The Wacken Open Air decadence

Hello,

First of all, I would like to explain my reality. My name is Jesús and I am Spanish. I study Software engineering in a university in southern Spain, where I live. After some years of assist to some local festival, the past august my girlfriend and me decided that this year we would assist to Wacken Open Air 2017.

Although my girlfriend has a degree in law, for those of you who may not know the unemployment rate in Spain is about 50% in ages under 30 so both of us works as waiters during the weekends. In addition, I would like to remark that get 440€ for the tickets (we aren't counting the trip expenses) in Germany is much easier in Germany that in Spain.

Ok, so we made the sacrifice, "worth it" I said to her and we bought the tickets last September. By then there was about 30 bands confirmed Powerwolf, Sonata Arctica, Avantasia... we had seen then in Spain but not bad; I wanted to see Amon Amarth, checking Candlemass and Lacuna Coil was quite good and Saltatio Mortis sounded great. It wasn't bad at all to get started.

After that the times goes by, month after month, celebration after celebration, we paid the flight, the hotels and save for the trip. Meanwhile confirmations follow each others in Wacken and other European festival (some of then in Spain).

After New Year Eve those who appear to be the head are confirmed, yes I mean Volbeat. "Well, there are like 60 bands to go, let's wait before panic", I said.

With all my respect to Volbeat fans, I don't have nothing against this band, but we should admit that there is no comparison between them and Iron Maiden or Metallica.

We started to read the festivals Facebook page comments. There were some people disappointed too. Some of the BIG bands was preparing tours but none of then were confirmed in Wacken. When I write BIG I mean bands like Guns'N'Roses, Rammstein, Aerosmith, Deep Purple, SOAD or Scorpions... People started to ask "Why X band is not in wacken if they are in tour?" so the staff wrote some in the line of "They would be stupid to play festivals in summer 2017, because they have to sell tickets for their own shows in autumn and winter 2017...".

Now I think that the only one who is really stupid in here is myself. All of the bands aforementioned are confirmed in one, or more than one European festival.

Spaniards are used to being fooled (every one can read it in the Spanish newspapers) but we never though that the stab in the back could come from here.

The fact is that (I wish I were wrong) right now, march the 9th the head of the WOA 2017 is Volbeat, there are about 20 bands to go and It does not look like it's going to get better. The worst of it is that we could be satisfied with a good number of second row bands like Blind Guardian, Korpiklaani, Eluveitie, Arch Enemy, Rapshody, Alestorm, Running Wild, In flames, Dropkick Murphys, Iced Earth, Doro...
I'm not saying there were no good second-row bands between confirmations, what I'm saying is that there aren't enough.

I don't know whats the reason why "Mecca of Metal" has going down this year. Maybe the staff has become incompetent or maybe it has become greedy, but wouldn't think twice if I could refund the tickets and go to another festival (including the Spanish ones).

Of course, this is not possible due to at this point the festival is not sold out and the bands are what they are so the possibilities to resell the tickets without lost a lot of money (I would give up flight and hotels) is null.


SO, THE FEELING I HAVE ABOUT ALL OF THIS IS THAT I HAVE BEEN CHEATED, THAT THE STAFF HAS REFORMED THE INSTALLATIONS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE FOOLS THAT HAVE PAID THE TICKETS TRUSTING IN THE QUALITY OF THE FESTIVAL AND THAT LAST YEAR I PAID HALF THE PRICE FOR A FESTIVAL WITH MUCH MORE QUALITY.
THE WORST OF ALL IS THE DISAPPOINTMENT AFTER ALL THIS YEARS WISHING TO ASSISTS WOA AND THE ILLUSION WASTED IN THE TRIP ORGANIZATION (AND THAT I NEVER GOING TO WIN A DEBATE WITH MY GIRLFRIEND ANYMORE).

There are about 20 bands to go.
Nothing would make me happier that you would prove me wrong.

Thanks for your attention,
J.

