11 weeks left until the start of the world’s most famous and largest festival, Wacken Open Air. Located in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, this is the legendary home of the metalheads all over the world. Established in 1990 by the two co-founders, Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner, the festival started with 800 visitors and the bands that sang there were only German. Nowadays it has 8 stages and over 120 world-famous bands for the four festival days. The festival site is over 240 hectares, W:O:A 2020 and 2021 were only online streamed due to the COVID-19 world pandemic. W:O:A 2022 was an epic celebration of the festival’s 30th edition. W:O:A 2023 had an extraordinary weather condition, and it was almost canceled because of the wild rain and deep mud. There were many streamed concerts because the organizers called the people to return home. The situation required the invention of the special Access Passes for the people with vehicles. W:O:A 2024 had sunny weather and the number of visitors rose to about 110 000.

Wacken Open Air 2025 was sold out very fast. This will be the festival’s 35th edition. Now is the time for the Metal Battles – a contest for local bands in many countries that will send their winners to Wacken. There the bands will have another Metal Battle contest with an international jury. They will have the possibility to meet managers, producers, sound engineers, and many famous bands.

The list of the bands for this year is again very rich: 1349, 3 Inches of Blood, Amenra, Angel Witch, Annisokay, Apocalyptica, August Burns Red, Avralize, Bad Loverz, BAP, Benediction, Beyond The Black, Boomtown Rats, Brothers of Metal, Callejon, Celeste, Clawfinger, Clowns, Coppelius, Crownshift, Cypecore, Dark Funeral, Decapitated, Deine Cousine, Destruction, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Die Kassierer, Dimmu Borgir, Dirkschneider, Dogma, Dominum, Dool, Dope, Drowning Pool, Dymytry, Eihwar, Enemy Inside, Exhorder with “Slaughter in the Vatican” Show, Extermination Dismemberment, Fear Factory, Fight The Fight, Fit For A King, Floor Jansen, Forbidden, From Fall To Spring, Gehennah, Gojira, Graphic Nature, Grave Digger‘s 45th Anniversary Show, Graveyard, Guns N’ Roses, Hanabie, Harpyie, Heavysaurus, Hellbutcher, Helmet, Helsott, In The Woods, Induction, Iotunn, Istapp, Katatonia, King Diamond, Krisiun’s Special 90s Set, Kylesa, Lake Malice, Lakeview, Landmvrks, Letzte Instanz, Liliac, Lita Ford, Lost Society, Macabre’s 40th Anniversary Show, Machine Head, Majestica, Mambo Kurt, Månegarm, Master Boot Record, Mastodon, Michael Schenker‘s My years with UFO, Midnight’s “Complete and Total Hell” Set, Mimi Barks, Ministry, Miracle of Sound, Moonsorrow, Mystopera, Nailbomb, Nasty, Neckbreakker, Nestor, Night Demon’s “Curse of the Dammned” 10th Anniversary Show, Nightmare, Non Est Deus, Nyktophobia, Obituary, Orange Goblin’s 30th Anniversary Show, Papa Roach, Party Cannon, Pentagram (Chile), Peyton Parrish, Prong, Rauhbein, Sacrifire, Saint City Orchestra, Saltatio Mortis‘s 25th Anniversary Show Samsas Traum, Saxon, Schandmaul, Seasons in Black, Setyoursails, Seven Sisters, Seven Spires, Shantallica, Skyline, Skynd, Smoke Blow, Soen, Soulbound, Static-X, Suidakra, Svarttjern, Tabernis, Tarja & Marko Hietela, The Butcher Sisters, The Hellacopters, The Rumjacks, Timsen, Torment, Torsten Sträter, Torture Squad, Ugly Kid Joe, UK Subs, Umbra Conscientia, Vermaledeyt, Victory, Voodoo Kiss, Vulvarine, W.A.S.P., Wacken Firefighters, Walls of Jericho, Warbringer, Warkings, Wednesday 13, Wind Rose, Within Temptation, Zeke.