Looking 4 Adventures

Or how to survive sensory overwhelm, mud & people while sleep might be a rarity

Mud in your boots, bass in your chest, and a sea of black-clad strangers moving as one — with one pink speck in the middle (that’s me). That’s Wacken Open Air. For the past three years, it’s been my strange, exhausting, wonderful tradition. It’s not just a festival; it’s a test of endurance, sensory limits, and just how far you’ll go to hear the music you love.

We have been visiting the Wacken Open Air for the past three years. This is by now a weirdly addictive tradition that hooks us the latest when we see the band announcements on the last day of the festival. There’s no getting around it. There’s no other thing that bonds people like the mutual suffering of wading through almost knee-deep mud to get to a main stage. Who would not want to do this when there’s a band playing you wanted to see your whole life (or well, as long as you remember, really!)

This is the first year I actually used accommodations for sensory sensitivities. But this was  equally the first year where I noticed to a certain degree that energy is a limited resource and that my knees don’t do their thing as much as I would like them to.

I used them when the music was loud enough to damage my eardrums, but also when the surrounding sound and chatter of people was too much for my mind. We watched the announcements of the next year in the Residenz Evil Lounge and before I lash out at people to shut their food hole and let me listen, I rather plug in one of my ear plugs and the chatter gets muted a little. Sometimes, I’m using one side only, and that might be an illusion, but it already helps to feel less agitated at my surroundings.

Plan Your Breaks (and Your Snacks)

Planning snack, breakfast, lunch, and dinner breaks will make your day a lot more structured. We typically sit down on the first day to check the running order and note down which bands we would like to see. We also leave enough space to include snack or food breaks. Usually, we are a little too excited on the first day and want to see every single band there is.

As soon as the first and second festival day have left us with sore muscles, tender feet and the one or other blister, we calm down a little and focus on what we really want to see. I typically try to sit down somewhere once in a while and take tiny breaks. This can be difficult, especially in years like this, where mud is everywhere and you can’t just flop down on the ground. Additionally, fighting your way through knee-deep mud is exhausting, so I wanted to keep the moving around rather limited. It’s a great workout, though! I would recommend it if it wasn’t so disgusting.

Comfort Over “Fitting In”

We usually book a tent with field beds in the Residenz Evil Special Camping area, but this is quite a money investment. I love that the area is calm most of the night and that I actually have a bed. Sleep is a possibility and not a myth, and let’s be honest, I function way better if I’m not in zombie mode. Also, the showers are typically clean, and the line in front of them very easy-going. Therefore, I consider it well worth the price tag.

From my perspective, this also makes dealing with the weather conditions a little easier. We had three years at Wacken. Two of them were a mud fest, and one was dusty.

If you are sleeping in a tent on the ground in a sleeping bag with questionable isolation, you’ll be cold, sleepless, and probably hate yourself more than on any other day. I would not recommend that. I kind of learned that accommodating my need for comfort was more important than “fitting in”. I’m not a hard-ass metal festival goer. I’m not denying myself comfort and claim for this “being part of the fun”.

Something I always recommend but forgot this year to my own disappointment: Bring wet wipes – all of them! If you forget anything, don’t let it be wet wipes.

If you are keeping a little bit to one of the sides, you won’t be in the fly-in direction of any crowdsurfers. I developed slight anxiety last year when it comes to crowdsurfers, because you need to always keep your attention to the back to a certain degree. I also am a little smaller, so they might just crash into me when I am standing in between the tall metal guys. If you are in the crowdsurfing zone, you can move a little further to the side to avoid that. That is why I usually am avoiding to stand directly in front of the stage.

Navigating Crowds Without Meltdown

By now we actually know the shorter paths that are less frequented by the crowds. We are typically also leaving the main acts during the last song to avoid being stuck between all the people trying to leave at the same time. We missed our cue this year during the last song of Guns N’ Roses but it was Paradise City and who would want to leave while they were playing such a legendary title. The way out was quite crowded because of that. Worth it? Probably! Did I get slightly overwhelmed wading through mud with 50.000 people around me trying to do the same thing? Certainly!

But you might wonder: Why do I do this, and what makes it worth all this struggle?

I love music, and the atmosphere is making me feel a lot less alone in the world. I might not be the person to party with at the end of the night. I might not talk to many people on the festival grounds. But I’m there to soak up the atmosphere, to be a part of something, to enjoy the performances of all these wonderful artists, and to feel like there’s a place where everyone can just be themselves. The metal genre has the reputation of being a very gate-keeping community where you are likely branded as “not metal enough”. I don’t see this at Wacken. I see people that sit together, suffer together, have fun together, and watch artists perform. And maybe this is what makes it worth it.