Mr. Jensen, how is the situation in Wacken? After a three-year break, have the first festival guests already arrived?
Peter Badenhop
Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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Well, long ago, the first ones came on Sunday and Monday.
The Hessians were already well represented at the beginning of the week, and not only the staff, which we always have a lot of from the area around Frankfurt, but also normal Metalheads.
Yes, and there are already a lot of Swiss people and people who have come a particularly long way.
I would say we should be at 50 percent on Wednesday.
How many visitors will come in total?
It will be a good 75,000.
The festival has been sold out for a long time, because of the pandemic the tickets never went on sale, most fans just kept their tickets from 2020 and are now coming back to Wacken with a two-year delay.
And how is the mood - among the fans and especially among you as the organizer of the festival?
Of course, the mood here is great.
After a forced break of three years, the anticipation is huge, and it's also quite emotional because we haven't seen each other in this big metal family for so long.
Yes, and of course we're all a little nervous about whether we'll be able to manage everything as well as we used to.
It's a bit like an old steam locomotive that has come to an involuntary standstill and now has to get going again: by the time the engine really started up again, there was a lot of whistling and crunching, but I now have the impression that it almost everything looks better than usual. There was a lot of fear in the team and the question "Can we still do that?", but so far everything is going smoothly - even the weather is playing along, and with some trades we are even ahead of schedule .
But you also have to say: We're talking about Wacken here.
If you look at the entire industry, this is a special situation.
After 30 years, we have such a strong identification with the festival among the crew and all the service providers who work for us - unfortunately, many small and medium-sized organizers don't have that.
They now have a much harder time and even more to contend with failures, cancellations and a lack of material and staff than we do.
And in the end that also applies to many bands that have to put together a new crew.
who work for us - unfortunately, many small and medium-sized organizers do not have that.
They now have a much harder time and even more to contend with failures, cancellations and a lack of material and staff than we do.
And in the end that also applies to many bands that have to put together a new crew.
who work for us - unfortunately, many small and medium-sized organizers do not have that.
They now have a much harder time and even more to contend with failures, cancellations and a lack of material and staff than we do.
And in the end that also applies to many bands that have to put together a new crew.
Doesn't the staff shortage, which also exists in the event industry, affect you?
Yes, it is difficult.
If you don't have good people, it's not so easy to replace them. You can't buy experience any more than passion.
But thanks to our community, our history and our grown and close relationships with our service providers, we are in a good position. But we are also very humble and grateful that this is the case.
Is the industry recovering after the forced pandemic break?
I think so, and I'm hoping that the whole business will pick up again and, above all, that people will buy more tickets for the many small concerts so that nothing dies away from us in the clubs.
The big headliner tours and festivals will continue, but you have to worry more about the smaller organizers and locations.
Did you, your partner Holger Hübner and your team have phases during the pandemic when you thought: That's it, we're at the end?
Well, anyone who knows Holger and me knows that we don't give up, whether it's stubbornness or madness, but that's just not an option for us.
And to be honest, music in a broader sense and heavy metal in a narrower sense is our life, we're very grateful for that, but that basically means we have no choice but to carry on.
But at least financially Corona must have been quite a challenge.
Yes of course.
We tried everything to keep our regular crew, i.e. short-time work and all other options that were available.
In German: We tried to keep the coal together and keep calm.
Of course we also made mistakes, but on the whole we got through the crisis quite well.
And how did the people of Wacken survive this difficult time? Weren't some of them also happy that there was finally peace in the village in the summer?
No, they're all happy that it's finally starting again.
Wacken and live music now belong together, there is no longer anyone who rejects it.
We are very grateful for that and always try to give something back to the village.
Anything new for fans this year?
Yes, we created a bit more space for the stage areas and set up the two stages, which were previously housed in a large circus tent, next to each other in the open air.
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As a reaction to Corona?
That also played a role afterwards, but at the beginning there was the idea of alleviating the narrowness that prevailed in the tent with some bands.
The pandemic then went one better, so to speak, because there are certainly a lot of people who are no longer drawn into the fray in these times.
This year, a “crime scene” will even be filmed at the festival, and Höhner will be playing on Saturday morning at 11.11 a.m. – is that still heavy metal, or has Wacken finally arrived in the mainstream?
Well, if we now pretend to be the little underground festival, then of course that would be bullshit.
I'll put it this way, in my opinion Wacken is still the best metal festival there is and if you really want the full service you can only see and hear death metal for four days.
Not everyone wants that, and the one with the Höhnern, for example, is Holger's homage to a great German band.
He somehow drank cumin with them or something and came up with the idea.
I am curious.
It has nothing to do with selling out or mainstream.