Wacken 2020, here we come!
Then COVID happened so that got cancelled.
Wacken 2021, here we come!
Nope, more COVID.
Wacken 2022, here we come!
Then I got fucking cancer. And was in the hospital. We gave my ticket to an undeserving bastard but at least it got used. Nonetheless, my Benefactor was committed to making it happen when the stars aligned.
Wacken 2024, here we come!
And oh boy, what a fucking lineup. Anyone who knows me well enough knows my absolute love of the German power metal pioneers, BLIND GUARDIAN, who were the band who sent me down the rabbithole of 80s heavy and speed metal. So when I saw them announced as a headliner, it truly felt like my year. I wanted it so much. An absolute dream come true. The 14 year old me would be ecstatic.
But of course, I was going through a residency permit bureaucratic process that prohibited me from travelling at it just so happened to overlap with Wacken. And of course it was just the waiting part. Approval came through right after Wacken and my residency was secured but Wacken was not.
I was crushed. Heartbroken. Devastated.
We gave my ticket to one of my oldest friends from when I first came to Estonia. Someone who truly deserved it and was grateful for the opportunity to visit our common dream festival. But my Benefactor was still dedicated to making it happen.
During the following year, I went through a jobless spell, built up my own business and fucked it up during a period of intense housing instability and relationship issues before it all culminated in me being left single, without a proper home, without a job, without any money, food, kitchen, anything. The winter of 2025/2026 was dark and cold.
I felt defeated in all aspects in life but there was still something in me keeping me going. One day at a time. I got a job flipping burgers. It was a start. I was surviving off burgers for several months while working toward rising out from the ashes from a burnt out life.
The Wacken group chat was always active in the background. By then, my friend who we gave my last ticket to was committed to going again as a group. My Benefactor was meticulously planning the journey while I was focused on just remembering myself and pulling myself out of this pit of despair. I had, at this point, lost hope in most things and did not believe that Wacken 2026 was going to happen at this point.
By May of 2026, the group chat was buzzing more and more and I had left my burger flipping job to become a grillmeister at a summertime bar. The pay was better. The work was chill. The people even chiller. I could feel my mental health improving day by day.
Until I was hit with something that I have not spoken of with many people since it happened. I have not posted about it anywhere until now.
I had been very drunk the night before and woke up to a call in a very dazed state telling I was to expect a package in the mail. A usual courier call but it wasn’t. What followed was an elaborate social engineering scam that drained me not only of what little money I had left but put me into a loan debt. I felt absolutely embarrassed. Suicidal even. The weight of everything crushed back down on my shoulders and my only escape was alcohol and work. I since have gotten things more in control and the police are involved but it is an ongoing process I won’t divulge too much more information here.
I was convinced that this time I should outright skip Wacken and just focus on getting my life in order. I didn’t feel I could afford to sacrifice the time and needed the money from work. But the reality is that the debts aren’t going to go anywhere if they have to wait a little longer. But my mental health was at an all time low. My closest friends urged me to go. And so I did.
—-
In 2024 I discovered the track “Cry For Me” by the band CASTLE RAT. It was an ambitious music video inspired by the old 70s/80s sword and sorcery movies that I love so much. All the members of my band fell in love with it immediately and I found myself listening to it on repeat. And then their video for “Fresh Fur” dropped the following month and sucked me further into the realm of CASTLE RAT.
Their first album hit so damn hard and became a personal obsession. The band took an old familiar traditional doom metal sound and made it so fresh. Vocals that reminded me of Jefferson Airplane and Coven, straight up Black Sabbath worshipping riffs and an original sleazy epic fantasy theme to tie it all together. It feels tailor made for a guy like me.
And in 2025, by the time I was about to go through the Dark Winter, they dropped their sophomore album, “The Bestiary”. And this album immediately sucked me in. Many bands peak at their second album. That record where they finally nail their sound and style and haven’t yet had the chance to repeat themselves as happens with many gimmicky bands. It’s just the nature of the beast. But to have the opportunity to discover a band while they are beginning their journey to greatness is a rare treat.
And then they were announced for Wacken 2026.
Amongst the massive lineup of absolute legends such as JUDAS PRIEST, DEF LEPPARD, ULI JON ROTH, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN, and so many others, I found myself determined to see at any cost two lesser known underground bands. One of which is the Christian hard rock band WYTCH HAZEL because their music bangs hard and what’s more rebellious than playing Christian-themed music in a festival of anti-Christians? I love it. But I will save that story for later.
