|
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
Part one of a six part article I’m writing on my experience at Wacken Open Air 2010. For those of you that don’t know, Wacken Open Air is a three day metal music festival that is held annually in Wacken, Germany. My friend Denis first made the trip in 2006 and we both made the trip in 2008 and again made the trip this year, 2010 for the 21st running of W:O:A. For those that weren't able to go this year, or have never made the trip, I hope this article will give you an idea of what it is like to go to Wacken and, hopefully, inspire you to make the journey yourself one year. If you are getting to Wacken by plane, train or automobile you will, most likely, go through Hamburg. If you have the time, I would recommend spending a few days in the city as it is a very beautiful city with great history and great architecture. Plus, you never know what may happen as you go about being a tourist. Being the closest major city in Germany to Wacken, Hamburg has many locations that host pre Wacken festivities but the majority of the events, and most popular, are held at the Ballroom Hamburg. This year, the pre Wacken festivities started a week earlier than the festival itself. Personally, I consider the two days of pre Wacken festivities prior to Day 0 of Wacken Open Air to be just as much of a part of the Wacken Experience as the festival itself. On this night, they didn't have a band and the theme of the night was Wacken, past, present and future. I don't know if they had more planned for that theme but the only thing that I saw that had anything to do with Wacken was the playing of Overkill Live at Wacken 2007 on the video screens (no audio) and, of course, the DJ playing metal music from bands that are playing at Wacken this year as well as having played Wacken in the past and I'm sure, in the future. My friends Jessica, Ryan and I had made plans to meet at the Ballroom Hamburg on Monday night to enjoy some of the pre Wacken partying. I arrived at 9:45 pm and once I found the new location (it used to be located in the St. Pauli Fischmarkt) I headed downstairs as the upstairs is used only when they have bands. When I first got there it was fairly empty so I went back upstairs and sat outside to wait for Jess and Ryan to show up. Within about ten minutes, they had arrived and the crowd had picked up in that short time and within 30 minutes it was packed. The cool thing about being in Europe, and especially being at a metal bar in Europe, is that there is no attitude among the patrons. Everyone is there to have a good time and, ultimately, really friendly. You could meet someone for the first time and you are instant friends and possibly friends for life. We ordered some beers when we got there and were just listening to the music when a guy walks up to ask and asked us where we were from. We told him and found out he was from Austria. We talked to him for about ten minutes. From that point forward, the night just steamrolled. The rest of the night was a blur of drinking, head banging and singing to Iron Maiden, Testament (which I requested), Slayer, Arch Enemy (I also requested this), Sepultura, Overkill and many more and talking to fellow metal heads from all over the world. By the end of the evening, I had met people from Austria, Italy, Spain, Australia, Germany (of course), England and probably quite a few other places that I don't remember as I was drinking and drinking heavily. As I said, this is just a microcosm of what you will see at Wacken and proof of the brotherhood of metal that transcends language, distance, culture, religion, politics, gender, etc. If you go to Wacken someday, you would be remiss to not spend a night or two at Ballroom Hamburg. .jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(photos from Ballroom Hamburg, click to enlarge) Continue to Pre-Party in Hamburg: Day 2
|
||||||||||||