Wacken Open Air 2025

I’d wanted to go to Wacken for many many years, but things somehow never worked out. Now, the time was finally right to visit the holy ground for the first time. I was there with my friend Minh, who’d also not been to Wacken before.

All in all, the festival was great from a musical point of view; I saw so many amazing concerts during the four days. Plus, having wanted to come for so long, it was a dream come true. Unfortunately, there was heavy rain and mud this year, which obviously reduced the enjoyment, as moving around the area was quite a challenge (actually, the biggest challenge was walking back to / from the bus stop). I will know to gear up even better next time I’m here. Hopefully, I’ll be back again soon.

Glückstadt

We were going to stay in Itzehoe during the festival, but our accommodation was unfortunately canceled just a couple of weeks before the festival due to flooding. We were lucky to find another accommodation in Glückstadt on short notice. I found this to be a cute little town, though travelling back there at night wasn’t always easy (with Deutsche Bahn being reliably unreliable).

The weather on our arrival day did not indicate how it was about to get during the rest of the week.

Wacken, Day 1 (30.07)

We arrived at the festival arena at around 11:00 on the first day. The weather was quite grey when we arrived, but it wasn’t raining too much (yet).

Dogma

Dogma was the first band we saw. I hadn’t heard of them before Wacken, but the show was quite fun, though there were many issues with the sound mix (I could barely hear the singer, for example).

It also started raining quite a bit during Dogma’s performance. The mud was about to get worse.

Enemy Inside

Right after that, we saw Enemy Inside. I was quite excited about this, as I find them to be a really exciting new(ish) band.

Wind Rose

The next band we saw was Wind Rose. As one would expect, they are very fun live.

Tarja and Marco

We already saw Tarja and Marco last year in Bremen, but there was no chance we were missing them here.

That was our last concert on the first day. We collected quite a lot of mud during the day, but this was nothing compared to how it was going to be in the coming days.

Wacken, Day 2 (31.07)

The second day started very sunny and quite warm. We saw a bit of the metal battle after arriving, and then the full set of Umbra Conscientia (which was quite good).

Clawfinger

I don’t really listen to Clawfinger, but I am aware of them since high school and know they have various fun songs, so we decided to check them out. They didn’t disappoint at all; it was a great concert.

Guns N’ Roses

In the evening, we went to see Guns N’ Roses. As many others, I used to listen to them in high school, so it was nice to see them live for once. The whole concert was three hours, but we didn’t stay the whole time (I’d say, sometimes, less is more).

Wacken, Day 3 (01.08)

The real mudfest was more and more visible as the days went on; this is how it was far from the stages (left) and near the stages (right). Anyway.

Nailbomb

Nailbomb was the first band we saw on the day. I’d actually not heard of them before, but I was very excited to see them when I found out it’s a band by Max Cavalera (I like that era of Sepultura). I was not disappointed in the end; it was a good, energetic concert.

Dirkschneider

Right after that, we saw Dirkschneider. I’ve never followed their music, but they were very good performers, so it was an enjoyable concert.

Papa Roach

Papa Roach was next. Just as Dirkschneider, I’ve never really listened to them (beyond a couple of songs), but hats off to them; they are really good live entertainers.

Dimmu Borgir

Dimmu Borgir was the band I was most excited to see at Wacken this year. They’ve been one of my favourite bands for years, but I hadn’t had the chance to see them live before, so it was amazing to finally be able to do that.

Wacken, Day 4 (02.08)

Floor Jansen

We first saw Floor on the last festival day. The set was great; it included a mix of After Forever, Revamp, Northward, songs from her last solo album, and, of course, Nightwish. An excellent concert.

For the rest of the day, we saw Mastodon, W.A.S.P., Within Temptation, and Gojira.

For Within Temptation, it started raining very strongly, so I sadly didn’t take any photos. For Gojira, I was already checked out because my boots had filled up with water, so it just wasn’t a pleasant experience to be there anymore.