< PreviousCrowdsurfing is part of festival life and should be possible for everyone! That’s why the non-profit organization “Metality” came up with an idea: a crowdsurfing event for people using wheelchairs. That gave blues rock band Blues Pills two reasons to celebrate at their Wacken gig by Celia Woitas n a baby blue dress, Blues Pills singer Elin Larsson is jumping across the Louder Stage, while some metal fans and their wheelchairs are fly- ing above the heads of the au- dience. With the support of the Wheels Of Steel area of W:O:A, a „Metality“ team of almost two- hundred people created a last- ing experience for crowdsurf- ers on the festival Friday. The non-profit association of metal- heads named it the „Friday Is Flyday“. Blues Pills guitarist Zack Anderson and singer Elin were really excited prior to the show. Is inclusion an important topic for you personally? Zack: Of course, we believe in including everyone, regardless The perfect festival moment, thanks to crowdsurfing with “Friday Is Flyday” Credits: W:O:A, Vollvincent, Celia Woitasmetal band out there, the people of W:O:A always seem to enjoy us. They make us feel welcome. With your new album, you’re embracing Elins pregnancy and motherhood. Why was that important for you? Elin: I realized quite late that me being heavily pregnant on the album cover is a powerful statement. The pregnancy wasn’t really planned; I found out halfway through recording the album and I knew it would be hard to combine being a parent with the lifestyle of a musician. That still needs to be improved for mothers, because we often shoulder a lot of the family responsibility on our shoulders. I also want to show my son that I didn’t just quit because he entered the world. He is my dream but so is music. Why not combine these two? Wacken will be his first festival at nine months old. My dad will take care of him while I’m on stage. I’ll take him with me and show him this life, as long as I can. How was the recording process for you? What changed when you discovered your pregnancy? Elin: It helped me mentally because it made me feel less pressure. We had a few weeks of recording scattered throughout the year and each time we’d get to the studio, I’d get bigger and bigger. I really enjoyed that! Recording vocals is emotional as it is, but the feelings are even stronger with two hearts beating inside your body. I can’t wait for him to be old enough to understand the record. That’ll be crazy for him. People would say you can’t tour or make music, but I played a festival when I was six months pregnant. It was great and my son is fine. I jumped a lot and he’s perfectly healthy. I didn’t stagedive, though. (laughs) of their personal experience. And I do have a brother in law who uses a wheelchair. So checking for accessibility is part of my life and something we think about a lot. It’s great to see Wacken making it such an essential part of the festival experience. Elin: Yeah, all the roads and little pathways here are accessible and that’s how it should be. What have you noticed about accessibility while being on tour? Zack: You can definitely notice that the smaller venues struggle to make concerts accessible. Legally, wheelchairs can get in. It’s just not very convenient. You are releasing your new album “Birthday“ tomorrow – so happy Birthday, literally! What makes Wacken the perfect place to celebrate? Elin: Germany has always been very supportive of our band from the start and Wacken is the home of metal, weirdos, outcasts and other great people! So for us, it feels like a perfect match. Even though we are not the most intense Baby blue blues rock, as seen on the Louder Stage this past Thursday. The cover for “Birthday” shows singer Elin during her pregnancy Tine, trainee occupational therapist: “This is my first time at Wacken and it was also my first time crowd surfing. It was awesome – amazing vibes!” Doro, former paediatric nurse: “It was great, I highly recommend it to everyone. There’s nothing better. The guys and girls who organised this and carried us are so great. My fear was eased completely.” Birgit, nurse: “This was my first time crowd surfing and it was sensational, I would do it again in a heartbeat. The whole experience here is fantastic.”Alexander from the area around Ütersen had to extend his vest – there were simply too many bracelets t is the scene’s status symbol, shows one’s passion for specific bands and is a sign of recognition for like-minded people through- out the world. In the seventies and eighties, it was still an expression of rebellion and non-conformity, but it quickly be- came a very recog- nisable uniform for metalheads. Back then, the look was characterised exclusively by denim fabric and sometimes leather, but nowadays, anything goes. From bathrobes to