Fewer people than planned were allowed to attend the festival. Photo: dpa/Axel Heimken
According to their own statements, the organizers of the heavy metal festival in Wacken are missing out on income of several million euros. The backgrounds.
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Due to the lower number of visitors, the organizers of the heavy metal festival in Wacken are losing several million euros in revenue. “It’s a third of our revenue,” said festival co-founder Thomas Jensen on Saturday. Due to the bad condition of the area due to mud, the organizers had imposed an entry ban. Instead of the expected 85,000 there were only 61,000 metal fans in Wacken. If you don’t get in, you get your money back.
That is not so difficult to calculate mathematically, said Jensen when asked. “23,500 times 299, and then you can get pretty close somewhere.” The tickets cost 299 euros. According to Jensen’s bill, income of more than seven million euros is missing.
“Nothing bad happened here”
“The ticket price is the least of the two evils,” said Jensen. Metal fans are still starving after the pandemic. Co-founder Holger Hübner made a similar statement. The economic questions will be discussed after the end of the festival from Monday. “It’s not about coal. Then you wouldn’t have done it anyway.”
There was positive news from the police and rescue services. “That was by far – also in relation to the somewhat reduced number of participants – the safest Wacken Open Air, that somehow welded us together,” said Chief Police Director Frank Matthiesen. Officials registered very few crimes.
“Nothing serious happened here,” said the head of the rescue team, Volker Böhm. Paramedics would have provided 2,500 services and brought 120 visitors to hospitals. Most of these are already back at the festival.