W:O:A 2009

Wacken 2009 was a blast and an absolute success in my eyes. The organisation was great and the atmosphere awesome. Already sold out since over months before the festival started and everybody was excited about this very special (particular) year at Wacken's Open Air history and I guess nobody was dissapointed at the end of this weekend. But let's not talk about the end yet, this is right now the beginning of a report about the really fucking 20th anniversary from WACKEN OPEN AIR in 2009. The worlds greatest metalfestival!!!
Bands like Turisas, Tracedawn, Korpiklaani, In Flames, Pain, Volbeat, Motörhead, Running Wild, JBO, Amon Amarth, Drone, Axel Rudi Pell and so many more rocked the stages from 11 a.m. 'til 3 a.m. three days long. People walked from stage to stage.
For those who drank to much and just couldn’t move but didn’t wanna miss at least the bands which played at the Black and True Metal stages, could sit infront of a huge TV screen with a live broadcast from the shows.
Wacken Open Air is one of the most peaceful festivals I've ever been to. Everybody made party together, wanted to have fun and enjoyed the fact that once in a year you can do whatever you like to do.
If you wanna throw empty bottles, sausages or other garbage around, just do it. If you wanna burn your tent, do it. And if you wanna run around naked (with tape around special body areas) with pink rabbit ears or a santa clause fancy dress, do it. Nobody really cares about it, ‘cause everybody visits this festival for the same reason: Metal!!!
My veins full of alcohol and hell of great friends and other people around me, I enjoyed as many live shows as I could possibly see and wanna give a (hopefully not to long) report about the gigs I saw, highlights and the great party at the local camping area, so let's go: I know that it actually had been maybe somehow possible to watch more bands in total, but for some reason (and I guess that everybody who already has been on this festival knows what I'm talking about:)) I couldn’t make it...
and so I watched Running Wild's last show, before they disbanded, Drone (last three or four songs, cause it startet to rain while Running Wild were playing), In Flames, Pain, Volbeat, Axel Rudi Pell, Turisas, Hammerfall, Tracedawn (sadly not Korpiklaani, cause they played at the same time as Tracedawn, Doro (just to see or hear about the official Wacken Anthem), Motörhead, Gwar and...I guess that was it...:)
One of the biggest highlights I remember was the In Flames gig on Friday evening on the Black stage. IN FLAMES was the absolutely correct name for this gig. Flames and Pyrotechnics, Fireworks over the stage and great music fit perfectly together. The crowd rocked as hell and everybody was amazed. I couldn't imagine that any band could top this show, but it was only the second day and band after band followed after this gig.

Pain rocked the Party Stage and also the crowd for sure, Volbeat -which played right after Pain (but on the True Metal Stage) gave us a good reason to freak out -even more as we already did at Pain's gig. We danced in the mud with other people around and banged our heads until I was nearly falling over.
When Hammerfall's singer Joacim Cans startet to sing "Glory to the Brave" I got goosebumps again -really hell of a lot better livesong as on a disc-, Turisas rocked the W.E.T Stage (inside of a huge tent) and Tracedawn (also an absolute highlight of this year's Wacken)-a young metalband from Finland which showed that there's no doubt that they will play at sold out areas over here very soon.
Gwar seemed a little bit like the Muppet show for metalheads...a huge dinosaur walked over the stage and the band members were fighting against it -I sadly couldn't really understand the point of this, but who cares:!?:). Axel Rudi Pell convinced with perfect instrumental solos by drums and guitars, even if they played more slow songs than their typical power songs.
What else could I say...all bands I saw were very special on their own way great and I had a lot of fun as I already wrote in the beginning, not to mention all the fun I had at the campgrounds. This is really a place that NEVER sleeps. Even if the last gig is finally over at three o'clock in the morning -the tentplace never sleeps.
Well, I guess nobody expects that its quiet. When about ten thousand metalheads can be once in a year all together it must be loud, it must be crazy and it must be a lot of fun. People carrying everything every year to Wacken what they can carry and you will find nearly everything here. Huge Camping cars with a deck (roof garden) a grill inside of a bonnet, a fridge, power sets and huge Hifi systems and TV screens are just the beginning of it. You also can listen to every kind of music whatever you like to listen at each time you want (and if I say every kind, I really mean it. Metalheads don’t only listen to metal at all on this festival. You can hear from 60s over 80s til now every kind of music you like or not) ...you just have to walk a bit over the tentplace area:).
It's also very funny to see how people react on special happenings for example: if its that windy that your pavilion flies away, nobody is angry about it: it's just normal that some things are flying around. Some people also move everyday with their whole tent from one place to the other, just to see something else, to be a bit closer to the stages or just if you have crappy neighbours you don't like: you can move, no problem and nearly everybody you meet on your way will also have fun, just by watching a "walking tent". As you can see: Wacken is really worth for visit it at least once...It rocks and its fun and you'll never forget about it, that's for sure.

And this is the the End of W:O:A 2009: