Time flies, after preparing and expactation for a whole year, W:O:A 2012!!!
Welcome to the biggest metal festival on earth---Wacken Open Air
In 2012, it's Aug. 2nd-4th, anyway it's the first Thu.-Sat. of August.
This year I booked KLM, just because I heard I'd be able to eat a lot on their flight (facepalm)
The tranfer was about 4 hours in Amsterdam.
There were very comfortable chairs in this airport where you can take a nap :)
Also you got sofa.
It was very early, but you are still able to do shopping.
However I didn't want to spend money before starting my trip xD
You can surf internet here, free wi-fi for 60 minutes, devided into 2 sections.
This is what I was thinking to buy... NOKIA!!!
Then it's from Amsterdam to Berlin.
Berlin was my personal decision, you should go to hamburg if you want to land in a place which is closest to Wacken.
You can have some snack on this kind of short flight.
This is like Bretzel, quite salty xD
I asked for coke and ice...
I prefer ice more than coke actually.
Last year it was Lee-wen who came to pick me up in Frankfurt Airport, and then we took the train.
This time I booked Wacken Bus, you can book it from many places in Germany, the closer it is to Wacken, the cheaper it will be.
I took mine in Berlin and it was 35 EURO, directly to the festival ground.
But your best choice should be Hamburg since it is the closest one to Wacken.
On the website it said we need to wait here... outside of a snack train.
I arrived quite early, couldn't find the bus, so I started looking for people in black T-shirts xD
I found several in Wacken T-shirt right away.
Then I asked a girl from Argentina, she's also waiting for the same bus.
Yet the bus came nearly on time.
However... it turns out that......
The air conditioner didn't work at all, and those windows are fixed, we couldn't open them.
It was steamy and hot, and the trip was like 6 hours.
I woke up several times for feeling too hot.
The Spanish guy was complaining the sunshine came through the window on the ceiling.
The driver was chatting with pessangers in German through speaker which I couldn't understand, maybe I was the only one who don't understand German? But luckily the Argentina girl next to me does, she said she know SOME German, yet it was her who translated the German the driver said for me, I really appreciate :)
There was traffic jam on the highway, so the driver just change the route to a country side road which would be less boring.
Then we had a 30-minute-break, somewhere in Germany.
This was too expensive for a Taiwanese like me,
so I just kept on drinking my fanta which I bought in the airport, for 3.5 EURO -.-"
When we walked out of the bus we felt like in paradise.
The wind was cool, while in the bus it's like hot sauna.
So everybody tried to stay out there till the last minute xD
It was still Aug. 1st, the 0th days of W:O:A
The very next day we're gonna see Chthonic!!!
A Takasago Army fan is the best thing for this moment.
Then I asked the Argentina girl let me take a picture of her tattoo.
In the evening, after 6pm, finally we arrived!!!
We can feel it when you were still miles away, cause you'll see a lot of people in black T-shirts walking on the road, people shouting "WACKEEEEN" everywhere, many people just horn up to you when they see the bus.
You know you are welcomed to this 4-day metal wonderland.
I saw a family sitting in front of their house, from the 5-year-old kid to the grandmother who's probably 70, there were all in black!!!
We were making line and waiting for the wristband.
Then, got my 2nd wristband for W:O:A!
It was still early so the PROGRAMM was still available, each for 1 EURO
You can check map, running order, greet&meet detail, band info... and everything in it.
Even the basic bullhead+lineup T-shirt, there are many versions every year.
They got loads of things with W:O:A logo, even some camping stuff.
Except the 1 EURO plastic cups which you can find anywhere, the 1 EURO tabaco box and 10 EURO W:O:A hat are all good souvenir.
But those you could find on the PROGRAMM are just a part of all...
The 0th day my friends bought a lot and the store just gave them a carton instead of bags xD
Even got toys...
Normally we don't relate metal to CUTE, but here you can see so many cute merchandise xDD
The 0th days of W:O:A, main stage area are not opened yet, still you could find many good gigs and bands here.
Just come earlier, you'd never feel bored here.
For some reason I had to drag my heavy luggage on the festival ground, I'm glad it wasn't too muddy that day.
I found Lee-wen and other friends, we just stood in fron of Wackinger Stage and saw the gig.
It was such a nice band, SAOR PATROL.
Nothing is strange in W:O:A, even a pink umbrella.
I think it's a guy who held it.
Suddenly one of my friend fainted, maybe it's because she didn't managed to sleep during the long flight, then several metalheads who were dancing happily just stopped and came to see what happen, and they called the stuff to see my friend. They tried to give us advices, very caring people!
2 days later, Lee-wen met one of them suddenly, he asked "How's your friend? is she ok?"
Super caring and friendly metalhead, isn't it?
I don't really get many band to see for the 0th day, so it's a good chance to look around here.
