WOA is DOOMED! (for the sake of freedom of speech)

[BEARER of PAIN]

Hello, friends
I arrived last Monday night.
I don't know how to begin explaining you how shitty all this fucking trip to Wacken became after last saturday night...

Candlemass were rescheduled to play more than two hours earlier than they were due. Just when we were drawing near to the party stage, after seeing Bruce, we realised that Candlemass were playing their final song, of which we only caught the last one minute or so.
I despise Wacken's organisation for their stupidity and lack of respect for the crowd!
We left the following morning, hoping to see candlemass on the 4th in Switzerland (their last festival gig of this summer). Alas, when we got to Amsterdam, we found out that this last opportunity was also missed, because it to was rescheduled to the 3rd...
This fault from WOA's organization made our over €750 come to waste !!!!!! Money for which I had been working for since before March!!!
The only thing we were told at the info point on Saturday was that they had the updated running order for display at their desk! Not even an announcement! not even anything near making an effort for the information to get through! (e.g. PA anoucement; notices on toilets, area entrances; handouts,etc)
We eventually got some email addresses to make the complaint, but the office will hear not only from us, but from every Metal magazine and Band which played at their festival (especially Candlemass) that we can reach!
We need all the help we can get to get something done. So, besides all these emails, we hope to get through to some people who feel the same way by sending copies to the organisations of bustours around the world and also to the organisers of other summer festivals.
I am happy for those of you who could still enjoy the time spent there and that some of your expectations were met. Unfortunately we had no frame of mind to stay there after missing the most important thing to us for such a stupid reason... Knowing even that there would still be a chance of catching the band in Switzerland...
As far as I could find out, this kind of fault has happened before in WOA and if there was any information on the program magazine concerning reschedulements of the running order or advises to check the info point, they were in German, as everything else there, apart from minor things. There is no excuse, if they are expecting more than 40 000 people to go there every day, more than once to check a stupid piece of paper, which is not even outside- it is on their desk- they are the biggest air heads in the Universe. And, besides, if the majority of the metal community expresses themselves in English as well as any foreigner who doesn't speak German would in wacken, these people are really trying hard to be unfriendly and horrible hosts to people from all over the world!
Guys, I hope you understand and if you know of anything that could help us, please let us know.
Thanx

 

[A:L:D:I]

Candlemass already said at the 31/7/02 on their HP, that they will play earlier... So I think the fault is definetly at the guys from WOA. I`m very sorry for you and I can understand that you are very angry. Perhaps it helps you a little bit, that the Rock Hard magazine, a big german music mag, don't work together with the WOA-crew in next year because of all this mistakes...

Greetz, A:L:I

 

[Supercharger]

Sorry to hear about your money loss and so on. I totally agree with you on the point the WOA organisation made several big mistakes in the communication area. I certainly hope they'll learn from it and do it better next time. I've got another complaint..could somebody please do something about the incredible overkill of really bad German powermetalband at WOA? Some more death en trash bands would be very nice.

 

[Evenfiel]

I´ve bought the Wacken booklet and it said that the Running Order is subjected to changes and you should check on Rock Hard´s tent for the updated Running Order, and thats exactly what I did. Also, I´ve heard Ingo saying twice that there were chanegs in teh Running Order and everyone should check Rock Hard´s tent, though, despite all of that effort, a lot of people seemed to have missed some bands. Maybe the solution for that would be a giant electronic board, right next to the entrance of the festival site, displaying the latest Running Order.

 

[Supercharger]

Great idea Evenfiel..it will be expensive though I'm afraid..

 

[BEARER of PAIN]

Yes, we saw Candlemass's page yesterday and realized they had that information on the 31st of July, so this is yet another reason why the WOA must be held responsible for this shamefull management and organization.
I am not even goint to mention the fact that I had no previous information that the Toilets would have to be paid: on the night I arrived me and my partner had to pay 4 Euros for a cold shower in the dark!!!!!!!! (all this could be excused if I could have fulfilled my wish to see Candlemass)
But, having in mind that information regarding the reschedulement of the running order was out on the 31st of July, the fact that on the same day I bought a program magazine for 1 euro, which was supposed to be updated, and nothing was said to me about checking the infopoint for changes makes me furious!!!
Believe me, there will be some sort of compensation for the people who missed concerts for the same reasons. If not by means of bad publicity brought into the Metal community, then Legal action WILL be taken!

