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  Wacken Open Air

Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) is one of the leading summer open air heavy metal music festivals. It takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With 80,000 festival visitors, and including personnel a total of roughly 82,500 attendees in 2010[2], it attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, gothic metal, folk metal, and even metalcore and hard rock from around the world.

The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area.
The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.

The 2009 edition set a sales record; it sold out on 30 December 2008.
All 70,000 tickets were sold over 200 days before the opening of the festival.

http://www.wacken.com/


Covered festivals:

    Wacken Open Air 2004

    Wacken Open Air 2005

    Wacken Open Air 2006

    Wacken Open Air 2007

    Wacken Open Air 2008

    Wacken Open Air 2009

    Wacken Open Air 2010

    Wacken Open Air 2011

    Wacken Open Air 2012

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Festival News Festival News Written 2013-06-14 01:22:27
Hello Metalheads !

The festival is coming closer with huge steps; just about 60 days are left.
So it’s about time for another bunch of information!

Main topic in this week was obviously the updated Running Order with all times!


But we also unleashed a real flood of information with releasing for example the shuttle bus schedule, Camping Site & Holy Wacken Land Maps and the opening Hours 2013


Next Informations you can find on: www.wacken.com

Updated running order with playtimes


The festival is coming closer with huge steps; just about 60 days are left. So it’s about time for another bunch of information! Already some time ago, we provided you with the first version of our running order and now we can present you an updated version!

Next to some small changes, the running order now also contains the playtimes and the smaller stages.

Entire new on the running order and at the W:O:A in general is the Wacken Metal Church. Due to the 150th anniversary of Wackens church, there will be some chosen concerts and a corresponding side program inside the church this year.

You can find the running order HERE.

Also we will again publish our famous Running Order Tool in the near future. The tool allows you to create and print your personal running order.

Last but not least: Finsterforst will play in Wacken as planned!
Festival News Festival News Written 2013-05-27 09:13:26

Hello Metalheads,

it´s time for the next newsletter! This week we can confirm Anvil as next top act for this years Wacken Open Air but at the same time we also sadly have to announce the cancelation of Last in Line.

Besides the registration for this year´s W:O:A Soccercup and some holiday offers before and after Wacken Open Air we started 2 amazing raffles to celebrate the newest releases of Airbourne and Dark Tranqulity.

Last but not least you can find the newest W:O:A merchandise tips and Podcasts of Harry Metal. who was on board of this years Full Metal Cruise!

All further festival info can be found at www.wacken.com

yours
W:O:A team

Anvil is back at W:O:A


The Canadian speed metal pioneers of Anvil will play at the Wacken Open Air in 2013. It will be their third performance at the holy land. The band which was found in 1979 is a heavy influence for both thrash and speed metal, especially their early albums are often mentioned by bands like Metallica or Slayer. In this year, the band released its fifteenth studio album, called Hope in Hell. We are looking forward to a real firework of classics and brand-new hits.

More information at Billing/Bands

Last In Line performance at the Wacken Open Air cancelled
While we are able to announce Anvil, we sadly have to announce the cancellation of Last In Line for this year’s Wacken Open Air.

Big Airbourne raffle to celebrate the release of "Black Dog Barking"


Since the release of their debut "Runnin´ Wild" in 2007, the australian band Airbourne became more and more unstoppable.
With their underdog anthems they impressed not only legions of fans but also the press and music idols like Lemmy Kilmister.

On May 17th the long anticipated third album Black Dog Barking will be released.

Together with Roadrunner Records we are now raffling a big Airbourne fan package!

W:O:A Soccercup 2013


There can be only one! Also this year we are searching for the new W:O:A Soccercup Champion!

Dark Tranquillity: Raffle regarding the release of Construct


The melodic death metal machine Dark Tranquillity releases its new album Construct today! Construct is the tenth studio album of the Swedish band and was anticipated with bated breath. And they also got the first top review for this album; the German Metal Hammer placed them on the first place of their soundcheck of this month.