Finally I saw the pale-sitting competition.
It's 6 hours! Though break is available every hour, but I just couldn't spend the 6 hours sitting here.
People in certain color? They are here every year!!
I saw a green guy and I asked him "where are you from? I can't tell cause you are green"
We asked him how he can drink the beer, he tried right away, then you can see what it is like in the picture.
After that he gave everyone a beer hug lol
Pm10, we got on the shuttle bus, head to the rental apartment in Itzehoe.
And then try to get ready for the... sports camp tomorrow?
Yeah, now I agree that metal festivals are actually sports camps xD
This time we spent 100EURO/person for 4 nights in this apartment, you can save a lot by camping.
Usually the accommodations like this apartment are far away from festival ground,
For example, we needed to walk 5 minutes to go out of the festival ground.
Then wait for shuttle bus, which takes 10-20 minutes.
It takes another 20 minutes from Wacken to Itzehoe.
From Itzehoe, we needed to walk for 20-30 minutes to get to our apartment.
So, it's like 1 hour, it can be very long for you if it's like 2.3am and you are freaking tired after 15 hours gigs.
But, at least you can really take a shower (if you could)
Then get dirty again tomorrow!! (hey)
The next day(8/2) is the 1st day of W:O:A 2012
Here is actually far away from station, and Wacken.
But we heard WACKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN in the morning x
Then I opened the window, a group of metalheads were already there.
Jacky gave us this in the morning for breakfast lol
Cause this is not allowed on the festival ground, so we had it on the shuttle bus.
Actually I tried hard to finish it.
This yeah the price of shuttle bus went from 8 to 9 EURO
But this wouldn't bother you if you take metal bus and just camp in Wacken.
In the metal market, there are many stuff for ancient warriors.
Price is hell.
I guess I won't be able to walk if I wear a set of them.
So this is just for fun.
Then this is it, ancient warriors.
Eventually they will all get beaten by a little kid. (ah I spoiled the ending)
I took a picture with the 2 hot chicks @W:O:A 2012 xDDD
The red one said SHE has been to Taiwan, so I asked "which city?",
then SHE said "XinChu"... An option which sounds so real since liars would just say TAIPEI.
Pay attention to the T-back pantie behind HER transparent skirt ;)
You can found funny people eveywhere, or stupidly funny.
This is such a good place for kids to explore!!!
Suddenly we found those ancient worriors are off duty xD
TAKE PICTURE!!!
There are not only warriors, but also beautiful worriors like this.
For girls xD
In W:O:A, you just can't miss a T-shirt with the bullhead and line-up.
People don't make lines here so you need to try your best to draw the staff's attention -.-+
It was like 18 EURO for a T-shirt.
Hoodie is also a good choice cause it gets cold here time to time.
Jacky, I went to LOUDPARK(JP) with him 2 years ago, now we are in W:O:A xD
Every year there are new stuffs, those are new shower rooms close to the stage area...
I haven't tried them though.
Then it's time to go to the main stages.
Skyline, you can see it as the W:O:A founder+his friends
So you can see SKYLINE on stage every year, but the guests are sometimes different.
This year we still got Doro with We Are The Metalheads!!!
Doro!!!
Then I saw 2 cute sisters (picture picture)
This is the big bullhead next to black stage,
in W:O:A sometimes we need to face the problem that we can't make phone calls.
... we can, but it's gonna be super expensive.
So, just try to meet by the easiest way, like:
if we got split up, let's meet here after XXX's gig, about pmXX:XX
If you got something to tell your partner after split up, text message will be better.
Since it'd be too loud for you to call.
But make sure there isn't a problem on receiving text messages fror one another.
Sometimes problems occured because those companies don't have agreement with one another.
I usually say "Metal brings people together."
This got proved again here.
Last year I was watching Chthonic's Sing-Ling Temple concert in Taiwan.
With my German friend Elisa.
Now I am in Germany, watching Chthonic's gig in W:O:A with Elisa!
She was with her TAKASAGO ARMY flag.
I saw many Taiwanese bands' CDs in her house :D
There are several good metal bands in Taiwan, but we need to do a lot to struggle.
Promotion, making money for more promotion, recording and tour.
I wish I would be able to see more Taiwanese bands here in Wacken in the future.
The 1st surprising thing for 1st day in W:O:A is Sepultura
You can find Sepultura in W:O:A 2012 here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9den7x-dXKI
I'm not going to describe it in words cause you really should just check the video xD
In W:O:A, there are usually many German bands, so many of them speak German during the gig.
Then the vocal of Sepuntura said:
"My German is Scheiße(shit)"
What a coincident?
After Sepultura's gig, I turned around and felt like I saw someone I know,
I know him last year from facebook
cause he also joined the competition on Wackentube,
he was singing while driving in the video, it was very good xD
I was not sure if that is him, until he also saw me xDDD!!!