 

Don't resell your tickets. Visit the festival 2017 and after that you know why Wacken called Mecca of metal and you will tell many good things about the festival. And first of all you say: I'll be back in 2018
Don't underestimat bands you will classify as class 4 or 5.
Have you ever heard Annihilator, Grand Magus, Primal Fear, Thundermother?

 

Sorry about the picture, the situation called for it.

Now, seriously.
I understand that you are upset because you spent a fortune for this travel. But what I don't understand is just why you blame Wacken?

See, there are several things bothering me. First of all, most of the other festivals announce their names later than Wacken does. They also don't sell out so fast, but that's something else. Then again if you want to see those big bands, why do you buy tickets when they are not yet confirmed? It IS a risk if you buy tickets and your favourite bands are not confirmed. You cannot blame Wacken for this. Ok, when you let aside the big bands, there are these second row heroes you mentioned. All of those you mentioned played in Wacken more than once, but not this year. And this is only logical, because if Wacken would repeat a lineup like that year after year, people would also complain!
I admit yes, not every lineup in Wacken is for everyone. And yes, several really big bands didn't attend this metal mecca at all.

But that is well known. Hoping that these bands would come is like playing a lottery. Most of the time you lose.

And cut the crap with the Spanish people always being betrayed. You're not being betrayed, you're not being stabbed in the back, nothing of that.

I'm afraid, even if Wacken would be sold out, you'd still lose money. Alas, you can always try to get in touch with other foreigners in the international part of the forum.
But I wouldn't sell the tickets. Come. It's a blast no matter what. Get to know new bands, new people. Live the experience. You would regret not to.

 

Well hello.

Trust me, you will enjoy the festival, there IS a reason why it is called "the mecca of metal". This "mecca" thing is not about bands. People started to use this phrase before they ever had a big band like the Scorpions or Iron Maiden in Wacken.

Your problem is, that you jumped on the hype train for biiiiiiiiiig names. So let us check the facts together.

I'm not a big fan of Volbeat, Metallica OR Iron Maiden. But when Metallica and Maiden stop to make music, Volbeat will be one of the bands that follow in their steps. Period.

And they already headlined Wacken back in 2012. The show was good, the infield was full, everyone had fun.

So if it was fine in 2012, why shouldn't it be fine in 2017? Don't get me wrong, they aren't my favorite headliner too. But it's okay that they have this position, they were "big enough" in 2012 and they are in 2017.

Volbeat also headlinded festivals like Graspop or Rock am Ring.

That means:
A) the band is big enough to headline.
B) these festivals don't have the chace to get a band like Rammstein every year too.

First: They all play festivals in June. Wacken is in August.

The bands can be on the side of the planet in August. You have to check the other big August festivals like Bloodstock!

Bloodstock got Amon Amarth, Kreator, Megadeth, Blind Guardian, Hatebreed and Arch Enemy as the big names.

The first 3 ARE playing in Wacken this year and the other 3 just played in Wacken last year or in 2015.

The Summer Breeze, another big August festival, got nearly the same bands. Amon Amarth, Kreator, Megadeth. Looks familiar, right?

Okay, they also got Korn, but maybe Korn will be added later or they aren't in Germany when Wacken happens. We will see.

But these are the bands that are available for festivals in August in Europe. If there would be bigger names available, they would play at one of these festivals. In fact, there ARE bigger bands at one of these festivals. They are at Wacken.

Second: In Germany, we have five really huge festivals (each with more than 70.000 people) that want to book big metal bands.

4 of them are part of really huge companies with tons of money and dozens of big festivals.
Live Nation owns nearly all bands and venues, they are the biggest live entertainment company of the world.

The other big company is FKP Scorpio, one of the biggest live entertainment companies of Europe.

The 5th one is the W:O:A. ICS (the Wacken company) makes the W:O:A, a Metal Cruise, Metal Winter Holidays, a few smaller things and they have a few bands, but no real big bands.

