The organizers behind Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival has halted entry to the event as persistent rain converted the venue into a muddy field.
Initially, an audience of 85,000 was predicted for the festival, scheduled to kick off today – Wednesday, August 2. However, only a rough estimate of 50,000 attendees managed to reach the location, per reports from the German news outlet DPA.
Early Wednesday, organizers issued the following statement: “Considering the weather conditions, the reasonable visitor capacity for Wacken Open Air 2023 has now been reached. Any further travel must be stopped and cancelled with immediate effect. For the first time in the history of the W:O:A this decision has been made. We are very sad, but the continuing difficult weather situation unfortunately leaves us no other choice.”
The organizers had earlier said that they would make efforts to transport vehicles that were already nearby the Wacken Open Air location onto the festival premises.
“We have to tow each vehicle individually to the targeted parking space with a tractor, which takes a lot of time for every single vehicle. All tractors are in continuous use day and night on all areas,” they said in a statement.