In time to the release of construct, we raffle 2 x 1 fan packages, each including one t-shirt and one gatefold vinyl (including a 7” bonus vinyl).
Festival News Festival News Written 2013-05-20 01:38:25
Hello Metalheads,

The next Wacken Open Air is coming closer and the countdown of missing days is already double-digit.
According to this the progress is going on and in this weeks newsletter we can present you the first version of the Running Order 2013!

Meanwhile also the festival ABC was updated and got a new comfort functionality.

Last but not least we have 2 new band announcements: Annihilator and Industrial City who won the Metal-Battle in the Caucasian Republics.

All further news and info at www.wacken.com

Provisional running order online


A bit more than 3 months are left, until it is time again to call Faster Harder Louder in Wacken again. And already now, we can provide you with the first and provisional version of this year's Running Order!

This first version just contains the infield-stages (Black Stage, True Metal Stage, Party Stage) and the Bullhead City Circus (W.E.T. Stage and Headbangers Stage).

As always, all subjects are about to be changed and are only meant as a rough orientation.
A running order with exact playtimes and the remaining stages will be published soon. By then, we will also provide you with printable PDFs and our popular running order tool.



Festival ABC 2013 released
As always we have to change the festival ABC a little for the new festival year. Next to the content changes, we also included a comfort function to simplify the usage of the navigation at the voluminous ABC.

Now you can use a search-function to search for catch-words which will scroll you the searched segment instantly. In addition to this, the whole content of the ABC is hidden at the start to allow a faster scrolling. All categories can be opened/closed at the click of a mouse.

RIP - Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman deceased


Today we received a sad message: Slayer guitarist and founder Jeff Hanneman died on liver failure this Thursday morning in a hospital in California.

With Jeff Hanneman the metal world is losing one of its most influential musicians.

Slayer announced the following statement via facebook:
"Slayer is devastated to inform that their bandmate and brother, Jeff Hanneman, passed away at about 11AM this morning near his Southern California home. Hanneman was in an area hospital when he suffered liver failure. He is survived by his wife Kathy, his sister Kathy and his brothers Michael and Larry, and will be sorely missed.

Our Brother Jeff Hanneman, May He Rest In Peace (1964 - 2013)"

We wish all of his family, friends, fans and also the rest of the band much strength in this difficult times!
Festival News Festival News Written 2013-04-04 23:35:45
**Premiere at the Wacken Open Air - Hotel ship for Metalheads"***

Premiere at the Wacken Open Air – Hotel ship MS Wacken River Hotel will land near the festival site!

In cooperation with the travel agency KLUGES REISEN, the organizers of the Wacken Open Air, the ICS Festival Service GmbH, are offering a very special alternative to sleeping in a tent on the campgrounds at this years festival. From July 31st until August 04th 2013 metalheads will have the opportunity to sleep on a comfortable hotel ship, the MS Wacken River Hotel.

The ship is located at the Wacken Port in Hochdonn, directly at the Kiel Canal, only three kilometers away from the festival grounds. The swimming hotel has a lot to offer for the friends of heavy music. Nice cabins including a private shower and WC and a nice view of the canal. Furthermore a diverse breakfast buffet will make sure that nobody has to start their festival day hungry. After strengthening for the day, the metalheads can use the regularly scheduled bus shuttle to get to the festival area.

This strictly limited offer includes four accommodations in a comfortable outside cabin with private WC and shower, as well as the breakfast onboard and the bus shuttle to the festival site. Furthermore there will be a bus shuttle starting at the central station in Hamburg and Itzehoe which will drive directly to the landing place of the MS Wacken River Hotel in Hochdonn,

The early bird offer of the MS Wacken is valid from April 03rd to April 16th 2013. Please find more information at www.wacken.com or http://www.kluges-reisen.de/reisen/spezialreisen.htm
Festival News Festival News Written 2013-03-18 08:37:39
Hello metalheads,

again it is time for another W:O:A newsletter! This time’s topics are:
After a short lean period, we were now able to confirm seven new bands for the Wacken Open Air 2013.
Also we uploaded the calendar sheet for March 2013, which can be downloaded as desktop wallpaper as usual and we inform you about the upcoming special Easter sale in Wacken.
Sadly we also have some bad news: Farmer Uwe is badly diseased. All details about this and the other topics can be found in this newsletter.

