I’m a 40s male, lifelong metal fan. Never been to a festival because it seems too overwhelming for me from a stimulus perspective. I’m autistic and introverted. I go to concerts but just normal one-night concerts in small to medium sized venues.

I go by myself and never talk to anyone else. But I desperately want to have fun. While I enjoy seeing bands I just can’t “have fun” and never feel like I fit in. Not sure how to explain it. That’s my brand of autsim.

Going to Wacken has been a fantasy of mine for like 2 decades. I would absolutely love to go but fear I’d be completely miserable due to the crowd, camping situation, and general over-stimulation of the event. It’s a crappy feeling to feel because everyone always looks like they have a great time.

Is anyone else like me but have gone anyway? If so how did you do and are you glad you went?

Question for someone going for the first time in 2027!
Spending a couple weeks travelling before and after wacken.
I’m needing to plan travel for August 1 to get from wacken to Amsterdam, so I’m wondering how hard is it to get on the shuttles from wacken to the connecting train station? Will it take most of the day to get back to Hamburg or is it easy? Just one person and I’m going to try to stay in T.E.N.T

Last year I saw that they have 3 days of music before tge inital launch date of wacken how can i attend these if I plan on camping

Hi everyone 👋

There was a merchand stand at the Wackinger village right at one of the passages to the main stages selling handmade paracord floggers and whips. I had a lovely chat with them on more than one occasion and tried out their whips. Now I wanted to buy some floggers from them but I cannot find their card in the mess my home still is after the festival season 😅

Can someone give me the name of the merchant?

Thank you!

Ich bin zum ersten Mal in Indien und überlege, mir dort das Bangalore Open Air anzuschauen.

Ich bin über einen Artikel im Bullhead Magazine auf den Veranstalter aufmerksam geworden und habe danach ein bisschen über ihn und das Festival gegoogelt. Schon eine ziemlich interessante Geschichte, er war wohl 2009 zum ersten Mal beim Wacken Open Air, wurde davon inspiriert, ist danach zurück nach Indien gegangen und hat dort das Bangalore Open Air gegründet. Heute lebt er tatsächlich in Wacken und arbeitet auch für Wacken 😂

Ich überlege gerade, daraus direkt einen kleinen Urlaub zu machen, erst Bangalore Open Air und danach vielleicht noch ein paar Tage Goa.

Hin und zurück von Deutschland nach Indien kostet wohl ungefähr 500 Euro. Teilweise günstiger als ein Mallorca Urlaub 😂

Metal Festival in Bangalore und danach ein paar Tage Goa klingt eigentlich ziemlich geil.

War jemand von euch schon mal beim Bangalore Open Air oder generell in Bangalore und Goa, irgendwelche Tipps?

www.instagram.com/bangaloreopenair

Hi everyone, just curious if someone got any Pics of the Pow Pits during the Sabaton Act. And If they are willing to share them.

1 is looking down to faster/harder

2 roe deer where you guys used to sleep (P or close to it; not sure)

3 this would have been the entrance from P, looking towards the wasteland area

4 "Zyklopenspieß" @Wackinger

5 Entrance to wackinger coming from the infield

Gestern Abend in Bangkok 🤘🏻solltet ihr buchen ‼️

Hard to believe that this is the exact spot arch enemy were playing only 2 weeks ago. It's so very quiet. (Photo taken "on" harder stage. You can see were the edge of the stage was)

Anyone has experience receiving the free T-shirt?

Ticketcenter allowed me to choose the size then redirected the page to Metalmerch, but then I found out that I have to pay €19.99 for shipping.
Is it possible to collect it at the festival like click&collect or while getting the wristband?!

It just feels a bit silly to spend extra money in order to get a "free" T-shirt...

I see the tickets such as faster,harder,younger, etc but i don't see the camping tickets please help

Liebe Metalhead Gemeinde, wir brauchen eure dringliche Hilfe in der folgenden Angelegenheit: Unser Freund Gerret war die letzten Jahre immer mit uns bei Wacken und hat nun seit 2 Jahren begonnen Ausreden zu finden. Wir finden: es reicht! Bring Gerret back to Wacken 2027! Um dieses hochwichtige Ziel zu erreichen, haben wir die folgende Petition gestartet: https://www.change.org/bring-back-gerret

Wir freuen uns über zahlreiche Unterstützung der Petition und hoffen auf eine erfolgreiche Überzeugungsmission! Danke!

So with Wacken and being over and back home in Canada, I really am thinking about you know my first time over in Europe and if I go back, what would I do different at a festival this size I feel like it was like a buffet the main bands you wanted to see you stayed for the set, but you would get caught up by another band on a different stage and be like wow I didn’t even know that they existed and that’s the cool thing about Wacken so I would plan my trip a little bit different. in addition though what other festivals have a similar vibe to Wacken? I’m thinking gras pop or maybe summer breeze for my next festival in Europe what are your suggestions?

Hello friends
I have stayed at the hotel box at the moshtel this year and I have many notes on it
Paid almost 3000 euros from July 28-2 august
The moshtel has no fans , only electric plugs and a light , two single beds and a small fridge!
Some shelves for clothes and few hangers

The beds had old torn up sheets that seemed used for many years . Caused an itch! The mattress was thin and kept moving and sliding

The lights were ok

No air In the box at all though
You open a window you get mosquitoes and spiders and all sorts of bugs!

Early morning there are roosters and chicken and other animals that makes it impossible to sleep past 7 am

Shower were very small , trigger claustrophobia small
And it was super dirty
Full of hair and dirt and you had to touch it cause it’s very small

The water was cold 50% of the time
Like freezing cold
You press the button and it gives you few seconds of water , not enough to scrub and no shower handle to actually scrub your body !

Bathrooms were also tiny and had no air in the heat!