lab coats, from pink to black – anything can be turned into a battle jack- et. Because they’re art, they’re metal, they’re love. The Bullhead editorial team has captured some of the most special pieces and their proud owners on the Acker. Need- less to say: handmade and un- washed! Siggi and his best friend Mirko from Kölln have also used crown caps for their vest. Pretty heavy, this metal! Heiko (31) from Darmstadt is an IT expert with Deutsche Bahn. His shiny battle armor was made from more than 800 crown caps. He’s had it for a while, but only rarely gets to wear it The oldest, funniest, most colourful or simply best battle jackets – they can be found on the Holy Ground. Meet their owners!Kaju is originally from Japan, but has been living in Germany. Wonder what her favourite color is … Four-year-old Amalia likes dinosaurs,, dragons and metal! Lothar from the Ruhr region has seen every band immortalised on his battle jacket live. To fit all the corresponding autographs, the jacket was turned into a coat Fotos: Katharina Metag, Ina Carstensen, Privat Doctor Julian (31) from Southern Germany is in pharmacological studies. He created his battle jacket from an old lab coatby Katharina Metag and Susanne Müller ear Grandpa,” Franzi prefaces the message to her grandfather and covers the entire post- card in words. “He doesn’t like short messages,” she ex- plains with a laugh. Like Franzi, more than 20 per cent of all W:O:A visitors had sent postcards by Thurs- day. An incredible 20,000 cards were selected, filled out, stamped and sent off within the first four days – all at the small yellow booth between Wasteland and Bullhead City. For the first time this year, Deutsche Post offered skull stamps that said “Wacken 2024“ – a special edition which their marketing department realised within just 8 weeks, as The Bullhead has learned from a representative. Four employees worked the counter every day – from arrivals on Sunday until the end of the festival – to serve all potential postcard writers in the queue. From 10 a.m. until late at night. The best opening hours, only in Wacken! Thousands of festival-goers used a service provided by Deutsche Post to send postcards to their loved ones back home Credits: Susanne Müller, Katharina Metag Greetings from Wacken: Andre is writing to his therapist. On Thursday, he celebrated his birthday on the Holy Ground Günter Josef, who is from Austria, has written to his family, friends and place of work Franzi wrote to her grandpa Patrick with his postcard A busy day at the W:O:A post officeMPS HANSEATIC PROUDLY PRESENTSSaltatio Mortis are returning to Wacken Open Air in 2025 to celebrate their 25th anniversary as a band by Andrea Leim lthough Saltatio Mortis weren’t actually con- firmed for W:O:A 2024, they ended up performing on var- ious stages anyway. Whether with Tina Guo or Bülent Ceylan, the medieval rock band deliv- ered and impressed. They‘ll be back in 2025 – as headliners! You will be celebrating your 25th anniversary next year. Do you occasionally pinch yourselves when you see what you have achieved so far? Alea: I’m always incredibly surprised, blown away and also overwhelmed by the significance we hold for people. At the first Saltatio Mortis meeting, we were just three guys at Ronneburg Castle near Hanau. Marc and Falk showed me how to tune a bagpipe. A few months later, we reunited in this very castle in the original line-up of the band for the first time. We played through the night, drank a lot of mead and in the morning, slightly dazed and confused, we said: “This is great! We’re forming a band!” And 25 years later, I’m walking onto the Infield for the opening ceremony and our song “Finsterwacht” is playing. Crazy! Jean: One thing about us is that we have remained music Luzi, Elsi, Jean and Alea could already be found all over the Holy Ground in 2024. In 2025, they’ll return to headline Credits: Steve Braun, ICS“’ ” their minds once they’ve experienced it. Mainly because they can feel how much heart is in it. Luzi: A great comparison. And it shows that you have to go your own way without being deterred. People like to tell us that we’re not allowed to play certain music. The organisers of W:O:A are probably told that they shouldn’t book certain bands, especially if they’re not metal groups. Ultimately, though, it’s about giving as many people as possible a good time. That should be the ultimate goal, for which you have to just suck it up and go your own way. Alea: Another crucial thing that Saltatio Mortis and Wacken have in common is the attitude towards visitors and fans: It doesn’t matter where you come from, who you love, what you do – as long as you’re not an asshole! New tour, new album: 2025 is going to be big for Saltatio Mortis. Do you already have an idea of what your