Then we took a picture right away.
After that, his wife got kicked on the head by someone who was crowdsurfing...
so they stayed in the hospital in Itzehoe for the rest two days :/
Luckily we found each other early in the first day!
So, the most important gig for us in the 1st day was actually CHTHONIC.
It's going to be started arount 8pm, so we were heading to WET stage tent.
Also went pass be the stage we were yesterday, beautiful folk music.
We were waiting outside of WET stage tent cause the previous band was still performing.
Too many people there lol
Then we started doing something like...
Shout CHTHONIIIIIIIIIIIIIIC st people who's in CHTHONIC T-shirts.
Crazy Taiwanese we were -.-+
I was in Seediq costume, so I wore sandals (or I have to be bare foot)
But the ground in front of the stage was soft as sponge cake, or something worse like MOCHI.
I caouldn't make it to walk to the front,
so my friend carried me in his arms... but he fell xDDDD
There was a tall guy in the first row(maybe 190cm),
he let me stand in front of him QQ
So I made it to raise my Takasago Army fan there!
Then I saw Lugia here!!! He and his younger brother!
Lugia told me that he saw my article about W:O:A 2011
Then he decided to join W:O:A 2012, he made it.
They were staying in the tent and got some good neighbors xDDD
Olli(Turisas) played several songs with Chthonic.
Then I found my Takasago Army fan is quite popular,
many fans were asking "where can I buy this in Germany!?"
After Chthonic's gig, we went out of the tent, started taking picture with our flag.
Then people gathered, more and more people came to take pictures.
We had to fold our flag so that we could make it leave there and go to the main stage area xD
There were many Chthonics fans, and many are new fans.
2 German came to talk to us because they are curious why people from Taiwan came a long way here.
Then they treated us MET, kind of honey beer xD
Then one of the German guy asked my friend who's thin and has long hair:
"Do you play bass?"
She was wondering why, after a while I started laughing cause I realized that he recognized my friend as Doris from Chthonic xDDDDD (Maybe he's a new fan so he couldn't name Doris.)
Then suddenly in front of the beer stand, we heard bagpipes.
You'll never feel bored here in W:O:A cause there's music everywhere.
You can try some food and beer in W:O:A, the most common food might be BBQ.
As for beer, MET is quite special, the honey wine.
When Jacky passed me a cup of MET, I saw a bee fly into the cup lol
There's even cherry beer, you'll be busy if you are a beer lover.
There are also a lot of drunk people sleeping everywhere...
Well, this is festival lol
It's very easy for girls to meet drunk perverts in W:O:A,
but, does this make W:O:A dangerous?
I don't think so. They are not really so dangerous but sometimes stupid and funny.
1st day of W:O:A, I was waiting with my french friends,
suddenly a guy came in front of us, showing us his touching his chest,
it was totally covered by black hair, then he started talking shit which I don't understand.
Then he went away, I asked my French friends
"what was he trying to say?"
They replied:"he wanna see yours lol"
Then 2 drunk guys came to me, one said "I'm his dog. hah~hah~hah~"
and the dog pointed the other guy and said "he's my owner"
When watching Scorpions' gig, there was a skin head guy to my left,
dressing like Judas Priest, the kind of people which is too cool for me to talk to,
then another long hair young guy came from my right side, looking at me
and then stopping there.
Long hair guy: Wanna have sex with me?
I was wondering if I heard something wrong?
then the skin head guy looked at me and said:
"Lady, so sorry for that, this is men's problem."
Then he got several people coming close, raising up the long hair guy
and sending him to crowdsurfing, but since were were far away from stage,
I think he just fell off on the way and became a drunk muddy guy :P
I was in Seediq costume that day, a drunk guy came to ask me:
"Don't you feel hot!?"
Of course I do! It was around 30 degrees when it's sunny -.-
When I was watching Saxon, another drunk guy came
and wanted to share his beer with me.
Then he pointed my Takasago Army fan and said:
"I think you have the fear... the fear of... of heat!!"
Last year a friend was stalked by a drunk guy in camping site,
but there are always other metalheads who would try to help you,
this is W:O:A, and it's people everywhere that week,
so don't need to worry xD
後來晚上主要就看了Saxon跟Volbeat
有點湊熱鬧性質
這天我忘記帶雨衣, 幸好雨量還過得去
後面兩天就不是這樣囉
堪稱W:O:A十年來最慘泥災
但是還是很歡樂 (癱)
我的靴子到現在聞起來還是濃濃的Wacken味
滿可怕的
如同本期Metal Hammer標題
Wacken 2012 世界上最殘酷的泥巴摔角戰...
(待續, 下集就把兩天寫光光吧)
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