Okay..guess it’s time for a new blog entry.. and I decided to do it in English once again.
I will try to recall all the things from Wacken, I consider important and/or interesting. I will not write everything here. There are just some certain things that are good to be remembered, but nothing to share with everyone who wasn’t there.
So.. this here will more or less be a report of the main events.. of my impressions and opinions. And..more or less some memory for myself. Nevertheless I hope you’ll enjoy it!
Monday, July 30.
Writing a shopping list with Lea and Mika…driving to the stores.. the first shock: No beer left at the Sky market. (Okay, I don’t drink beer, but Mika does and we were also doing some shopping for friends from Bavaria) Luckily my father had a solution for our problem and sent us to some other store I hadn’t thought of before. And – there was beer!
Baking a birthday cake for Benja..
Packing.
Since we had planned to meet at 8 am in Bad Oldesloe we had to do all our packing on Monday. Here the next problem occurred. Yes, we DO have a big car.. but I insisted on taking my blanket and my pillow (and an other fleece blanket) along with my normal sleeping bag, and I made Mika and Lea take theirs as well.. that cost a lot of space. Plus we had food for 5 people (Lea, Mika, me & the 2 friends from Bavaria), 5 chairs, an extra tent, the canopy/gazebo (whatever you call that) and luggage for 3 persons.. and we had to save some space for Daniel’s food and luggage… luckily Lea wasn’t traveling with us in the car, so we had only to plan seats for 3 persons.
But in the end we somehow got everything in the car.
Well..almost everything.. some things we left out. And Dennis (who was coming in the morning to pick up Lea) had to take those things in his car.
Tuesday, July 31.
We got up early and left about 7.10 am, because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to drive to Daniel and fit his luggage into the car. Especially since we were planning to stop at some ATM on the way.
I had told Daniel that I would pick him up at 7.30. We were way too early, but he was already ready.
~8 am: Departure. Mika had changed cars, so Tim wouldn’t have to drive alone. So we had more room than we had hoped in the car. 😉
Arrival at Wacken. First shock: We are told that we have to park our cars and walk to some other place for camping.
But in the end we didn’t have to walk that far and found quite a good place for our tents. Since our tent had 3 cabins and we needed only 2 for sleeping, the third became our “pantry”.
And I met Kalle again. After one year. Not for a very long time but at least we had some time to talk. 🙂
Wednesday, August 1.
Happy Birthday, Benja! 🙂
Our cake was a little dry by now, but not too bad. 🙂 The other birthday present, the melon, was used very late that day..when it became a “magic melon”.
3 more people arrived.
I saw 3 bands:
- Inquisitor (Metal Battle Lithuania), quite good, if I remember right..
- Hamferð (Metal Battle Faeroe Island), not too interesting..but the singer was quite good. I am still wondering how they got to win the Metal Battle..
- Vogelfrey. The second time I saw them. And good again. 🙂
Thursday, August 2.
Beginning of the day can’t have been too interesting..
The first band I saw this day was Sepultura. They were supported by Les Tambours du Bronx. It was quite good, but I had expected more.
Afterwards we went directly to the stages in the tent. We wanted to be in the first row for Chthonic.
Since Chthonic was to start at 20:05 there were 2 bands to go.
So we saw Hammercult. They are from Israel and won Metal Battle last year. They’re not playing the kind of music I would listen to at home, but live they were quite good.
I was wearing my Orphaned Land shirt. Not on purpose, in the morning I hadn’t even planned what I was going to see that day. But (as always) I met some people from Israel who really liked my shirt 🙂
After Hammercult we found a place in the first row. From there we watched the next band that was playing on the other stage.. The name was Keule and I have never seen a band wore than that. Really.. I don’t want to explain.. google it…I haven’t tried that out but try it.. and if you find something about the Band Keule from Berlin, I guess I won’t need anymore explanations why this is the worst band I have ever seen.
Then..finally Chthonic. Great. One of my highlights. Even though I didn’t know the band before. They were really great. 🙂 Especially with their guest musician Olli Vänskä from Turisas.
The last band I saw that day was Volbeat. I liked them. Good choice to see instead of Torfrock 🙂
Friday, August 3.
