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!

Wacken At Night is a post from: hell bent for metal

We’re all organised and ready to go!

Exhibit A: one tent. Note the queen size inflatable mattress which fits inside said tent. We forked out a big $38 for this baby, and we have high hopes that it will be an improvement on last year’s dwelling which rather cramped our style.

Exhibit B: camping choons:

Takes 2 batteries and an SD card wth MP3s. Music at our campsite, and all for $27.78 with free shipping. Bargain! It’s so small and light I’m a little concerned we’re gonna lose it in our bags.

I know we’ve been slack… more posts coming soon…

The countdown is on… is a post from: hell bent for metal

Um, that’s us there… in the blue tent, towards the left… [photo from official WOA Gallery]

We went and picked up a new tent in the post-Christmas sales, seeing as we left our last one pitched in a field at Wacken along with a whole stack of other stuff that we figured we would no longer be needing. We picked up some valuable tent-related camping tips last year, but not being experienced campers – or in fact, campers at all — we unfortunately learned these the hard way.

1. You may think, as we initially did, that seeing as you only get a couple of hours sleep a night (if that), that a spacious and/or comfortable camping arrangement is not important. On the contrary. Because you are only getting a couple of hours sleep a night, you want those couple of hours to be as comfortable and restful as possible. If you spend your two previous hours of rest time squashed into a corner wondering what that lump is digging into your ribs, you’re going to be very cranky when you finally do get up (at least you will if you’re me), in which case you might as well not have bothered even attempting to sleep. Metal karaoke goes until 6am and by 8am it’s far too hot to stay in the tent anyway, unless you’re unconscious.
2. A two person tent is big enough for two (undersized, perhaps dwarven) persons, but not big enough for two persons plus two persons’ worth of gear. Our new tent apparently sleeps three. Looking at the additional space, I think they would have to be three VERY friendly persons, but we should be able to get me and Dave AND our packs in there a little easier.
3. You don’t want your head to be in a vulnerable position. We had a good camping spot, nice and close to the grounds and facilities, but this meant that we had more foot traffic then we would have otherwise. Stumbling drunks + metal boots + your head on the ground near the edge + tendency for dudes to unzip and relieve themselves anywhere = recipe for disaster. This year, our tent is 220cmx200cm floor area (last years’ was 140cmx200cm). While the 220cm is meant to fit the three fictional persons across, we’ll be using to let Dave stretch his legs all the way out, which will hopefully mean there’s less chance of his head getting stomped or urinated on. Which is A Good Thing.
4. On day two it rained. Which meant everything turned to mud. Mud + boots + tent = more of a problem then you would probably realise. We needed our boots in the tent while we were sleeping so they didn’t get rained on, soaked with dew or urinated in (the most likely of the three). But because they were covered in mud we had to put them in a plastic bag and try to keep them upright in the corner or else everything else in the tent got covered in mud too. It was a real pain, but anyway our new tent has a zip-up verandah (or at least you’d call it that if it wasn’t so laughably, pathetically small). Which looks like a convenient place to take your boots off before you come “inside”. FTW!

Last year’s tent cost $29.95, thank you Anaconda. This year we splashed out – with the 30% discount, it came to grand total of $38. That $8.05 had better be money well spent.

Festival camping – learning the hard way is a post from: hell bent for metal