Thus, I ask of every single man and woman who missed a concert and is as pissed off as me to do everything they possibly can to get the message through to WOA, CANDLEMASS, and every organization, Magazine, Website, Radio station, Tv channel, or anyone who could use this information in our favour to ease our grief and pain!
...

 

[Supercharger]

@ Bearer

Good luck with your crusade

 

[Evenfiel]

Originally posted by Supercharger
Great idea Evenfiel..it will be expensive though I'm afraid..

It wouldnt really need to be a electronic board, any kind of giant board would do the job just fine.

 

[BEARER of PAIN]

OI Evenfiel! (sou portugues)

I understand that some of you have learned from the past to check for this information. But you probably learned it out of your own disapointment in the past for missing a band.
The ones who should have learned to correct their mistakes are the ones at WOA's organization, for they do not bother to make it clear enough that there will be a change affecting the R.O.
If the information was on the magazine:
1- it wasn't in english
2- They were supposed to warn people at the desk, when buying the magazine, that they should keep an eye out for changes
3- It is THE official magazine and it should be professionally produced including all updates possible (and translations!)
4- It isn't an excuse for not using PA anouncements , handouts, or even a giant board thing, like Evenfiel suggested. --> Remember how much you guys payed for the ticket plus every time you used the shower, toilet, etc + the high price of drinks...

...

 

[Supercharger]

Anyway..the WOA organisation should go to some Communication classes. Last year there were some changes too but they did a great job then

 

[Supercharger]

Damn you're right, not everybody is able to read German. Next year in English please

 

[morgane_lefay]

I'm all for what you have been saying here,BEARER OF PAIN,because sometihng similar happened to me and my friends:cold and expensive showers,etc... Luckyly we could see part of the show. If not it would have been almost a tragedy and overall a big waste of money because we came from Spain!
I'm so sorry, but chin up!

 

[Supercharger]

@ bearer

I didn't take a shower whatsoever, because it was too expainsive and the water was freezing cold

 

[HeartbeatAmp]

Every fest has problems. That's par for the course regardless of the organizers and location. Things come up and changes have to be made, and that causes some problems and conflicts. This is especially true with a fest as large as Wacken. If you want to complain, then come to the US next year for the Milwaukee Metalfest. It's the most worthless fest, ever. Tickets are highly overpriced, running order changes by the hour, the sound is horrid, food/merchandise is entirely too expensive, the organizers hide away during the event so angry fans can't find them, and all sorts of other issues. Wacken represents the largest gathering of metalheads, and while I agree that they should post running order changes in a more prevalent area, I also think that people should check up on these things themselves. The information about Candlemass' time change was available, as I found out about it ahead of time. If you want to see a band as badly as some of you wanted to see Candlemass, I'm surprised you didn't check the running order every hour. I was there for My Dying Bride and Green Carnation, and made sure to check up on their sets at the beginning of each day.

Even with all the issues that come up, it's still one of the best festivals. Though the toilet/shower problems arise every year, and I have seen the organizers attempt to improve things, but it's hard when dealing with 40,000+ people. There is always room for improvement, but look what these guys have to pull together... it's insane to think about.

 

[Snebjørn]

Re-scheduling Candlemass is something the W:O:A team owes us a very good explanation for - and probably one of the worst mistakes they made this year. Candlemass was one of my top three priorities this year and I missed them! Oh well, what's another 15 years.....

Hope all you Germans enjoyed Torfrock, I was personally too disappointed to stay and give them a chance.

Two things they really have to fix for next year's festival:

1: Announce program changes in such a way that you don't have to spend all your time running to the Rock Hard or Info stand every five minutes.

2: Get some people who speak English to man the info stand. I understand and speak German (-ish) so I've mostly been able to get the information I was looking for, but I've seen (and interpreted for) a lot of very frustrated people at the info stand.


/Black Metal Bjørn