After the very successful 18th edition of the Wacken Open Air festival, the following message has been posted on the festival's official website:

"Dear Metalheadz!

The 18th W:O:A is now part of our history and this year again 3 positive factors about our cult festival will stay in our minds:

- the best audience worldwide
- brilliant bands with great performances
- the sun is from Northern Germany!

We'd like to thank you for your support because without YOU we would not be what we are:

One of the biggest Heavy Metal Festival worldwide!

Of course there have been problems this year because of the disastrous weather conditions whilst the assembling period, at the park- and campinggrounds as well as at the arrival which we will try to change next year. But altogether we all celebrated a brilliant Metal party.

Furthermore we'd like to take away your fear - W:O:A will not get any bigger... we're at the limit! We will advance the logistic (f.e. entrance and exit to the Party Stage, accessibility of the festival area, etc. Furthermore there'll still be the possibility to camp at your cars of course (that's part of the W:O:A feeling) though we have to reserve our rights - in case of catchy conditions like this year - to change it.

Of course if you have had any stress and problems because of the short termed changes concerning the weather conditions we'd like to apologize. We hope that you understand this situation because without these arrangements W:O:A 2007 could not have taken place.

Watch out for 2008: Wacken Open Air, Faster-Harder-Louder!
See you in Wacken - rain or shine!

Now enjoy reading and see you next time!

Yours,

W:O:A Team"

The message also extends to include all the details of the efforts to get the festival site into good condition after the bad weather:

"...5000 sqm fleece were laid out. 1500 tons of wooden chips have been spread on top of the fleece and the whole area was covered with 600 bales of straw. For the secure stand of our visitors on the festival area the basement has also been millinged and indued with heavy weight basement plates which are also used for tanks. To dry the camping grounds a helicopter flew over the camping grounds only in a height of 60 centimetres and blew the excess water away so that the areas were dry..."

To read the full statement, visit this location.

The official Metal Storm report for the festival is currently being worked on and should be on in the not-so-distant future, so keep your eyes out for it. Expect a good lengthy three page review with over one hundred pictures of the bands and the festival site itself.

Source:

wacken.com