Wacken Open Air 2009, part 1
I'm gonna split this report up so I don't get as bored with writing it as you will reading it.
On Tuesday evening at about 7:30pm, Allan and Fiona came to pick me up from the house with my 2 rucksacks and tent. The first stage of the journey was the trip down to Essex to Pink's house for a very brief rest, to be followed by leaving again at 2am to head for the ferry at Dover. We got there ok, then Pink took us out to the brewery where he works to collect some free beers to take with us. Grand idea! Unfortunately I don't really drink proper ales and the like so it was little use to me, but hey, the others enjoyed it.
Once we got back from the brewery, there was a power cut, which meant navigating an unfamiliar house in the dark. Mostly we just got some shut-eye before piling into the car to head off for Dover. Getting on the ferry was nice and smooth and the boat trip pretty uneventful.
Then came the race through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany to get to our destination. Suffice to say that Pink was driving at some pretty impressive (and illegal) speeds here which is why we managed it in about 8 hours even including getting lost near the destination. (Which incidentally was at the only point where my navigation skills were overruled. Coincidence?) Two things did we learn during this roadtrip. Firstly, that Dutch drivers are the worst in North-Western Europe, at least in terms of safety, since they will pull out in front of you without warning, even if you are doing 50km/hr more than them and have to slam on the brakes. Even in Belgium and Germany the offenders always had an NL registration. Secondly, the reason German railways are so good is because that's the only way the country can function since their roads are appalling. There are roadworks everywhere, major roads often with only 2 lanes or even 1, and apparently this drags on forever because nobody works at night or on Sundays.
Right outside the festival site, we got stopped by the German police and Pink was made to perform all those embarrassing manoeuvres that you see on tv, like having to focus your eyes on a moving finger or stand on one leg. After 8 hours of intensive driving he was in no state to do the balancing act, so behind a hedge for a quick piss test it was. It came back clear (or slightly golden, I guess...) and on we went.
Anyway, we got into the campsite at something like 3pm on Wednesday. Jim (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ironlord ) and Jos (jellybearwhore ) had already got there and parked their tents in the usual spot among the Danes who Allan meets up with every year, with an added bonus of Alex and Erika nearby with a large space reserved for us, so we had a pretty cool camp area between the 15 or so of us. Shortly after our tents were set up, Lisa arrived to become our token German and chief translator and our little grouping of Danes, English, a Swede and a German was complete.
I then headed off to check out this year's 'Metal Market' and the extended 'Medieval Area'. The former was a bit smaller than last year, with 2 aisles of stores rather than 3, but to be honest there's only so many band-tshirt, cheap wristband, gothic corsetry, and music poster stockists you need at any one festival, so I didn't notice any drop in variety or quality. The medieval area was quite cool though, with a bar in the form of a longship, several authentic bakeries, axe and spear throwing contests, and stalls selling armour and weapons, of both the real/replica variety and the latex/LARP variety. I was quite tempted to buy a LARP sword but managed to resist, since I knew I would probably never get to use the thing. The medieval area had a small stage for appropriately-themed bands, but I only managed to catch part of the set for one such band, which was Fejd who played that first evening. They seemed ok but didn't really grab me - perhaps I am just far too weary of the Scandinavian and Eastern European folk aspects creeping into so much metal music these days that anything with those aspects really has to be something amazing to get my attention. I think this may have played a part in why I didn't make much effort to revisit that stage when other bands were on, though they also tended to clash with the bigger bands on the main 3 stages due to playing in the evenings.
The rest of that day was spent hanging around with the rest of our group, watching strange Danish drinking games, and visiting the beergarden where I enjoyed a few pints of Franziskaner. There was a little minor drama as Fiona disappeared into the ether for some reason but she showed up again a few hours later. The evening was finished off for me with a fine cardboard tray of pasta and tomato sauce purchased from Germans masquerading as Italians, before I retired to get the sleep I didn't manage to get the night before. The Bio-Ears earplugs I'd picked up from Boots worked wonders in this regard, helping to drown out the sounds of boisterous Germans (well, all except Lisa, anyway).