So if the makers of Rock am Ring say "we book rammstein for two festivals in Germany and you get 5 million dollar (I don't know the real money, but it could be possible) for the two shows" - there is no chance for Wacken to get them, even if they say "okay, we pay 3 millions (500.000 more), and you play Rock am Ring, Rock im Park and Wacken".

Part of the contracts with big bands is something that is called territorial protection. If you pay more than one million for a band, you don't want the band to appear on every other festival too.

Third: I expect Helloween and Manowar to play Wacken 2018. It just makes sense for the bands, as you wrote - they want to sell tickets for their own shows first.

About the half of them played at Wacken last year or at least within the last 5 years. If they would announce them again, the Wacken team would get a shitstorm from the fans.

Instead we get other great bands. Alice Cooper, Amon Amarth, Annihilator, Emperor, Fates Warning, Flotsam & Jetsam, Grand Magus, Grave Digger, Heaven Shall Burn, Katatonia, Kreator, Marilyn Manson, the "Return to Roots" thing, Mayhem, Megadeth, Memoriam (this is Bolt Thrower btw), Napalm Death, Nile, Paradise Lost, Powerwolf, Status Quo, Sonata Arctica, Trivium, Turbonegro, Ugly Kid Joe, Volbeat.. and many more. These are only the bigger names I or my friends want to see if everything works out fine. There are at least 20 more great bands on the bill, that are smaller but still great and worth every Euro.

This list does contain big "mainstream" legends like Alice Cooper and Status Quo. It does contain legends of the scene like Emperor, Napalm Death or Megadeth.

It also contains some of the best living live bands like Amon Amarth, Heaven Shall Burn and Kreator.

And some of the best selling artists in the metal world like Volbeat (they sell out shows with 10.000+ tickets in Germany in just a few weeks), Manson and Trivium.

You want Power Metal? Go and see Powerwolf, Sonata Arctica and Grave Digger. I think by the way, that Hansi from Blind Guardian will sing with Grave Digger, they did it once in Wacken.

You want Folk Metal? There is a whole stage dedicated to folk metal, medieval rock and stuff like this. You will love it.

You want Death Metal? We got so many great death metal bands this year, if I start to name them all, my post will not be completed before Monday.

You want Funny power Metal like Alestorm? Yeah, I would like to have them again too. But we got Twilight Force instead and last year we had Gloryhammer. Check Twilight Force out, they are amazing if you are into this kind of music.

I also want some more names, don't get me wrong.

I want Ghost! And... if they announce Ghost... I will have a problem because there are already so many great bands at the festival. And you can't see all of them.

See you in Wacken mate!

 

I have nothing to add to @Bob Kelso's post.
Take a festival as it is. You can have BIG names, but then you'll have BIG crowds, and out of experience, I do NOT like that!

 

Topf!

 

People who complain about the bands have clearly not experienced the awesome spirit and atmosphere in Wacken. Either they haven't been there or have done something wrong...

Wacken is about so much more than just the bands.

And even if you don't know many bands, doesn't mean you can't like them. Wacken is also a great place to discover new bands.

 

Objective: Volbeat playing the really big locations, sell a good amont of CDs and also have rock radio airplay in Germany. They are a big name in business right now.
Subjective: I would like to see other large Bands, not Volbeat.

Also Metallica never were at Wacken, so to compare them makes no sense.

Half of the bands you've named were 2016 or 2015 in the billing. So it's not surprising, that they are missing in the 2017 LineUp. Maybe 2018 or 2019.

Dropkick Murphys are too expansive for a non-metal Band.

smi

 

So you're feeling betrayed? Cute. Let me show what betrayal really means:

 

So according to this you are satisfied with the current lineup. I can't see your problem.

 

Eieiei, was ist denn da passiert? Fahre selber auch als hauptsächlicher Metaller zu Rock am Ring und bin recht aufgeschlossen gegenüber Rock und co. aber das ist ja mal ein richtig bitterer Richtungswechsel!

 

So schaut's halt aus, wenn der Organisation wirklich nur das Geld wichtig und das Publikum scheißegal ist.

 

Immerhin haben sie House of Pain