This is the first in a series of reviews by reporter Matt Bower on his recent trip to Germany for the heavy metal music festival Wacken Open Air.

I recently returned from a week’s vacation. Normally I take trips to see college friends or visit distant family members. When I was younger, my parents, my brother and I would pack up the car and seek out camping sites around New England for vacation trips. Once we even drove from Rhode Island to Colorado to visit family.

This vacation, however, was something completely different. I traveled with a friend to Wacken, Germany for a four-day heavy metal music festival known as Wacken Open Air.

Europe is known for its many open-air music festivals; Germany boasting a large amount all on its own. Before I delve into a review of my festival experience, I think it’s necessary to provide some background information on Wacken and the festival.

Wacken is a small farming community located on the northern edge of Germany, about an hour and a half by car northwest of Hamburg. Wacken is a peaceful village, but every year during the first weekend in August, the quiet farm village is transformed into a heavy metal mecca with fans from all over the world traveling to see their favorite bands, make new friends and join in one of the hardest, fastest, loudest music festivals on earth.

The entire festival takes place outdoors, hence the name Wacken Open Air, with huge stages erected on farm fields, along with merchandise booths, food and drink vendors, portable toilets and showers and more. This year, to celebrate Wacken’s 20th anniversary, the promoters added many new attractions such as a wrestling tent and a medieval market complete with jugglers, fire dancers, sword duels and more.

With it being the 20th anniversary of the festival, it sold out in record time, which meant upwards of 75,000 attendees. Because the entire festival takes place outside, fans sleep in tents in a designated camping ground area located right next to the festival site.

My friend, Josh, and I left T.F. Green on Tuesday, July 28, and landed in Hamburg Wednesday morning. After an hour shuttle ride to the festival site, we pitched camp, walked around and grabbed some food and a couple festival T-shirts before the first bands kicked off the festival.

BAI BANG

The first band we saw was a group called Bai Bang. The band has been around for quite a while and they would fit right in with many of the American “hair metal” or “glam metal” bands from the ’80s such as Motley Crue, Skid Row or Cinderella. I knew very little about this band, but they impressed both of us with their energetic performance and it was a great way to begin the festival.

FREI WILD

The next band to take the stage was an unannounced secret show that wasn’t revealed until the band walked out on stage. It was a German band that everyone except us seemed to know, but it didn’t stop us from rocking out and having a good time. The band’s sound was fast and heavy and reminded me of the punk rock style. Frei Wild definitely got the crowd moving, both with mosh pits and crowd surfing.

We didn’t see any more bands on Wednesday night, although there were a few more to take the stage. One such artist, Mambo Kurt, is quite different in that he plays hard rock and heavy metal covers using a small organ and puts his own spin on some metal classics. Unfortunately we missed this unique opportunity after losing out to a battle with jet lag.

Thursday marked the second day of music and the first official kickoff to the festival with the main stages being opened. All bands that performed on Wednesday performed on what’s known as the WET stage, which is housed inside a large tent. It’s generally the smallest of the festival’s four stages, but this year, two smaller-scale stages were added to the festival, one in the medieval market and one in the beer garden. The beer garden is an area set up with many tables and benches where fans can sit and relax or meet new friends over a cold beverage.

In next Tuesday’s Beacon, look out for coverage of the bands that took the stage on the second day of the festival.