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Sunday, May 29, 2011

Pilgrimage to Metal Mecca - Wacken, Germany

From Amsterdam, we're off to Metalhead Mecca - the Wacken Open Air music festival in Wacken, Germany. Courts and I have both had this on our bucket lists for many a year!

Where we will sleep 

Where? Wacken festival (Campsite)
How long? 4 nights
Check in? Between 8am-10pm. We’ll be arriving around 1pm after a 5 hour ride from Amsterdam.
Check out? Not specified. We’ll be leaving for our biggest ride yet – 8.5 hours to Prague! We will aim to leave around 7am and reach Prague by 7pm. The place we are staying in Prague doesn’t take bookings so if we pass a campsite and can’t be bothered continuing, there is no harm in stopping half way.
How much? Free!
Why we chose it? Because it came free with our tickets! 

What we want to see

In Wacken, the primary attraction is the Wacken Open Air festival. Wacken is a tiny little village so there’s really not much else to see anyway by all reports.

We’ve picked up a few tips for the festival – 
  • Buy food in Amsterdam and bring it with us. It will be expensive at the festival and in town.
  • Get wristbands from Wacken Plaza along with our Full Metal Bags - gift bags filled with Wacken branded goodies, but only while stocks last!
  • There is Metal Karaoke! At the Headbanger’s Ball Tent, Wednesday-Saturday after the artists perform.
  • There are locker trucks at a yet to be determined location which is great because there is heaps of stuff not allowed on the campsite – eg. Glass and cans. Bye bye deodorant! You’re also only allowed point-and-shoot cameras, no adjustable lenses.
  • Meet-and-Greets with the bands will be announced in July and take place near the locker trucks, or they did last year.
  • You can get Wacken Postcards at the Information Check Point. “Dear Mum...”

What we are expecting

I’m expecting to be completely out of my comfort zone, but in a good way. I really enjoy metal, but not to the extent that Courtney does. He will be much more at home here and I’ll be the tag along like he will have been in Benicassim. There are a few bands I’m super excited to see, and I am going to learn first hand the difference between NZ and Aussie crowds and hardcore German Metal crowds when I try and get to the front for Ozzy Osbourne. I do like a challenge. I'm really looking forward to meeting a blog friend, Steff, who Courtney knows in real life but who I only know through finding each others blogs, completely coincidentally.