Heavy Metal Open Air - Police: Smooth journey to Wacken Festival
After last year's mud problems, the journey to the Heavy-Metal-Festival in Wacken (W:O:A) in Schleswig-Holstein is running smoothly so far. The journey that started on Sunday was significantly less stressful than the previous year, reported the police. Around 15,000 of the expected 85,000 festival-goers have arrived on the site.
Today and on Tuesday are the main arrival days for metalheads to Wacken. According to the police, there is no traffic chaos to be expected. The new traffic concept of the organizers and the additional arrival day have shown effect.
Calm situation on site
According to police reports, the situation around the festival is calm. However, an Austrian had to leave the festival site again. The 40-year-old had stolen the smartphone of a woman from Heide and inappropriately touched her while heavily intoxicated on Sunday.
On Sunday evening, officers stopped the journey of a 36-year-old Czech because he had been driving under the influence of cannabis. He had to pay a security deposit of 1,000 Euro.
85,000 Metalheads expected
The Wacken Open Air is considered one of the largest Heavy-Metal-Festivals in the world. At its beginning in 1990, there were 800 visitors. Today, there are annually 85,000 fans from all over the world who make the community with 2,000 inhabitants the center of the scene for several days. The Wacken Open Air 2024 starts on a Wednesday and lasts until the 3rd of August.
One of the headliners at the 33rd W:O:A are the Scorpions. The German rock band played in Wacken in 2012. Expected in addition are Korn, Amon Amarth, In Extremo, Blind Guardian, Gene Simmons, as well as Bülent Ceylan & Band from Mannheim and Knorkator. The tickets for 2024 were sold out in less than five hours.
Info
- Despite the mud issues in the past, festival visitors' journeys to this year's Heavy-Metal-Festival in Wacken, known as W:O:A, in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, have been running smoothly, as reported by the police.
- Upon arrival at the Wacken Open Air site on Sunday, 15,000 out of the expected 85,000 festival visitors had already set up camp, with the main arrival days still to come.
- On Sunday evening, a 36-year-old Czech's music-fueled journey to Wacken took an unfortunate turn when police stopped him for driving under the influence of cannabis, resulting in a 1,000 Euro security deposit.
- According to police reports, the festival site has remained calm, with the exception of a 40-year-old Austrian who was asked to leave after inappropriately touching a woman from Heide, an incident that occurred on Sunday.
- Over the years, the Wacken Open Air festival has grown in popularity, attracting over 85,000 metalheads from around the world to this small town in northern Germany, transforming it into a buzzing center for music enthusiasts for several days.
