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

[gnoff]

I missed several bands due to being too damn drunk, maybe they shouldn't sell beer next year??

Or maybe I shouldn't bring booze?

But as for the language, perhaps the guards and information ppl they employ should be able to say 10 words in English anyways?

Still a great festival though...

 

[DJWill]

CANDLEMASS- rescheduled REPLY

Well I feel ya BUT the reason I knew of the change with CANDLEMASS because it was posted at the ROCK HARD Booth plus an announcement was made "live" on the PARTY stage as well other announcements of band changes. With so many acts and equipment changeovers( trust me I was RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE of all of it with EXODUS and HEATHEN...not fun) these thing will happen.

Hell, I even got a lot of reminders as people who noticed my Candlemass vest in the crowd assumed I worked for the band and did'nt want me to be late getting to the stage!!

I came a long way as well and I didnt catch all of their set but I hope you dont fault the organizers for ONE band. WACKEN blows away anything in the here states and for me I was just happy to see anyone OTHER than the crap that is consider metal...like: LINKIN PARK, KORN, SLIPKNOT.


djwill

 

[A:L:D:I]

CHAOS AT WACKEN

Due to fuck-ups from the Wacken HQ alot of you - our loyal fans - missed Candlemass show last weekend. We are so sorry for this and can only blame a sloppy organization. Showtimes for bands do change, and it's up to the promotor to inform everybody about the changes in both the german and in the english language. This was not done properly according to several fans we spoke to. Not even our collegues in other knew about the time change. We can only hope the band will continue, and that there will be a time in the near future, perhaps next summer, when we can meet again. The gig was great, it's just sad all of you couldn't participate.
In all, I can say that the chaos started earlier on the day when the Wacken transportation service forgot to pick us up in Hamburg. We arrived 3 hours late to the festival site and missed several interviews, plus the signing at Rock Hards tent. It's very important to us to meet our fans and do interviews when we are out on the road. Without you and the great dedicated people that are doing the magazines and the fanzines we are nothing.
We were very prepared to give everything at Wacken. Unfortunately due to things beyond our control we were not allowed to do that.
We are so sorry!!
Leif Edling, for the band.


(8/8 2002)

 

[BEARER of PAIN]

CHECK WHAT CANDLEMASS HAVE TO SAY ABOUT WOA AT the news on www.candlemass.net!!!!!!

HeartbeatAmp:

I'm sorry, but however you may say this is a very massive festival and attracts more than 40000 people, such a small task as to MAKE IT PERFECTLY CLEAR THAT PEOPLE SHOULD CHECK FOR THAT INFORMATION, which could be more simply dealt with than any problem with food, toilets, showers, etc... JUST BY MAKING A SMALL EFFORT OF COMMUNICATING INSTEAD OF EXPECTING FOREIGNERS TO UNDERSTAND GERMAN AND EXPECTING EVERYONE TO KNOW THAT THESE CHANGES OCCUR MORE THAN ONCE A DAY!!!!!!
I had never been in WOA before, and all the other festivals I have been in made it quite clear enough that band so and so was cancelled and some other guys were playing instead.
Quite sincerely, a bad Metal Festival in the USA doesn't surprise me. If I ever went there I wouldn' t take as many expectations as to Wacken!
The fact is: it doesn't take a fortune to print some copies to hand out to people with the changes as well as some bigger ones to post on important areas.
You said it yourself that many people go to check for it every day... Well, I'm happy for you but I didn't miss my favorite band in WOA for lack of attention. I was in the festival area since 15:00 and heard no one commenting on it. Besides I was heading for the party stage more than three hours in advance to assure a good spot. As far as I could understand from WOA's lovely skills in communication, the rock hard tent was for meet and greet and interview purposes.
I can imagine they wrote something in german mentioning RO changes and to check the info point, but I can not be expected, as well as several hundreds of others, to understand it.

Not everyone is a WOA expert, and the fact that you don't feel it is a bit ridiculous for them to be making the same mistake over and over, by making their crowd go to the trouble of moving to their stupid desk to read some changes, when they could easily bring it to the crowd in so many ways, makes me sad! There are better things to do in a festival than to hang around an info point desk twice a day or more wainting for changes!
What did they do with my money if they couldn't afford to place notices everywhere, I wonder!!!

JUST CHECK WWW.CANDLEMASS.NET AND READ THE NEWS -WHAT LEIF EDLING (Candlemass bassist) SAYS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM IS DISCRACEFULL!!!!!!!!!!
Any other word I could waste arguing about WOA's organization faults would be incredibly far from my feelings!

What disrespect for the people who made Wacken what it is, and for the bands themselves, who were practically humiliated for this.

 

[HeartbeatAmp]

Bearer of Pain,

I do expect a few screw ups at large festivals. As I said, that's going to happen. I don't excuse the Wacken staff for what happened, but I can cut them a little bit of slack. Now, when I wrote my original post, I didn't realize that the Wacken staff was three hours late to pick them up. Shit happening at the festival site can cause problems, and that I can deal with. However not have the organization to pick that band up on time is something else entirely. That is completely the festival organizer's fault. If they knew they were going to be three hours late, they should have found another way to pick the band up.

I agree that if the organizers want Wacken to be an international festival they should have all information in at least two langagues. That seems to be common sense. The other festivals I was at did the same. Tuska had info readily available in at least three langauges, and that was wonderful. However, it doesn't take a genius to figure out running order changes. If you go to the tent and see the band's name listed under the running order changes, you can easily look at the time sitting next to it and figure things out. Having it all listed in English would be a huge improvement, however.

As for printing up sheets with changes, that will cost more than you think. Consider 40,000 pieces of paper, the ink that will take, and the amount of time needed to clean them up once people look at them and toss them on the ground. I think a better solution would be for Wacken to announce changes from the stages between band sets. This way the large majority of people will find out about the changes, and costs nothing.

 

[Yoni]

As much as I'm angry at the organisation for missing Candlemass and the stupid closure of the Headbangers Ballroom on the last night, which incited a riot, I'm still going to go to Wacken every year possible! At the end of the day, the organisers can learn from this experiance

 

[Thordis V.]

I was twice a day at the Infopoint to get the latest information on RO, and I didn't lose anything. I told my friends and I wrote to my b/f some messages onto his mobile, otherwise they wouldn't have noticed it anyway.
Going twice a day before entering the festival area or before going back to the tent doesn't cost much time, maybe 5 minutes or so.

 

[scareall]

I only got to see ONE band at wacken due mainly to the mudbath festival site(and getting food poisoning), its not easy trying to pull a push chair through tons of mud but i must say Immortal kicked ass.


I was pissed at not being able to see Sabbat, they once again changed the RO, putting them on too late so we couldnt stay to see them.

Just about everyone we met at WOA were friendly and helpfull
appart from one or two assholes, who as soon as they realised we did not speak German didnt want to know(but you get ppl like that anywhere).


A very expensive trip just to see one band but we did enjoy the atmosphere, so i wouldnt say it was a wasted journey.

 

[Snebjørn]

What I really don't understand is....how can a band arriving three hours late lead to their playing two hours early???


/Black Metal Bjørn

PS. Thanks a lot to all the people who keep telling me that the Candlemass gig was "absolutely great".... :-|

 

[HeartbeatAmp]

Snebjørn,

The organizers are doing a chat at the Walls of Fire website on 11.08 at 22.00 CET. Swing by and ask them that very question, I'll be there with a few questions of my own.