovery involves numerous hot showers, drinking beer that is actually cold, eating things containing vegetables and sleeping) special “X-mas package” tickets, limited to 10,000 and including a t-shirt, went on sale for Wacken 2010. A mere ten hours later, before we’d even noticed it had started, the X-mas package sold out. That’s nuts.
Fortunately the day we came back an Australian friend noticed that regular tickets were on sale so we snapped ours up. Wacken 2010 here we come!
Tonight we fly out… excited? You bet!
Last week I got the fantastic news that Metal As Fuck has been Wacken-accredited which means I can go in the press areas. Ooooohhhhh 
As well as being very very VERY fucking cool for me, it’s great because the site has only been running for a few months, yet already it’s getting recognised as a serious, quality source of metal news, reviews, interviews and general what-have-yous (haha that rhymes). So it’s yay for me and congratulations to Leticia and Foss and the rest of the MAF team, just for being awesome.
So now we “just” have to pack and then we’re off. Right after I finish uploading this client site, answer a few more emails and make some notes for the people looking after our cats, house and business.
And look, I even cleaned and polished my trusty doc martens, which will be my feet’s constant and faithful companion for the next three weeks.
I’ve been chatting with Markus, the dude who built the planning tool, and he’s just alerted me to the weather forecast for Wacken for the festival… and it’s lovely! Low 20’s, partly cloudy. Awesome.
Last year the weather was schizophrenic — 31 degrees and then the next day it rained like crazy. 31 degrees is too hot (yes, an Australian is saying this) and while the rain was good for bringing out the mud we can do without it.
62 hours till we leave!
The time is almost here to make the holy pilgrimage to the beer soaked fields of old Deutschland. The procedure is simple… walk down to the field, find a good spot, pitch your tent, crack a beer and sit back.
Later that day you move your butt down to the stages, watch some bands and drink some more. You start stumbling back to your tent… now where the hell was it? Ah wait, was it left at the rubbish pile and right at the third passed out metalhead, and across the second ditch? Or was that right at the pile, and across the second metalhead?
It may seem simple, but put on your beer goggles, make it dark, and put up 65,000 tents and try again.
This small gadget is awesome – it’s a GPS locator, allowing you store up to 3 places. Press a button, and the arrow will point you in the right direction, along with the distance. No maps, no fancy features, just a “go this way” pointer and a battery that lasts for ages. Too cool…
http://www.firebox.com/product/2387/ECCO-GPS-Keychain
PS: Don’t ask what is actually in that ditch, chances are you will fall into it in the dark.
Over the past couple of months, the awesome awesome awesome Leticia and I have collaborated on a series of articles about the phenomenon that is Wacken Open Air.
20 Years of Wacken Open Air: Part One — the First Five Years (1990–1994)
20 Years of Wacken Open Air: Part Two — the End of the First Decade (1995–1999)
20 Years of Wacken: Part 3 (2000–2004) — Beyond the Music
One more part to go actually — so stay tuned!
image via http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/twitter-wallpapers-the-blue-bird/
Calling all Wacken-going Twitter users — join the Wacken tweetup!
It’s gonna be on the Friday, 31st of July, between 2pm and 3pm in the beer garden. Details here…
I’m not sure how we’re gonna know where… I guess I’ll just yell out Twitter and see who replies
goatlady twitters: Wacken News wacken twitters: