Wacken Open Air is one of the most visited and biggest music festivals in Europe and said to be the greatest heavy metal festival in the world. About 80,000 metal and rock fans gather in the otherwise tranquil town every year without fail. The visitors cause an almost crisis situation situation in the 2,000 capacity village for three days – and they do not care about the weather.
At this year’s Wacken Open Air, DMAX followed the internationally successful band BLIND GUARDIAN. The band – Hansi Kürsch (vocals), André Olbricht (lead guitars), Marcus Siepen (guitars), Frederik Ehmke (drums) and Barend Courbois (bass) – have achieved status as one of the leading international metal acts for almost 30 years. They have sold more than 2,5 million records and are followed by an enormously loyal fanbase.
With BLIND GUARDIAN and their crew, DMAX goes behind the big stage and has a look behind the scenes of Wacken Open Air for the first time: how do you experience such an event, if you’re not a guest, but a part of the crew? The DMAX documentary focuses on the varied and hectic daily routine of the musicians on tour as well as the hard work of the “secret heroes” of Wacken Open Air (f.e. security, project manager), which is all running in the background unnoticedly. The DMAX documentary, »Road To Wacken«, delivers fascinating insights on the daily routine of an experienced band and shows the everyday life at the festival between adventurous fun and hard work.
Frontman Hansi Kürsch revealed:
“Wacken festival is a very personal thing for me as I saw it growing as a musician. With BLIND GUARDIAN, I have played here six times. But I have also participated in Wacken for other bands and promotional activities. Spectators can look forward to extremely amazing footage in »Road To Wacken«, which will bring the phenomenon of Wacken straight into their living rooms. I can very well imagine that one or two will want to go to Wacken next year after watching this.”
DMAX Doku – »Road To Wacken« – September 3rd – 10.15pm CEST – for the first time exclusively on German free TV on DMAX!
BLIND GUARDIAN‘s current record, »Beyond The Red Mirror«, can be ordered here:
More on »Beyond The Red Mirror«:
‘Twilight Of The Gods’ OFFICIAL LYRIC VIDEO:
BLIND GUARDIAN live:
08.09. USA Atlanta, GA – Prog Power Festival
w/ GRAVE DIGGER
09.09. USA Tampa, FL – The Orpheum
10.09. USA Fort Lauderdale, FL – Revolution
12.09. USA Wilmington, NC – Ziggy’s By The Sea
13.09. USA Chapel Hill, NC – Cats Cradle
15.09. USA New York, NY – Webster Hall
16.09. USA Worcester, MA – The Palladium
17.09. CDN Quebec City – Imperial
19.09. CDN London, ON – London Music Hall
20.09. USA Detroit, MI – The Crofoot
22.09. USA Omaha, NE – The Waiting Room
23.09. USA Milwaukee, WI – The Rave II
24.09. USA St. Louis, MO – The Ready Room
26.09. USA Houston, TX – Warehouse Live
27.09. USA Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Bar N’ Grill
29.09. USA Denver, CO – The Summit Music Hall
30.09. USA Salt Lake City, UT – The Complex
01.10. USA Las Vegas, NV – House Of Blues
02.10. USA San Diego, CA – Observatory North Park
04.10. USA Los Angeles, CA – The Fonda Theatre
05.10. USA San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore
08.10. J Tokyo – Loud Park Festival
10.10. RC Taipei – Taipei ATT @ Showbox Live House
03.12. D Oberhausen – Ruhrpott Metal Meeting
09.12. NL Rijssen – Lucky
10.12. D Geiselwind – Christmas Bash
11.12. CH Pratteln – Z7
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