Traffic jams and mud: When traveling to the heavy metal festival in Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein (August 2nd to 5th), visitors need a lot of patience. The streets around the town near Itzehoe were clogged with cars on Tuesday morning. “We’re stuck in traffic ourselves,” said a police spokeswoman.
A dpa reporter on site reported that cars with W:O:A signs emblazoned on their rear windows were queuing for kilometers. It was also jammed on many dirt roads. Some metal fans got camping chairs out of their stuck cars and sat on the side of the road in a good mood and armed with beer. Other fans vented their displeasure on the festival’s Instagram page and demanded planning updates from the organizer.
“It’s going to be a wet event”
After the continuous rain on Monday, the festival areas were muddy, said the police spokeswoman. “It’s going to be a wet event.”. However, the residents supported the visitors, offered parking spaces and towed cars onto the site with tractors. In the morning the sun was shining after a heavy shower in the morning.
Because of the rainy weather, the organizers of the heavy metal festival had asked visitors to be patient. “There is sometimes rain at festivals, but rarely so much,” they said on Tuesday morning. That is why the fans cannot currently go to the camping areas at the usual pace. “But the preparations for the festival are going as planned.”
The Wacken Open-Air (W:O:A) is sold out with 85,000 visitors. A total of more than 200 concerts are planned there on nine stages. The British band Iron Maiden is at Wacken for the fourth time. Acts like Megadeth, Helloween and Doro Pesch are also expected.
