A Wacken Mud Report
After only two years, I was supposed to return to the holy land of Wacken. Two packed flights did not contribute to travel comfort. The plane from Tokyo to Zuerich was sold out to the last seat and the plane from Zuerich to Hamburg was equally packed. I’ve been flying to Germany on business trip a few weeks earlier and Turkish airlines had the far better food and also an amenity pack for economy class plus a more modern inflight system… Despite arriving half an hour late at Hamburg airport, my pick up had not yet arrived. My British friends who had left their houses at four in the morning had been stuck in traffic jams around Duisburg on their way to Hamburg. I phoned the hotel and told them of a later arrival.
My friends arrived around 21:00 and we drove on the last roughly 100 km to Buesum at the North Sea, which is about 30 km beyond Wacken.
We drove in pouring rain… Warnings from the Wacken app kept pouring in. Don’t come by car, come late, the site is drowning…
We finally arrived at 22:30 at the hotel and fell into bed.
The next morning, still rain and rain and rain. Despite that, the brave warriors set out for the holy ground. Daily parking was luckily not in such a bad condition and despite the warnings we got there okay. Then, the first odyssey through the marshlands to exchange our tickets for wristbands. That odyssey took the better part of an hour walking through ankle deep, calf deep mud. Incredible. I have not yet seen the likes of it.
After successfully getting our wristbands, we queued for the goods booth in pouring rain, the spirits slightly sinking. But those spirits were raised again by succeeding in obtaining a Wacken plush cow, which eluded me the first time around.
We continued the shopping spree in the Wacken village whilst walking through endless stretches of mud. The first victims crossed our path, abandoned shoes sticking in the endless goo.
In 2013 I acquired an “Odin” ring, ( a silver ring with the runes for Odin carved into it) and this time I wanted to get a “Loki” ring. I found one and the shopping spree was satisfied for the moment. On to the arena to watch a few bands. There was UDO and In Extremo, Savatage reunion (if only with seven songs) and Transsiberian Orchestra. In between In Extremo and Savatage we took a break and I noticed that my just bought “Loki” ring was missing! Aaaahhhh…. It lasted but three hours, but wait, there was one last chance that I might have lost it while groping for stuff in my little belly bag and oh miracle, indeed the ring had fallen into the bag, not the mud. He is a trickster that Loki, isn’t he? Mark had to give up on his boots, which were starting to fall apart. We went back into the village, he bought new boots, and retired his old ones to the growing boot graveyard.
The enjoyment of the music was unfortunately further hampered by guess what, more rain. It was freaking cold too, not 15 degrees and at night even colder and of course that knocked out my sinuses, that were used to 35 degrees in Tokyo and the throat started to scratch.
On the way back to the car we got caught in the path of horror. From the festival ground to the street that led to where we had parked our car, we had to walk a fenced-in mud path that was pure madness. 30 cm of sticky, sucky mud almost sucked my rubber boots off and I slipped half out of the boot and had to touch the muddy affair with my hands to put the bloody boot back on. Yuk! It was incredibly hard to walk through that goo. Getting out of the soiled gear at the car and into the hotel without making a ridiculous mess, also proved to be a major operation and we were in bed only at 1:30 at night.
For me the night was very uncomfy due to the sore throat and some time during the night, when the nose started to get clogged, I decided to take a day off from the mud and to not go to Wacken the next day.
I had breakfast with my friends and they went off to Wacken on their own, while I had a walk at the beach in Buesum in cloudy weather, and a stiff cold breeze, but at least it had stopped raining.
I walked through town and searched for cold meds and gloves to put the muddy gear back on then took a much needed two hour nap in the afternoon. Searching for dinner, I ventured out again and noticed I am at the Wattenmeer. While the tide had been high in the morning, the sea had retreated for a good kilometer in the evening and the boats had sunk to the ground of the dried out mole. It was impressive and beautiful and I’m kinda glad that I’ve seen a bit of Buesum after all, thanks to the horrible conditions at Wacken.
But, the last festival day bore a few favorite bands, Sabaton, Judas Priest, Powerwolf, and Amorphis and I joined my friends again despite the snotty nose. Luckily the weather had finally turned and much of the mud had somewhat dried and it was way more bearable than on the first day. Even the path of horror had become more or less walkable.
So, now I’ve had the real Wacken. Luckily the weather was better during the first Wacken trip, otherwise I might have been a bit discouraged.
I really feel with and for the thousands of people who camped in that sea of mud. I even caught a cold without staying in the mud! I hope they are all okay and got home safely! And I bet the farmers in Wacken had a lot of work pulling all those cars out of the goo again!
I probably shall return to Wacken in another two or three years 
