When you're a metal or rock music fan you're familiar with a little village in the north or Germany that goes by the name of Wacken. Home to the world's biggest metal festival: Wacken Open Air with about 70,000 visitors (Wacken's normal population is 1800). So this year the festival's organizers started a new project: Wacken Winter Nights, a smaller 3-days version of WOA and a focus on medieval music.
Actually I cancelled my plans to go to WWN but I was lucky to get a cheap ticket and was there from Saturday to Sunday and wanted to share my experiences with you.
The festival was sold out with about 3500-4000 tickets but when I arrived there it wasn't really croweded. I already read on the festival's Facebook page that some people had left early because of the freaking cold weather (it was bloddy cold) and the lack of places to warm up. Well I can confirm that it was really the coldest festival I've been to so far but I think people should've known that a festival in February that takes place outside isn't comparable with a festival in summer and that you might wear warm clothes. Though I have to admit that I agree with people complaining about the lack of fireplaces.
The Line Up was good. There were bigger bands such as Subway to Sally or Saltatio Mortis but also artists I didn't know like singer/songwriter Shawn James who turned out to be effing awesome but I am gonna tell you more about him later.
The location itseld consisted of an infield with two roofed big stages and two smaller outside stages, one in the atrificial woods and another one which was supposed to be a chapel. Then there were two more locations in the village itself. The church (great acoustics btw) and the so called Wackinger which is usually a normal restaurant with an extra room with a small stage.
Okay, so the main reason I went to WWN was Ye Banished Privateers who were great as usual. They had several gigs in the woods where they played completey acoustically. It was really nice because they were basically standing in the middle of the audience and a huge shout-out to the singers whose voices were heard without mics and with background sounds from the other stages.
Another band that played in the woods most of the time was MacCabe & Kanaka, a band I really start to like. They are only two guys but they're shanties are awesome and what I like about them is that they are so easy going. They are famous for shanghaiing other musicians which leads to some funny situations on stage every once in a while. In Wacken they played with several members of the Privateers and I would like to mention Louise here, a talented young violinist.
Magda from the Privateers also had a concert as a solo artist at the church in Wacken which was both amazing and magical. The acoustics in the church were so great and the lights and candles made the atmosphere just perfect. I'm in love with Magda's voice and was really happy to listen to her again and that she got the chance to show the world one more time how gifted she is.
Now I would like to come to my favorite artist from WWN: Shawn James. Holy fuck! That guy is so damn talented that it made me speechless. I would describe his style as country rock though his interpretation is folk blues rock. Anyway, his music is incredibly awesome. He is a freaking one man show, with a guitar, his voice, percussions and a pedal. I loved his songs and his deep voice and didn't expect to see a musician at WWN who's so cool since most of the music there was medieval or metal related. I bought a CD right after his gig and am listening to it ever since.
So the three bands mentioned above where my absolute favorites though I saw some more. I should mention Dartagnan here which was quite nice and I would say their music is comparable with German folk band Versengold. Another band I saw (for about ten minutes) was Melted Space from France but that wasn't really my type of music. Metal with a lot of screaming and you actually couldn't understand any of the lyrics. Though there were a lot of people listening to them so they can't be that bad. ;-)
All in all, Wacken Winter Nights was worth it though it was really effing cold and the walks between the infield and the Wackinger or church where quite long (there were shuttle busses but you never knew when they were coming even though there was abus schedule). Soemthing that was a little annoying was that you couldn't pay with cash and had to get a payment card which you had to put money on first. I've heard that the system broke down on the first day but luckily the problem was solved by Saturday. Anyway, the concerts were awesome and I was happy to see my friends from the north and have a cool weekend with them. WWN obviously was a success because the organizers already anounced a WWN for 2018 and we will see what bands are going to be there and if it is gonna be bigger then. I am planning to go there again. :)
Love,
Anni