Yours,
W:O:A Team


7 new band confirmations

After a short lean period we like to announce the next bounce of bands for this year’s W:O:A billing.
We have seven new bands for you, which never played in Wacken before. Their musical styles ranges from traditional heavy metal through power and progressive elements to New German Hardness.

Dunderbeist - The Norwegian whiz kids are considered as one of the hottest newcomer bands from Scandinavia. They just released their third album “Songs Of The Buried” which will be used to conquer Europe for sure. And on their way to this goal, they will also enter the Wacken Open Air!

Eisbrecher - – New German Hardness at the W:O:A. After they left Megaherz and founded Eisbrecher about 10 years ago, the duo Wesselksy & Pix used to get started again – with huge success. With their fifth album, released in 2012, the band entered position 3 in the German album charts.

Kärbholz - the German rock/punk band Kärbholz was founded in 2003 and released five albums so far. Every album raises their fan base and their last album “Rastlos” made it to position 16 in the German charts.

Kryptos - the band from India was founded in 1998 and is part of the spearhead of the metal music and scene in their country. Since their establishment they released three albums which generated a lot of furor. A record deal in 2007 led to support shows for bands like Iron Maiden, Kreator, Amon Amarth and Satyricon. In 2010, they came to play some shows in Europe as the first Indian metal band ever. In 2012 they released their third album “The Coils Of Apollyon”. They play straight eighties metal inspired by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath and Candlemass – if you like this music, you must check ´em out!

Null DB –resulting from an under-18 school band, Null DB are striving to the top with their independent sound. You could try to categorize the band between Nu Metal and New German Hardness, but you shouldn’t draw a parallel like “they sound like…” – it will not work out. In 2008 they first attract attention when they won a German rock music award and shortly afterwards they published their first real release “Im Auge des Sturms”. By now they also released their second work “Endzeit”.

Rebattered – this band is living the metal! The band Rebattered focuses on grooving thrash metal now, after they tried some musical experiments with for example progressive elements in their beginning. Founded in 2002, the band won several band competitions and awards, played countless live-shows and released their debut EP “Wheel of Misfortune” in 2007. In 2012 they released their second EP “We Eat People” and by now they are working on their first album.

Secret Sphere – from Italy plays progressive power metal, which is often also categorized as symphonic power metal. Whatever you call the genre, the band which was founded in 1997 has the finger on the pulse. In 2012 they released their sevenths Album “Portrait Of A Dying Heart”. And in 2013 they will release a new version of their second album “A Time Never Come”.

Farmer Uwe badly diseased

Our farmer Uwe from Wacken isn’t just a real unique, but also an important character and element of the Wacken Open Air history.

By now, we got the sad message, that Uwe Trede is badly diseased. The thoughts of the whole Wacken Open Air team are with him and his family in this time. We hope for a speedy and full recovery. He is already on the way to recovery.

Cheerful greetings can be posted in the commentaries on Facebook and in our board. We will forward them to Uwe and his family.

Special Easter sale and long Thorsday on the 28th of March in Wacken

On Thursday the 28th of March there is a special Easter sale in Wacken again, the W:O:A Info Office and Battle-Merchant invite you to the next big metal shopping tour.

This time's highlight: Wacken merchandise with special discounts, fan articles and the new W:O:A 2013 collection! Everyone who brings the X-Mas sale flyer will also get a special goodie for free!!

The Full:Metal:Army – our official fan club - will also be back on spot. Inform yourself about the Full:Metal:Army and become a member!

Also the Battle-Merchant is reducing its full product range with a 11% discount because of its 11th birthday. Furthermore, every customer which buys articles with a worth of more than 20€ will get a Thor´s hammer for free!

So, let's go to Wacken!

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