Wacken Stories: Stefan Matuschek

Almost 30 years of W:O:A lead to many, many great stories – crazy, heart-warming, revealing, or just plain funny. To collect those stories, we have talked to the people that live, work or party around the „Wacken Holy Ground“. Their experience illustrate the festival’s extraordinary spirit, so have fun with special anecdotes which you won’t find everywhere else: Here are the „Wacken Stories“!

Stefan Matuschek (Head of Art Worx Merchandising, festival outfitter, designer of Metal wear)

„If you know Holger, you know he talks fast…“

Wacken boss Holger Hübner has a lot to take care of every day, so communication needs to be quick at the headquarters. And he is known as fast talker anyway. One time that put merch manufacturer Stefan Matuschek completely on the wrong track…

„We have been doing merchandise for the W:O:A for 22 years now, and working with the organizers and their team is always a real pleasure. Shirts, hoodies, bags – we basically print on everything that has the official festival logo on it. Putting the new collection together usually starts months before the festival, when graphic designers create hundreds of sketches and ideas for the new motives. But the actual production is a last minute thing. That way it is possible to make changes, like band names on the back of many shirts. Every now and then we receive special orders on short notice like in 2015, when the Wacken bosses decided to produce special „Mudfighter“ shirts as a „reward“ for such shitty weather conditions.

Naturally all that means being in close contact with the Wacken team and the bosses, mainly Holger Hübner. And if you have ever met Holger, seen him on TV or heard him on the radio, you know that he talks really fast and actually mumbles quite a bit. It’s not always easy to understand everything he says. So one day a couple of years ago, I’m in my office and the phone rings. „I think it’s Holger“, my colleague tells me and connects the call. „Moin Holger“, I say (with „Moin“ being the typical greeting in Northern Germany), and the man on the other end of the line starts talking. Fast, mumbled and pretty low-voiced. We speak for a few minutes, I understand that it’s about a huge shirt order. Sounds like Wacken alright. But suddenly it dawns on me: The person I’ve been talking to isn’t Holger Hübner at all. It’s Udo. Udo Lindenberg. One of the biggest music stars in Germany. And the only other person I know who talks as fast and mumbles as much as Holger.“

Stefan’s wish for the 30th W:O:A, if anything was possible:

„Rammstein!“

Ann G. Jung

Do you want some more? All already released stories are available here!