Saturday August 2nd, was the last day of the festival and like the previous day there were a few groups we wanted to see.

In the middle of the afternoon, we went into the Wet Stage, our one and only stop to this stage to watch the mighty Powerwolf. I didn't except much from them even though I adored the last album, but the show was a huge surprise and a huge hit as well ! I mean the public was transported by the strong and captivated performance, both visually (backgrounds, costumes as well as makeup) and soundwise. The band played one hit after the other and it striked me how much the songwriting of this band was perfect for live performance, with many repeating moments (usually choruses) for the entire crowd to sing ! The experience was simply incredible and it was the biggest surprise of the entire show for me. The only thing that wasn't so good was the stench that emanated from the Wet Stage, maybe because it was situated within a few meters from toilets nearby. The stench was really really bad at times but fortunately I could kill it with some strong menthol bonbons and also a cute petite girl in front of me headbanging so much that her hair passed in front of me all the time, and the nice shampoo smelled long hiar covered the odor :). First time I was actually liking having hair near my face at a concert ! Killer tracks like Saturday Satan, We Came to To Take Your Soul, Kiss Of The Cobra King, Prayer In The Dark, In Blood We Trust, Vampires Don't Die were blasting one after the other and the band played almost an hour (even though they were supposed to play 45 minutes). I loved that show so much that if one day PowerWolf will play as headliners I will definitely go and watch them again.

Nightwish was a show where I was really nervous about the overall performance, especially after the 2001 Wacken Show I had seen here, where I was even in the pits taking pictures during the first three songs. But with Tarja gone, how would the band sound, especially on the older material. On the new stuff Anette was ok but it was pretty clear soon on older songs that she's no Tarja, and it was clear that she was having trouble getting her voice over the gigantic crowd that was present that night. But the songs had lost in power and the overall performance was not on par with the level of such a band as Nightwish. I remember sending a message to my wife telling her that Nightwish wasn't that hot that night and that I was definitely missing Tarja. Her answer was just perfect : "Nightwish without Tarja is TheyWish", and well, that night they wished they were another lineup, even if they wouldn't admit it, it was clear that the band can't ever top their past performance with Anette, its gonna be different and still a great band live to see in the future, but I got the impression that it will never be the same than it once was. Overall an okay show but a sizeable part of the public left before it ended and I got the impression from the public's enthusiasm (when compared to Iron Maiden), that they were disappointed with the overall concert, or at least a lot less thrilled than they would have been if Tarja was at the microphone. I really like the last album but if I put Once I instantly remember the golden days and how powerful Tarja was both on albums and live. Having seen her on two occasions before, once in Wacken with more than 30'000 people at the time and once with 300 persons in Geneva in a miniature venue, and both performances were awesome and blew this concert to kingdom come.

After NightWish was the turn for Axxis to blow up our ears. I'm a long long time fan of the band, since their very first album, and only saw them live in 1999 Wacken, but since there was also Pretty Maids on a main stage (and we was right in front of them) at almost the same time I didn't see much, about 20 minutes of the show, but it was really great. Axxis are at home in Germany and it showed, and I was amazed how loud the band was on the Party Stage, completly shadowing the public from the Black Stage (which was playing Kreator !). The ambiance was great and Axxis delivered some of their best songs, from classics like Kingdom of the Night, Touch the Rainbow, A Little War, Living in A World, Little Look Back amongst other (the thing with Axxis is their repertoire is so mindblowingly awesome that they could play 3 hours in a row and only play hits !) and songs from the new albums as well like Blood Angel, Doom of Destiny or one their all-time best songs : Tales From Glory Highland. I noticed that the female singer wasn't there, and her lines where on tape instead. Burnie is really a showman and he managed to get the public going for the entire time, even interacting with someone from the public, bringing up a girl to play some castanets type of percussion, a funny moments since after trying to teach her 3-4 times a very simple rhythm, she simply couldn't do anything but a simple repetitive rhythm that wasn't even remotely like what he had hoped :), still they played the song and they even took a picture with her, which was a nice touch. Bernie is an amazing singer and his performance live was really awesome, I really loved this show and if there wasn't for the Lordi show it would have ended Wacken to perfection for me. Don't get me wrong I love Lordi but Axxis is so much more fun and has so much more connection with the public that it would not be fair to compare the two. Watching this show and singing along every single song for 60 minutes in the cold (I really wish they would have played double that !). I finished my lungs and throat for good on that one, and actually was sick for 10 days after the festival, but it was so worth it. Next time Axxis come in Switzerland I'll have to book a ticket though I really hope they'll be headlining soon. Axxis is typically a band that should be a major by now in my opinion, but well, the gods of metal have decided otherwise so far. I think they get better with each albums from Time Machine (actually from Return To The Kingdom but Eyes of Darkness was not on par except for the title track) and I can't wait to listen to their next material. Definitely one of my top 5 bands.

