I and my boyfriend (we are from Italy) bought WOA22 tickets before we had our son. It was pre-covid era. For WOA22 we couldn't leave him to anybody in our family so we decided to take him with us in a 2-week holiday trip around Germany.
At the festival he had his kid headphones noise cancelling worn quite all the time OUTSIDE the stages and all the time INSIDE stages.
The whole point is that FIRST day he was allowed to UDO/Mercyful/Priest shows (on Painkiller he fell asleep!!!); he just played and ran around the crowd absolutely not disturbing anybody at all. On the SECOND day the security came and denied us LOUDER/HARDER/FASTER stages. The other seemed to be ok; so we spent quite all the time at the middle-era site and just walking around at the merch site.
Half of the festival was FUCKED UP.
On the THIRD day the security denied us also entering the middle-era site as, for accessing, people is supposed to pass through WET stage. That's stupid and very bad organized.
2/3 festival was FUCKED UP.
At that point my boyfriend was forced to enter the middle-age site to get good food and drinks we wanted and then get out. First time he did it he told me "they are just idiots: stages are so far away that in the middle-age site there is pure silence!".
We were at WOA for just 4 days; not allowing a kid to a concert site just because of the smoke? the beer? the noise? is damn fucking stupid: if so we should let them stay home lifetime until 18 year old.
Security guys only must check if the youngsters wear protective headphones, and saying "we don't sell ticket to kids SO THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED" (bearded sicurity chief told me) is really retard-stuff, and people suffering from real mental illness just forgive me.
We are of course coming back to WOA23 and letting our son come again when he is at least 6 (security chief told us so*), BUT the lack of youngster-oriented organization is HUGE and SERIOUS.
*: no trace of this bullshit is on website... something that would let me say "ok, that's fine, now give half of my money back and see you next year".
I am really sorry of your experience, we could not at allshare your experience.
We had a totally different experience, to be honest. All security’s have „just“ checked the Ear-Protection and the Bag he carried.
All security’s have had handled us the exact right way.
Maybe your Child was below 6 years?
LG