Germany's WACKEN OPEN AIR Festival Halts Admissions After Heavy Rain Turns Site To Mud

The organizers of Germany's Wacken Open Air festival have stopped admissions to the event after heavy rain turned the grounds to mud.

Although a sellout crowd of 85,000 was originally expected at festival, which is scheduled to start today (Wednesday, August 2),only an estimated 50,000 people made it to the site, according to the German news agency DPA.

Early Wednesday, the Wacken 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 previously said that attempts would be made to bring vehicles that were already in the immediate vicinity to the Wacken Open Air site onto the festival grounds.

"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.

This year's installment of the annual metal festival sold out within six hours of tickets going on sale twelve months ago. This marked the fastest sellout in Wacken's 33-year history.

British heavy metal legends IRON MAIDEN are headlining this year's edition of Wacken Open Air, which takes place annually in Wacken, a village with a population of just about 2,000.

The first Wacken Open Air event in 1990 drew less than 800 people, but it has since grown to become the biggest open-air festival of its kind.

Around 30 percent travel from other countries to the festival, which over recent years has been growing in popularity.

200 bands performed at last year's Wacken Open Air, including headliners SLIPKNOT, POWERWOLF and JUDAS PRIEST.

Wacken Open Air was forced to take a break for two years due to coronavirus restrictions.

Wacken Open Air normally does not announce the names of its headliners before tickets go on sale. Still, the festival usually sells out within hours.

The festival also doesn't sell VIP access or upgrades and all purchases are for all the days without a single-day ticket option, something they did away with nearly two decades ago.