Camping grounds and thieves

Hi, newbie asking questions

I have been searching (without luck) for some info about the security - specially about thefts - in Wacken camping grounds. Are camp thefts how common? Of course one must have common sense in what to keep in the tent while going to gigs, but in general I am wondering if my basic gear will be safe? Will my stuff be searched through by some eventually or is getting robbed just damn bad luck?

...I'm afraid the laws of karma will now backfire on me asking such a questions... Hahah hope not!

Thank You very much for answer(s) in advance! I am very much looking forward the get in Wacken!!!

 

Well, I visited Wacken 6 times and never had any problems, but its not uncommon I would say.
Don't leave any valuable stuff in your tent, you can rent a locker if you want to.
I personally think trying to secure your tent with a lock or something will just cause attention to your tent ..

 

In the 12 times I've been I've never had anything stolen.
I've read in a newsartikel that some stuff got stolen yeaaaars ago but never met anybody who had stuff stolen.

But if you're really scared you can rent a locker: https://www.wacken.com/en/festivalinfo/safe-deposits/

 

You never had a camping chair stolen?
Apart from that, crowds attract thieves, but police and security services do their best to prevent thieves from entering the areas.

 

And this is helpful.
https://forum.wacken.com/threads/q-a-about-wacken-open-air.132914/

 

Thinking abotu it, a chair was stolen back in 2006(?). but it was outside of the tent.
So let me rephrase that. In the 12 times I've been I've never had anything stolen from my tent.

 

I just checked but the URL's in that thread don't seem to work anymore.

 

I noticed that too...

 

https://www.shz.de/regionales/theme...-grossen-und-ganzen-entspannt-id17503156.html

This is the summary by the Police, its german, but the main part is:

In total, director of operations Sven Adomat recorded 175 crimes by Saturday afternoon, including 140 thefts.

 

hmm, that's actually higher than I'd expect.

This also makes me curious about the 35 other crimes that are commited

 

Yes, those are reported ones... I'm quite sure there are some incidents ppl don't bother reporting in...

I'm afraid it's scams, violence etc. But yeah, if there's 80k crowd, there will be some rotten eggs in the basket if you may.

 

I'm also wondering if it's just crimes at the festival area or also in the towns surrounding it.
I mean, in the weekend there's a lot of people in wacken village who don't go the the festival.

 

Oh yea, that too - didn't even think about that side.

 

It is not very likely that anything will be stolen from you. But it does happen more than people think.
I always felt very safe myself but we as a group experienced quite a bit of attempted and successful thievery.

We had a shitfaced guy drinking a beer with us in our camp who tried to steal stuff in plain sight. Even though I caught him, it took quite some effort to get rid of that fucker. In a camp we visited, a car window was broken to steal a wallet. Another time we even had a thief walk straight into one of our tents to empty wallets of people sleeping right next to him. And one of my friends got his wallet emptied while enjoying a concert.

So even in a spirit of being surrounded with great people partying try to be a bit mindful of your valuables. I'd recommend not to keep all of them in one place and to keep locked or hidden what you don't need. Most people are great but that doesn't help when your money is gone.

 

hmm... If you Look at the average town with 80k ppl, you have more than 175 crimes in one week.
i feel very safe at Wacken, and I would say you should too. In my seven years Wacken I never witnessed or were the victim of crime.
(well just since wearing yoga pants if you shouldn't, isn't a crime )