W:O:A 2016 is History!

This was W:O:A 2016 – and it featured almost every kind of weather except snow, from sun to clouds and heavy rain. But regardless of it all, you celebrated the best Metal party of the year!

Even during the first days, when weather conditions and an increased number of vehicles slowed down arrivals, you stayed cooperative, understanding and helped each other out. This shows once again: You are the best community on the planet!

THANX FOR YOUR SUPPORT METALHEADS!!!

The crew has been working around the clock to get all guests onto the grounds, organise additional camping sections and prepare the festival area. Fortunately the weather stayed mostly good after the initial arrival time, so we could enjoy more sun than rain during the last two days

Just like in the last years, 75.000 visitors bought a ticket to the festival. On top of that we had approx. 9.500 people at the W:O:A, including artists, providers, service teams, our awesome crew in all parts of the organisation, the press, the so called VIPs, medical and security teams, local authorities and our Full Metal Village inhabitants.

These were the highlights in 2016:

Of course there were many exceptional shows, starting with the Night to Remember on Thursday with Foreigner, Whitesnake and the two-hour long performance by Iron Maiden. The day came to a close with a very emotional farewell to Lemmy Kilmister on the Black Stage.

Friday and Saturday also became something to talk about for the upcoming years with great concerts of bands like Blind Guardian, Steel Panther, Twisted Sister, Ministry and many, many others. The festival ended with a memorable set by the Dio Disciples, who brought a true legend back on stage in a very special way.

To cap it all of, arte and 3sat offered live streams from the festivals that were watched by an extraordnaire large number of people around the world. The service premiered with the broadcast of the Iron Maiden show via arte, which was viewed by more than half a million fans. Overall, the streaming numbers during all days stayed in six digit range.

There have been many improvements and surprises on the grounds:

Both main entrances have been made equal in size, so it became possible to get fans onto the infield on both sides faster. The most important change on the campground has been the implementation of shower camp S6 that further improved the sanitary facilities for the fans. The beergarden has been relocated and modernised, with a wider selection of drinks and food in close proximity. The Wrestling Slam Tent made it first appearance on the festival as well the Rainbow Bar at Wacken Center, of course inspired by Lemmy‘s favorite place in Hollywood.

Important: As always, we are very much looking forward to your comments and suggestions, be it in our forum, through Facebook or the online survey. We will review them all and take everything into consideration to improve the Wacken Open Air further. A lot of little things can make a festival better. Thank you!

Last but not least we want to thank all the fine people of the villages Wacken, Gribbohm, Holstenniendorf, Besdorf, Bokelrehm, Bokhorst, Nienbüttel, Agethorst, Vaale and Nutteln, who have once again displayed their unique and heartwarming hospitality to all Metal fans as well as us, especially during the bad weather at the beginning of the week. They also readily took part in our campaign to let the W:O:A flags fly on all streets.

Recap and press reports about W:O:A 2016 will follow as well as pictures from our official festival photographers in our photo gallery.

The festival is the headliner, and the bands play their Best-of set!

We are looking forward to next year when we can proudly proclaim for the 28. time:

Faster - Harder - Louder >> See you in Wacken 2017 - rain or shine <<

Thanks for your support, Metalheads! In Metal we Trust!

Your W:O:A Team