I was there in 09 and it was horrific. The Saturday night was pure chaos. I remember the field next to mine had flames 15-20ft high from a bonfire made of tents but the fire marshal decided to come to my tent instead and extinguish a fire I had made in a bean can...
Wacken in Germany was also like this. My last time was in 2010 and in the camp site after the last day the fire brigade were just driving from one campsite to the other putting out tent fires. People were stacking up hundreds of tents into a pile and setting them alight. The whole area stunk of melted plastic, it was horrid. I was also there in 2005 and 2007, and it wasn't quite as bad, but still a mess after the last day.
Needless to say I haven't been back to Wacken since, and I instead go to smaller festivals.
2008 was the last Wacken I went to. There were so many visitors that year that I want allowed in the stage area to see Iron Maiden, there was just not enough space for everyone.
I think I left too early to see the aftermath, but with that amount of people I can't imagine it was good. And it's grown significantly in size since then.
It really just wasn't a good time the last time I went. Tons of other festivals had better lineups better infrastructure and just better vibes. Wacken really only exists based on reputation.
Been to Wacken for the last 3 years: From my experience, the (car) camping sites were extremely clean. Trash got neatly piled up, including trash bags.
No burned tent debauchery at all, sad to say.
Infrastructure in general was very decent. Last year was a bit extreme with the mud, sure, but the management of human masses is ok.
That sounds good! I guess they've had 20 years to improve the experience, glad they've done that rather than just making it worse year by year like they did on the 2000's.
To be fair I never felt unsafe in any way (although I don't think that's generally a pattern for men), it was just really poorly executed in general. When I realized there weren't enough toilets for everyone at the festival I instantly knew I'd never return.
But yeah, I'm happy that they've seemingly improved since then.
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u/bradstokes 9h ago
I was there in 09 and it was horrific. The Saturday night was pure chaos. I remember the field next to mine had flames 15-20ft high from a bonfire made of tents but the fire marshal decided to come to my tent instead and extinguish a fire I had made in a bean can...