Next time: Thursday's shenanigans.
On Tuesday evening at about 7:30pm, Allan and Fiona came to pick me up from the house with my 2 rucksacks and tent. The first stage of the journey was the trip down to Essex to Pink's house for a very brief rest, to be followed by leaving again at 2am to head for the ferry at Dover. We got there ok, then Pink took us out to the brewery where he works to collect some free beers to take with us. Grand idea! Unfortunately I don't really drink proper ales and the like so it was little use to me, but hey, the others enjoyed it.
Once we got back from the brewery, there was a power cut, which meant navigating an unfamiliar house in the dark. Mostly we just got some shut-eye before piling into the car to head off for Dover. Getting on the ferry was nice and smooth and the boat trip pretty uneventful.
Then came the race through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany to get to our destination. Suffice to say that Pink was driving at some pretty impressive (and illegal) speeds here which is why we managed it in about 8 hours even including getting lost near the destination. (Which incidentally was at the only point where my navigation skills were overruled. Coincidence?) Two things did we learn during this roadtrip. Firstly, that Dutch drivers are the worst in North-Western Europe, at least in terms of safety, since they will pull out in front of you without warning, even if you are doing 50km/hr more than them and have to slam on the brakes. Even in Belgium and Germany the offenders always had an NL registration. Secondly, the reason German railways are so good is because that's the only way the country can function since their roads are appalling. There are roadworks everywhere, major roads often with only 2 lanes or even 1, and apparently this drags on forever because nobody works at night or on Sundays.
Right outside the festival site, we got stopped by the German police and Pink was made to perform all those embarrassing manoeuvres that you see on tv, like having to focus your eyes on a moving finger or stand on one leg. After 8 hours of intensive driving he was in no state to do the balancing act, so behind a hedge for a quick piss test it was. It came back clear (or slightly golden, I guess...) and on we went.
Anyway, we got into the campsite at something like 3pm on Wednesday. Jim (
ironlord ) and Jos (jellybearwhore ) had already got there and parked their tents in the usual spot among the Danes who Allan meets up with every year, with an added bonus of Alex and Erika nearby with a large space reserved for us, so we had a pretty cool camp area between the 15 or so of us. Shortly after our tents were set up, Lisa arrived to become our token German and chief translator and our little grouping of Danes, English, a Swede and a German was complete.I then headed off to check out this year's 'Metal Market' and the extended 'Medieval Area'. The former was a bit smaller than last year, with 2 aisles of stores rather than 3, but to be honest there's only so many band-tshirt, cheap wristband, gothic corsetry, and music poster stockists you need at any one festival, so I didn't notice any drop in variety or quality. The medieval area was quite cool though, with a bar in the form of a longship, several authentic bakeries, axe and spear throwing contests, and stalls selling armour and weapons, of both the real/replica variety and the latex/LARP variety. I was quite tempted to buy a LARP sword but managed to resist, since I knew I would probably never get to use the thing. The medieval area had a small stage for appropriately-themed bands, but I only managed to catch part of the set for one such band, which was Fejd who played that first evening. They seemed ok but didn't really grab me - perhaps I am just far too weary of the Scandinavian and Eastern European folk aspects creeping into so much metal music these days that anything with those aspects really has to be something amazing to get my attention. I think this may have played a part in why I didn't make much effort to revisit that stage when other bands were on, though they also tended to clash with the bigger bands on the main 3 stages due to playing in the evenings.
The rest of that day was spent hanging around with the rest of our group, watching strange Danish drinking games, and visiting the beergarden where I enjoyed a few pints of Franziskaner. There was a little minor drama as Fiona disappeared into the ether for some reason but she showed up again a few hours later. The evening was finished off for me with a fine cardboard tray of pasta and tomato sauce purchased from Germans masquerading as Italians, before I retired to get the sleep I didn't manage to get the night before. The Bio-Ears earplugs I'd picked up from Boots worked wonders in this regard, helping to drown out the sounds of boisterous Germans (well, all except Lisa, anyway).
Next time: Thursday's shenanigans.