The Wacken Open Air festival, also known as W:O:A, began in 1990 as a small festival with just 800 rock fans and a few local metal bands. The initial venue was a former gravel pit on the outskirts of the village of Wacken northwest of the Germany city of Hamburg. Today, the four-day event is one of the biggest and best-known metal festivals in the world, attended by around 185,000 fans from over 80 countries.

The festival usually sells out within hours, although tickets are getting more expensive — €333 ($386) this year — and the event is becoming increasingly commercialized. Nevertheless, Wacken has become a meeting place for the metal community. When in Wacken, be prepared to encounter the familiar "devils horn" metalhead salute — a raised fist with outstretched index and pinky fingers — as well as the familiar battle cry: "Wackeeeeeen!"

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During the festival week, the village of Wacken transforms into a metropolis of around 95,000 people. This includes fans, tens of thousands of crew members and helpers as well as hundreds of musicians and media from all over the world. The 240-hectare site has a completely independent infrastructure with over 1,300 toilets, hundreds of showers, its own electricity and water supply, waste collection and even a small police station. There are also mobile medical stations, field kitchens, shuttle buses and a sophisticated traffic management........

© Deutsche Welle