anniversary show at W:O:A might look like? Luzi: It’s like with our “Finsterwacht” project: We had a rough idea and then one thing led to another. I’m already keen to make the gig at Wacken something really special. There are no specific ideas yet, but it’s going to be awesome. Alea: If there’s one thing I can ask for, it’s that we all leave the stage completely overwhelmed, happy and perhaps with a few tears in our eyes. Jean: We will definitely do the Acker justice. That’s for sure! With every show at W:O:A, Saltatio Mortis prove just how great of a live act they are our personal experience that music is awesome, and that’s the emotion. Music is so much more than a playlist playing in the background. Jean: We’re also fully aware that Saltatio Mortis is not a band to everybody’s liking. If you announce us at a festival, there will be people saying: “Super cool! I‘m definitely going”. And then there are those who’ll say: “That sucks.” We’re not Volbeat, who everyone likes, we’re more like Nickelback. But those who have seen us live often change their minds. A very respected colleague once told me: “I’ve just seen you live and was trying to hate it. But I couldn’t.” A statement like that is the greatest praise for me. I don’t want to brag, but we’re a great live band. Somehow we manage to bring people back again and again. We have such loyal fans, they’re already snatching up the tickets to our 2025 tour, which is humbling. There seem to be many parallels between you and Wacken Open Air: Many people love it, others try to dismiss it, but quickly change fans. Everyone still gets that feeling of “Wow, it’s great that we get to experience this!”. Of course, we think it’s great to play in front of full venues, but we still don’t take it for granted. It’s a huge gift because we also know what it’s like when things go differently. Last year you went on tour with your biggest production yet. This was followed by your project “Finsterwacht”, consisting of a book, game and album, and the current tour of castles. You always seem to outdo yourselves … Alea: All I can say is that we do what we do from the heart. We know from he boozy start to the last day of the festival was provided by Tankard with their special “Früh- schoppen” show – a hallowed German tradition where you start your day by drinking. The thrash metal band wel- comed Holy Moses frontwom- an Sabina Classen to the stage as a special guest. On the Plaza, meanwhile, things were pretty colourful. The rainbow division of Schle- swig-Holstein police patrolled the Holy Ground in the name of diversity. Chief Inspector Jan Kubelke from Itzehoe and his colleague Dominik Ehlert from the LKA Kiel have been the police’s liaison officers for all things LGBTQ since 2022. “Our vivid colours bring visibility to our cause, especially on the Acker,“ says Kubelke. The police officers and their colourful pa- trol car were immediately sur- rounded, and many metalheads didn’t want to leave without selfies and rainbow-coloured wristbands. In the Krombacher regulars’ beer pong arena, the best of the best battled it out on the last day of the festival for the main prize: W:O:A tickets for next year. Highly focussed, the pros competed in front of a fascinat- ed audience and a cheeky host. The rules: “No fingering, no blowing!“ In the afternoon, Thor and his rainy hammer dropped by the festival one more time and brought some mud. But the metalheads remained unim- pressed. Johan Hegg from Amon Amarth was already in the dry backstage area enjoying himself before his show in the evening. Hämatom guitarist Ost was also getting ready for his show and the battle with rapper Finch. For the last big event of W:O:A, he promised: “We’ll make sure that rap doesn’t take over the Holy Ground.” Metalheads were delighted with the Schleswig-Holstein police campaign. Chief Superintendent Jan Kubelke (right) from Itzehoe and his colleague Dominik Ehlert from LKA Kiel were on the grounds on Saturday to promote diversity – as a rainbow patrol. “We don’t want to hide but show that you don’t have to hide either,” says Kubelke. Unfortunately, hate crime is still under-reported says the officer. Colourful handouts Credits: W:O:A, Susanne Müller, Andrea Leim, Katharina Metag Johan Hegg in high spirits before his gig Tankard opening the Faster Stage with guest Sabina ClassenMax (23) and Timo (27 from Cologne compete as “Team Hirsch” in the beer pong tournament in the Krombacher regulars area Thanks to this leafblower, Maschine keeps a cool head Complete with bagpipes and kits Metalheads in the Wacken United area are suprised by the rain 50 years of Raven! Many handy – one fiddle Hämatom guitarist Ost preparing for battle – with Magenta host Tobi Wienke as a stand-in for Finch. The show can be streamed online on magentamusik.deNext >