Wacken Stories: Oliver "Otti" Otto

Almost 30 years of W:O:A lead to many, many great stories – crazy, heart-warming, revealing, or just plain funny. To collect those stories, we have talked to the people that live, work or party around the „Wacken Holy Ground“. Their experience illustrate the festival’s extraordinary spirit, so have fun with special anecdotes which you won’t find everywhere else: Here are the „Wacken Stories“!

Oliver „Otti“ Otto (Ballroom Hamburg, Metal DJ, „Metal Heart“ host at the W:O:A)

„A special service was provided backstage“

Many years ago the band Rockbitch threw a „golden condom“ into the crowd and promised a special treatment to whoever caught it. Not an empty promise, as Otti remembers.

„Back in the day I was part of a gang of music freaks in Hamburg. We even had started a small Metal fan club. When we heard that there was a new festival not far away, we had to check it out of course. Since then I’ve been to the W:O:A 22 times, today I even work for the festival and basically all events put on by ICS.

There have been many funny moments over the years. One of the best surely was the performance of Rockbitch, a „Porn Metal“ band that caused a lot of shaking heads and rolling eyes back then. We still had to get a look though. So I’m standing in the audience with Chris Boltendahl of Grave Digger, and the band tosses the so-called „golden condom“ into the crowd, which comes with a certain „oral“ promise to whoever catches it. Chris and I actually got angry about that, because we were sure that those ladies were talking shit and basically bluffing. However, when we strolled into the backstage area some time later, we observed with our own eyes that it actually has not been an empty promise: A member of the band or maybe a female roadie was taking care of the special task to make that one fan who caught the „golden condom“ happy. That was really something and actually quite crass.

In general every Wacken is an amazing experience and every year. I’m excited about the fact that there is basically a small city being built up out of nothing and on a plain field. The infrastructure and organization are sensational, and I couldn’t praise our cooperation with the festival enough.“

Otti’s wish for the 30th W:O:A, if anything was possible:

„Queen. With Freddie of course. Unfortunately I have never seen him live, but I’m sure that he was so magical that he had been a good fit for the Wacken Open Air.“

Ann G. Jung

Do you want some more? All already released stories are available here!