I am not sure..but I think this was the day with the heavy rain and the thunderstorm. I have never experienced Wacken with such a bad weather before.
But when we finally went to see our first band, it was muddy but at least it wasn’t raining.
The first band I saw that day was Hammerfall. Another highlight for me. Actually I don’t listen to them anymore..and I don’t really like them anymore.. but I used to like them a lot. Last time I saw them they were playing mostly new songs I didn’t know. This time they were playing almost only old songs. I knew almost all of them. It was great. Next to me stood a group of Swedish guys. At some point they got into a talk with Mika. Then one of them came up to me and told me: “I am from Tukholma. Where are you from?” I answered “Germany”. He started to apologize. “Sorry, I thought you are also from Finland (as I wrote before, he had talked to Mika before). That’s why I said it in Finnish. I am from Stockholm!” I told him that I had understood it before. He had 2 beer and offered one of them to me. I told him that I don’t like beer.. his response was great. First he looked at me in disbelief. Then he said: “But you’re from Germany! You HAVE TO like beer!” (He had asked me before where I was from). We had some fun with them. After Hammerfall they left. We waited for Dimmu Borgir.
Next highlight: Dimmu Borgir with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra. Unfortunately the electric Bass was too loud, and predominated the sound of the orchestra, especially of the bass instruments, but besides this it was a really really great performance.
I was planning on seeing In Flames. But After Hammerfall and Dimmu Borgir I was too tired. Part of our group who was waiting there for In Extremo stayed, but Mika, Lea and I went back to the camp where we had some snack. But we didn’t have really much time to sit there.
Then we were leaving again. Mika was already going to the stages in the tent, Lea and I met Robin and his girlfriend and went to the Party Stage.
Next Highlight. Athonite. A new band again. And they were really really really great. They are combining classical music and metal. I knew all classical pieces they used (except for one). We left a bit earlier to see another great band I would also call another highlight: Insomnium. Lea was busy trying to catch Mika (who was standing in the first row) on the screen. But she was always too slow.
After Insomnium we watched Ghost Brigade what was also quite good.
Meanwhile it had become very cold outside. It was 3 am when Ghost Brigade was done. And we were hungry. Mika, Daniel and I (who were the only ones left there) decided to eat some garlic bread. Very good. 🙂
Saturday, August 4.
I had hoped the Wacken-Team would do something against all the mud…they didn’t. It was still as muddy as it had been the day before.
The first band I saw that day was Paradise Lost. Afterwards we went back to the camp.
We went back to the stages to see Cradle of Filth.
This was followed by the next highlight: Amon Amarth. 🙂
We stayed at the spot where we were standing to watch Scorpions. Unfortunately a new heavy rain was coming and Niklas, Mika and I fled into the tent with the stages. We were sitting there, listening to Suicide Silence. When the rain finally stopped we went out to get something to eat.
We came just back inside on time for Dio Disciples. Another band I am calling highlight. They were great.
Afterwards Riotgod were playing..and I almost fell asleep (there time was 0:50-1:25) But when Riotgod were done I slowly woke up again. Winterfylleth were playing and I wanted to see them. We found a good place in the first row. (not in front of the stage Winterfylleth was playing on but in front of the stage Riotgod had just played on).
And then at 2.10 am the Leningrad Cowboys were playing. They were the last band I saw in Wacken (and the last band that was playing) and my last highlight.
Sunday, August 5.
Departure.
Somehow we managed to fit everything in our car. Well..almost everything. 😉 Dennis had to take some things again.
The biggest challenge was to get from the campground to the street. Driving in this deep mud isn’t any fun. And it isn’t easy.. Everyone except for the drivers had to get out of the car and push. But luckily the way wasn’t too long and we reached the street.
We had a short stop at Burger King in Neumünster. And around 3 pm we were finally back home.
Tired but happy. 🙂
I know, there should be only one highlight.. but for me there were many 😉 All in all it was (as always) a great festival with great people, great music…great and funny new stories to tell (sorry readers, you won’t get to read them here). About next year.. I am not sure yet. After 5 years I’d like to see something else. Maybe.
But.. we’ll see 😉
