There will never be another metal festival like Wacken. The German mega-fest has long been an important pilgrimage for heavy metal fans, giving them a chance to see their favorite bands both huge and obscure playing to tens of thousands of screaming fans. Unfortunately, while Wacken 2021 had to be outright canceled due to ongoing travel issues in Europe due to COVID-19, Wacken 2022 has already announced its first 18 acts, and man, are they a rogues gallery of metal genres.
Here’s who’s performing at Wacken Open Air 2022 as of now:
- Judas Priest
- Limp Bizkit
- As I Lay Dying
- Lacuna Coil
- Gwar
- Death Angel
- Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons
- Wolves in the Throne Room
- Avantasia
- Gloryhammer
- In Extremo
- Rose Tattoo
- Thundermother
- Brothers of Metal
- All Hail the Yeti
- Varang Nord
- Crypta
- Audn
Wow, how’re you going to book GWAR, Death Angel, Limp Bizkit AND Wolves In The Throne Room for the same festival?
More information about Wacken Open Air 2022 can be found at the festival’s website, but suffice it to say, we’re already pricing out plane tickets.
For those who don’t know and have never been, Wacken Open Air is Germany’s biggest and most raucous metal festival, hosting between 80,000 and 100,000 fans every year in a cow pasture some hour and change north of Hamburg. The fest is almost exclusively metal and hardcore, and as such gives much-loved bands within the genre the stages and audiences they deserve. You may only get to see Cannibal Corpse in front of 300 people in Long Island, but at Wacken they get to play for a mile-long crowd of 80,000 screaming fans.
This year, Wacken decided to make their festival virtual, releasing a series of live performance footage and hosting interactive panels, activities, and more. And it worked — according to Pollstar, Wacken World Wide brought in 11,000,000 views overall. The next even down on the list, a set by French DJ David Guetta, pulled in 7,729,344 views.
***
Words by Chris Krovatin