To conclude Lordi took the stage and played a lot of hits, like Would you Love a Monster Man, Devil is a Loser, Hard Rock Halleluya as well as an Accept cover with Udo as a guest (that was really a great surprise and hats off to Udo to come and perform one song), they played They Only Come At Night and it was an awesome song to close the festival. Apparently it was announced ahead of time but we didn't knew about it but as soon as the song started we ran more in front to enjoy the song. Now overall the performance of Lordi was good but I don't find them to be so enjoying live (beside the pyros)... I like the costumes and all but the problem is with the repertoire, that doesn't let a lot of intervention with the public except of course for Hard Rock Halleluya. I guess big Lordi fans would enjoy them a lot but I thought it was a medium show, but let's be fair, anyone would have sounded this way after Axxis mindblowing performance, even Maiden wouldn't have shook me the same as they did on the first day if they had played after Axxis. I'm sure a lot of people would disagree but heck, that's my opinion.

A little before Nightwish I went to Metal Markt and I was so sorry we didn't take the time to go any earlier (we had the time we just didn't think about it), as it was so huge compared to last time I was in Wacken that I barely manage to quickly browse through 25% of the shops to make last minute gifts and purchases (couple of t-shirts). I must say if I ever return to Wacken (which is probable) on more time, I will deifnitely save 4-5 hours to browse the market more seriously. On the other hand it was the last hours of the market and I could find loads of interesting deals (3 for the price of 2 shirts, some half priced stuff... etc). I also appreciated that entering the Market was free, which wasn't the case last time I was there (well 1 Euro isn't a lot of money, but I hated the concept and the queue to buy the entrance in the past)

Overall there was a lot less bands I was interested in than in 99 or 2001, but still there was a lot of great shows, with the highlights being Avantasia, Iron Maiden, Airbourne (was a big surprise to me), Sabaton, Powerwolf & Axxis. In the end we really had a great time there. I want to thank my brother for inviting me to Wacken as its not really something I could have afforded this year and I'm really really grateful for the birthday gift, thanks a lot bro, we had an awesome time !

I didn't get a pit photo pass (some mix-up with the application, probably on my part), and therefor I don't have interesting photos to show you, especially I had a small digital camera with me, and there's tons of great photos of the festival online, as well as lots of videos on Youtube if you're interested to see more about this incredible festival that Wacken is.

Wacken Open Air is a unique experience with a unique atmosphere, one that must be experienced once in the life of EVERY metalhead in the world. Really, if you can manage to go there once, you should ! Its an experience you'll never forget, trust me. And next year Wacken 2009 will be the show's 20th anniversary, and the festival will probably have a big big name as headliners (imagine AC/DC, KISS or Metallica ? ... who knows... this is just guess and rumors we've heard, but I'm sure there will be a big name playing). The tickets will probably run out by the end of the year or beginning of january so if you do not want to miss this show, you should hurry to get a ticket. Of course you'll find plenty of people selling tickets outside the festival, but probably at a much higher price, still, if you have no tickets and want to come anyway, you should still be able to attend at a price. Wacken is definitely the ultimate experience in terms of a metal festival, and I can only advise you to go there and have the time of your life at least once in your life !