As you may/may not know I recently got back from the yearly pilgrammage that is Wacken. There were very few bands I really wanted to see, compared to Hellfest, so much of it was socialising and partying rather than watching tonnes of bands. We left on Monday (28th July) around 9pm to pick Tom and Sophia up. I had a little strop due to the ridiculous amount of packing they did (and always have done). Srsly guys – fail.
Anyways, we set off for Dover, and as we did, the entire Atlantic Ocean poured down on my car. Most of the journey was spent doing between 20mph-40mph due to the extremely low visibility, but we pressed on. We made it to the ferry for about 00:45am after a ridiculuously long detour due to some morons closing the main road into Dover ferry terminal – srsly guys, FAIL.
After I had a disturbed sleep on the ferry, we set off still in darkness through France. As we headed into Belgium, the day began to show itself, and my tiredness kicked in again. Just before the German border, I flaked out and let Hannah drive for an hour or so, for her first time in Europe, woohoo! I took over before we reached the A1, and sped most of the way to Wacken at around 100-110mph aside from roadworks etc., and we arrived at the holy Wackenland about 2pm, after a couple of stops for food and beer (which were piled up on Tom and Soph in the back!)
After driving around Wacken a little while and several phone calls to our English friends already there, we managed to make our way into the gates through to campsite P. After being in the wrong part of the field for a little while, we found them, and set up camp. In a few seconds, Hannah & I’s tent was up (thanks to the pop-up tents for that!), and we were drinking beer already. Generally the night went as expected – much drinking and merriment, and also the meeting of our new friendly German friend Felix!
Wednesday was about the same, although I do remember going to the W.E.T. Tent and my flip-flop breaking many times in the mud, and generally making a mess with mud, which is always fun! I don’t really remember what was actually on in the tent, I’m assuming some sort of metal karaoke or perhaps a band… my mind fails me after a few beers!
Thursday came and Ellis, Conor and friends arrived, whom I greeted in the appropriate fashion (general piss-taking and a few squirts of water seemed appropriate this time…). I didn’t drink as much that day, so I stayed sober and awake enough to make it to Iron Maiden. We marched down to the festival area to find the entire place more heaving with people than it had ever done before. There was very little chance of getting into the arena, so we settled for the beer garden… until we saw how packed that was as well. We walked towards the video wall where they were showing the Maiden set, but got distracted by a bit of the main stage’s screen we could see between two food tents, where there was a clear defining line of sight where people were stood. Not a place in Wacken where you could see Maiden wasn’t filled with people it seemed.
The thing we did find funny was Bruce Dickinson’s strop at the camera crane, which consisted of telling it to get out the way in various colourful ways, and also insulting Germans in general, and getting in a bit of a rock-star hissy fit. Nevertheless, renditions of many good songs they hardly play any more (Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner, anyone?) and some of the classics were great to hear.
Friday morning we saw Primordial (of course! How could I miss them??) in the blistering sun. Then came the rain unfortunately, but it didn’t matter of course – it’s Wacken.
The rest of the festival was as expected really – more drinking, more bands. Managed to see Carcass and At The Gates of course, the former of which was most immense, yet At The Gates didn’t impress so much as at Hellfest.
The sheer number of people at the festival is sort of starting to put me off anyway, but we won’t be going next year anyway due to money and whatnot. Everything else was brilliant – the toilet cleaning seemed to be much more on form this year, and there was the welcome addition of the Medieval Market, where I purchased my new hand-carved leather bracer. Not forgetting the excellence of wearing a Poncho, and carring Harry around gaffer-taped to a chair, I think this was one of the best Wackens I’ve been to… until next time.
The journey back was as expected really – tiredness, seemingly lasting forever. We stayed at the same hotel as last year on the way back, ‘t Vlimmershof in Belgium. We were met with warm welcoming (and cleaning!) showers and real flushing toilets. A nice blonde beer and enormous rack of ribs later, I was stuffed, and Luke managed to clean everyone’s plate. Off to bed.
Unfortunately I was also met with many many mosquito bites, which I am still suffering a little from. We squished a few in the morning to discover they every single one was stuffed with blood – my blood probably! The morning after was a relaxing drive in convoy with Laurie’s car to Dunkerque. A pie and chips on the ferry was nice, and no sooner did we realise that we were back in rainy England. I at this point couldn’t drive further, so Hannah took the reigns of the “Wackenmobile” and took Tom and Sophia home. The car suddenly weighed nothing as Tom and Soph’s stuff was taken out, and Hannah and I went via Tesco to pick up some Antihisan itch-stopping stuff.
Now they just need to release the DVD of 2008! I may be on it, being squirted… keep your eyes peeled.
