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Events and Reports - Wacken Open Air 2002 - The other other festival report
W:O:A 2002 was my first metal festival experience! My expectations were quite high, and I was really looking forward to three whole days with nothing but metal (..and a few beers). The others had of course told a lot of anecdotes from the previous years, so I had a pretty good idea of what to expect of Wacken. The bands that really convinced me that I could not afford to miss W:O:A 2002 were Immortal, Blind Guardian, Withering Surface and Children Of Bodom, but of course there were other great bands I would like to experience live too.
In the following I will tell how the three days went, and describe some of the highlights; finally I will give my conclusion of W:O:A 2002.
Thursday 1/8
Steen and I arrived at Wacken with bus Thursday evening. The metal magazine Metalized had arranged a bus trip, so we were a bus full of Danish metal heads looking forward to hearing some great music. Unfortunately there was one thing that wasn't great when we arrived - the weather! It rained heavily, and I pictured how the days might become very long after all. We found the others at "Campingplatz F" (more about that later), which was quite a long walk from the scenes - it was close to a very charming corn field though.
We went down to the scenes in something best described as a mud hell! At that time it was pretty late, and there were no bands left that we desperately needed to hear - that lead us to the Metal Disco! Now there is something you don't see everyday; a discotheque playing only metal. That was really great, and we heard one classic after another. After some time we got separated - that would not be the last time during the festival - and .. well yes, I met a nice German girl.
In the early morning I spent a couple hours trying to find "Campingplatz F" - that was not an easy task, but eventually I succeeded.
Friday 2/8
This day we were up late, and therefore I didn't get to hear the first bands playing. It had stopped raining, and the weather was actually great for the rest of the festival! Morten explained that "The weather is always great in Wacken [...] "and I accepted that as a reasonable explanation. The first band I went to hear was the great Danish band Withering Surface - they were playing on the Wet Stage. The schedule was however messed up, so WS didn't play on time; instead I heard Heavenly which also played at the Wet Stage. That was an average concert in my opinion, but maybe that is because I don't like the music very much. Later Withering Surface went on and showed what Danish Metal is made of. Read the full review here!
I spent the following hours listening to Savatage at the True Metal Stage and Destruction at the Black Stage - both of those concerts were great. After that I was hit by a sudden urge to sleep, and I missed both Children Of Bodom and My Dying Bride - I have not forgiven myself for that yet! That is how my Friday ended.
Saturday 3/8
Morten, Ulrick and I went out to find shop and a bank, and took a bit more time than expected, so unfortunately I missed Evergrey at the Party Stage. The first concert I saw was Vicious Rumors at the True Metal Stage. I didn't know this band really well, and I didn't have any big expectations. I was really in for a surprise! Their music was cool, they had a great sound, and then their show on the scene was awesome. It was a very positive and welcomed surprise to hear this band.
The next band I had really looked forward to seeing live was the Norwegian black metal band Immortal - it was really an amazing concert.Read the full review here! This is one of the concerts that is going to stay in my mind for a long time.
The next couple of hours was spent drinking beer, and visiting the great "Metal Markt" in Wacken. They claim it is the world's biggest metal market, and I bet they are right - there was loads of CDs, T-shirts and other merchandise available in there. It was a place where you could spend a lot of money in a very short time. The next band I saw was Edguy at the True Metal Stage - again this was a band I didn't know very well, but Steen had played a couple of numbers for me and recommended the band. The concert was pretty cool, but I was still high from the Immortal concert at that time.
Cannibal Corpse played right after Edguy, and even though it isn't one of my favorite bands, it is still a good old classic death metal band. They really delivered what they do best - very brutal death metal songs about gore and mayhem, and they played both some of the old classics and some new songs. It was a pretty good show with great sound, and the true CC fans went completely berserk up in front of the scene.
The next band was also one I had been looking forward to seeing for a long time - it was Blind Guardian. Blind Guardian was the main name at Wacken 2002, and they got a whole two hours to play in. Blind Guardian kicked ass! They played a lot of the great sing-alongs like Valhalla, The Script For My Requiem, Mirror Mirror and of course The Bard's song.. This was the last concert I saw in Wacken, and I felt that it was a really good way to end a great festival.
After Wacken 2002
So what are my overall thoughts of Wacken now that it is all over? Well, it was a great experience and it completely lived up to my expectations. To see so many great concerts concentrated in such a short time was really a fantastic and quite intense experience. This is definitely not the last time I come to Wacken Open Air, only next time I would like to camp nearer the scenes (i.e. not in "Campingplatz F" by the charming corn field). And it would also be nice if it didn't rain at all. That's it, Wacken is over and we all have to wait a year for Wacken part 14.
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On the metalized bus
1½ hour queue for Wacken
Nice Wacken mud...
Angra
Withering Surface
Pretty Maids
Heavenly
Savatage
Savatage
Evergrey
Vicious Rumors
Back at the camp
Two blokes...
Vanden Plas
Vanden Plas
Edguy
| Written by Anders
Tuesday, August 6, 2002 |
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