Excitement for Wacken Open Air is ramping up. The 35th edition of the festival will be held from July 29th to August 1st.

The festival week stars with a bone-crushing party on Wednesday, as Sacred Steel, The Troops of Doom, Phantom, Poison the Preacher, Crypt Sermon, Battlecreek and Diabolisches Werk promise to musically plough up the Wasteland area on the Holy Ground. The devilishly sweet cherry on top will be Destruction legend Schmier, who will host the entire bash. 

But that’s not all: today, W:O:A also presents 49 more bands, expanding the line-up for the 35th edition of the legendary metal festival.

Among them are Milan’s gothic metal outfit Lacuna Coil, who combine dark, atmospheric sounds with melodic metal riffs. France’s Alcest have also confirmed and will take their fans on the Holy Ground into soaring sonic realms blended with black metal elements. Kadavar, Fit For An Autopsy, Of Mice And Men and Subway To Sally are turning the party up. The rest of the colourful line-up is all the more reason to celebrate. 

Please welcome: 
Animals As Leaders, Deafheaven, Visions Of Atlantis, Alien Ant Farm, Kärbholz, Crematory, Unzucht, Skyline, Bear Mc Creary, Lovebites, Wytch Hazel, Finsterforst, Evil Jared & Krogi, The Limit, 5th Avenue, Arroganz, Year Of The Goat, Temple Of The Absurd, Dirty Shirt, Trold, Metaklapa, 9mm Headshot, Manntra, Sagenbringer, Stonem, The Other, Cruachan, Dieter Maschine Birr, Mambo Kurt, Velvet Rush, Heartless Human Harvest, Saviourself, Wüstenberg, Zeltinger Band, Black Tish, Tuxedoo, Minotaurus, Alien Rockin‘ Explosion, Asrock, Blaas Of Glory, Cursed Abyss, Wacken Firefighters and Expellow.

“The mix of established bands, scene icons and up-and-coming acts perfectly reflects what Wacken has stood for over more than three decades,” says festival founder Thomas Jensen. Founder Holger Hübner adds: “The anniversary edition of W:O:A will showcase the full spectrum of our favorite music, and we are very grateful to welcome our metal community to Wacken for the 35th time this summer!”

Nita Strauss will not perform this year on the Holy Ground.

Wacken Open Air is the largest heavy metal festival in the world. Starting with 800 visitors in 1990, nowdays up to 85,000 fans from all over the world travel to Wacken every year, turning the small village in Schleswig-Holstein into the center of the festival scene for several days.