Wacken on Wednesday

Bullhead City Circus rocks!

That eagerly awaited moment has finally happened: this year’s Wacken Open Air has begun. While the infield is still closed on Wednesday, the spectacular Bullhead City Circus has opened its gates.

The mighty tent is hosting the world’s biggest event promoting young talent in hard and extreme music, the Wacken Metal Battle. Although most names are still completely unknown, huge crowds supported stylistically quit different acts from all around the globe with competitors from Mexico, Iceland, Greece, the Faroe Islands, and yes also Germany among others delivering great shows.

For those that love their heavy dose of electric guitars in combination with fiddles, bagpipes, and accordion, the festival has already switched into full gear as the Wackinger Village stage started to deliver folklore and trad induced rock and metal. Only a few steps on, the post-apocalypse is happening on the Wasteland Stage, where rust, dust, bones, and scantily clad women rule the field.

Back to Bullhead City, the names are getting bigger the more the evening progresses. Thrash fans are getting a double-dose of classics from the reformed Flotsam & Jetsam, the band in which Jason Newsted won is first accolade before being enlisted by Metallica and Canada’s finest, Annihilator. A bit of nostalgia also helped Ugly Kid Joe to pull a huge crowd that got topped by something completely different.

Sir Bob Geldorf brought his old punk / rock outfit The Boomtown Rats to Wacken. At first artist and audience seemed a tad sceptic about the other, but quickly warmed to the

idea and show and soon demonstrate that this festival can appreciate music that is slightly off the mainstream at this location. Thousands of headbangers singing along to that world hit "I don’t like Mondays” will sure enter the chronicle of this year’s Wacken Open Air as one of those full-body goose-bump moments. Amazing.

Back to basics, Crowbar delivered a mega-heavy New Orleans sludge-fest that made the ground shake and fists reaching up into the air, while this planet’s home-organ superstar Mambo Kurt send the tent into a collective party fever.

Next door in The Jungle tent, Wacken Metal Battle announcer, the legendary Machine presented his Late Night Show, a format that garnered so many fans on the Full Metal Cruise that it got happily hijacked for this festival.

What a start! Now, let’s see what Thursday hold in store for us and get back to the biggest metal party on this planet!

Rain or shine!