Wacken Open Air

Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) takes place annually in the small town of Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany. With 75,000 festival visitors, it attracts all kinds of metal music fans, such as fans of black metal, death metal, power metal, thrash metal, gothic metal and also folk metal, from around the world.

The festival was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and one of the most important in the world and included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia. W:O:A is held at the beginning of August and lasts three days.

2015 marked the event’s 10th consecutive sold-out year.