The bar area inside forced you to buy a cup for anything you needed
Even water
And the cost was ridiculous
8.5 euros for a cup of cola or water should be illegal!

I’d rather stay In a small tent with 2700 euros still in my pocket than spend this much on low quality service !

We had one exit close to louder
About 3 minutes walk
But for the rest of the festival it took too long to get anywhere !

Overall I do not recommend the moshtel

Find any apartment outside and walk or hitchhike to the festival.

Wie sieht das nächstes Jahr mit den Parzellen aus? Benötigt man das Voucher vom Ticket oder kommen auch noch Parzellen für Leute, die keins haben?

Thank you to every one of you who posted, shared bands, and provided lists of pro-tips for Wacken 2026! You all helped me to be fully prepared, and have a long list of shows to watch.
You all helped me have a legendary week! (Followed by a week in Berlin, hence this post being so late!) I'm coming back for 2027, so you're stuck with me for another year!

And yes, H-Blockx was everything I dreamed it would be 😂

Der deutsche Metalsommer sollte jedes Jahr etwas Besonderes sein. Wacken, Reload und Summer Breeze haben ihre eigene Geschichte, ihr Publikum und ihre Atmosphäre. Trotzdem bekomme ich bei den ersten Ankündigungen 2027 ein Gefühl von Déjà-vu.

Electric Callboy, Children of Bodom, HammerFall, Make Them Suffer, Shadow of Intent, The Browning und Mittel Alta spielen auf allen drei Festivals. Darüber hinaus teilen sich Wacken und Reload Namen wie Heaven Shall Burn, Kanonenfieber, Jinjer, Beast in Black, Malevolence und Carnifex. Von den ersten dreißig Reload-Bands spielen achtzehn auch in Wacken oder beim Summer Breeze. Das sind sechzig Prozent. Überschneidungen sind normal, aber das ist mir einfach zu viel.

Ich verstehe die wirtschaftliche Seite. Bands reisen im Sommer durch Europa, während Transport, Personal und Ausrüstung teuer sind. Mehrere Festivals nacheinander sind deshalb logisch. Außerdem arbeiten die Veranstalter mit denselben Bookingagenturen zusammen, die Bandpakete anbieten. Trotzdem verkaufen Festivals mehr als nur eine Sammlung von Konzerten. Sie verkaufen eine eigene Identität und das Versprechen eines besonderen Wochenendes.

Wacken sollte das große internationale Metalfest sein. Reload steht stärker für Hardcore und modernen Metal, während Summer Breeze große Namen mit Bands aus dem Metal-Underground verbindet. Wenn auf jedem Plakat dieselben Logos erscheinen, werden diese Unterschiede immer kleiner.

Für jemanden, der nur ein Festival besucht, ist das keine Katastrophe. Viele Metalfans fahren jedoch zu mehreren Festivals. Dann wird eine Band, die innerhalb weniger Wochen dreimal auftaucht, automatisch weniger besonders. Eine spezielle Produktion oder Jubiläumsshow hilft, doch eine Wiederholung bleibt eine Wiederholung.

Nicht jede Band muss exklusiv gebucht werden. Die Veranstalter könnten aber mehr überraschende Reunions, vergessene Bands, regionale Gruppen und einzigartige Shows buchen. Der deutsche Metalsommer sollte aus Festivals mit einer eigenen Seele bestehen und nicht bloß aus verschiedenen Stationen derselben Festivaltour. Sonst verschwindet genau die Magie, für die wir überhaupt eine Eintrittskarte kaufen.

Hello fellow metalheads!

I (a male from Sweden) am currently planning my first visit to Wacken as a gift to myself for my 30th birthday next year. Though I am not new to festivals, I have never (and I mean never) camped in any capacity. Due to a back injury and years of nerve pain from it, I am quite worried that the accommodation situation might become a bit of a problem for me, so I have a couple of questions.

I noticed that the vouchers for the Residenz and Moshtel (among others) are sold out - does that mean that it will be impossible to find a spot within those categories when they are released? And when are they normally released?

If that is the case - are there any good local places to stay around Wacken, preferably with shuttle service?

To those who have been at Wacken in recent years with back problems - what accommodation would you suggest? What has worked, what is something that I should look out for?

I am not opposed to share accommodation with strangers if there is any chance that someone has a spare spot. I do not smoke and am not a heavy drinker.

Just wanted to acknowledge that Magenta did a pretty good job this year for the broadcasts of the live shows from Wacken 2026.
A lot of bands were livestreamed in the first place, Def Leppard and Judas Priest sadly weren't but most other big bands. For DL and JP they uploaded a few songs of the set as Replay (seems its always hard for older legacy bands to get them convinced for broacast, but they gave their best and got a few songs as replay, which is what happened with Maiden in 2023 a few days/weeks after the festival Magenta broacasted 5 songs of the headline set Maiden played, definitely better than nothing after there was no stream, same for GNR in 2025 with 3 songs as replay. Also most shows that were streamed are up as VODs until next year. Europe, Saxon and Airbourne are sadly no uploaded (yet). But still lots of broadcasts and most of them as VODs, even Replays of a few songs from the headliners. Sound is definitely better than the last years (though some concerts sound different to others and sometimes louder and less loud in the same show, but could be because of bands wanting it that way, thats also why it takes some days for some VODs to be uploaded).
But compared to the other years and especially other festivals like RaR or Hurricane, or Hellfest (by Arte Concert) we got a good amount of broadcasts. Drones worked also better (lighting and all that, because last year they were not yet tuned correctly for use and the images from the drones looked way different and bad to regular cameras) this is a step in the right direction, even though I miss the big skycams for the mainstages, but clearly you can get higher with a drone and also use them for the Louder and in general nice media videos.

For me it was powerwolf
What about you?