CASTLE RAT was the beacon that kept the fire lit inside of me. I needed to witness this. A culmination of all the despair, failure, self-hatred, self-doubt against the opportunity to see these rising stars perform at the legendary behemoth festival WACKEN OPEN AIR in front of thousands upon thousands of people during the hot summer. During their tour for their second album. It’s a very now or never type situation.
—----
And everything fucking worked out perfectly. My most magnanimous Benefactor arrived in Estonia and we began the ritual known to many as “full blown alcoholism” but known to us as “pre-gaming”. Need to prime our livers for the road ahead. Of course, I was still working while he was pre-gaming and an ill-fated night resulted in him breaking or cracking his ribs. At least we still had a good week to go before the trip but what resulted was definitely one of the most painful journeys he had ever been on. But he trooped on hard because Wacken waits for no man.
MONDAY - THE JOURNEY BEGINS
We met with our old friend in the Tallinn airport for our 5am flight to Riga and then to Hamburg. In the Riga airport I saw some dude who had glorious hair and a denim vest. I thought “It would be pretty neat if he was also going to Wacken”. And as we arrived the baggage claim in Hamburg, he approached us asking if -we- are on our way to Wacken (What gave it away? The metal band shirts and patch jacket?). And it was then that I noticed the iconic Bullhead patch on his back. He had come from Finland and it was like meeting an old alcoholic cousin and a very welcome travel companion for the day ahead. For privacy purposes, I will refer to him as The Finn. (proceeds to post a photo of him)
We began the journey by taking the metro from the airport to the train station where, of course, we had to have a hamburger in Hamburg. And so we got the worst fucking Burger King garbage available because my most gloriously generous and humble Benefactor could not resist the temptations. And it was fucking horrible.
We then were approached by a local who could tell we were going to Wacken. He looked like a proper bum but with a kind heart and he directed us to the platform where the train was leaving from. We got on and away we went. But lo and behold. Doubt struck the heart of my sagacious Benefactor when he realized we were going the wrong way. So we exited the train and doubled back. Finally. The road to Wacken.
But then our keen Estonian travel companion corrected us by saying “No, now we are going the wrong way.”
What followed was a heated debate amongst two of the sharpest minds in our party before we realized in fact that the first train was the correct one. So we exited. And doubled back again.
Finally, the road to Wacken!
And in a stroke of (mis)fortune, we ended up stuck in Pinneberg due to issues on the track ahead. Now I am not totally sure of it but the train ahead apparently got stuck due to some electric failure and I had heard the passengers had to walk through great fields to reach the road where shuttlebuses arrived to rescue them.
During the wait, we found a corner shop and indulged in ice-cold Becks and it was the greatest tasting beer I had in years. The first beer I ever had on my first day ever in Germany. My German ancestral blood boiled in excitement.
We were fortunate enough that the Wacken team had this all in communication and control and sent a shuttle bus straight to our station where the driver was obviously a seasoned veteran and reeked of heavy metal fashion while blasting techno for the grind of shuttling people to the festival all day long.
We were the first in the bus and waited until it was full to the brim. It was then that I noticed sitting across from me was a particular young gentleman who was wearing almost the identical round-brimmed sunglasses I was. And to add to the uncanny coincidence, he also had a spiked collar on his jacket not unlike mine. He paid a compliment to my peak fashion choices. I paid it back to his most excellent taste. He was on the bus with his Wacken friends and once we reached the festival we went our separate ways.
Our trio ventured to what is known as the U area where they had camped two years prior, and in the relentless wind we put up our tents. I’ll have you know, I borrowed a heavily used tent from an archer/brewer who generously lent it to me. And of course when I opened it up and began to pitch it, I found that one pole was snapped, the channels were torn, the corners were torn.
Well, if the weather holds up it will be fiiiiiiine.
And the weather did hold up this year. And it was fine.
Now any who have known me for a day or two would tell you, I enjoy me a good salad. Particularly a lettuce salad. Of the devil’s variety. And I had made an off hand comment to my Benefactor that this will likely be the longest I have ever gone without having a salad since I discovered the diet. He reassured me that it is decriminalized in Germany and people eat salads everywhere here. But I felt that maybe it would be good for me to take a break from my diet.
Until I heard the call of my people. A familiar metallic clanking of the tools of the trade. From the tents next door.
And who else would it be but the couple who had accompanied the chap with outstanding taste in fashion? And what are the fucking odds that at a festival that hosts over 100,000 people, we ended up camped directly next to each other? The fates had willed that I eat salad all day every day henceforth.
