Every summer it happens again. A little village in northern Germany gets run over by hordes of metal heads. And for one reason or another, the villagers seem to love that invasion. Metalheads can be a bit weird, with their black clothes, their funny outfits, their loud music, their make-up even. But stil, the villagers welcome them every year. A crowd that’s more than 20 times the size of the village. Now why is that I ask myself. Is it because of the traffic jams every big festival brings year after year? Can’t imagine that. Is it for the nights ruined by loud music? Don’t think so. Is it because maybe, the villagers have an extra bit of income because of the festival? Maybe, but I still don’t think so. As far as I’m concerned, it’s because Wacken Open Air is simply one of the best places anyone can spend a summer weekend. !The Village W.O.A has it’s own language. Not only because the festival attracts visitors from all over the world. Also because Wacken is Wacken. The Wackinger Village is a nice place to relax. Never have I seen such a variety in food on a festival. The choice is amazing. I was at W.O.A. for five days in 2014. About every meal I took, I chose something else. I didn’t need to eat the same twice. Not even close. And the food is simply delicious. Not only to festival standards. You would probably chose most of their food when going out in your own town. Relaxing isn’t about food alone. Relaxing is an experience at W.O.A. There aren’t many festivals of this size where they offer you such wide choice in things to see. Knights in shining armor? They got them. Post apocalyptic village? They ride around the field in their own vehicles. They even are dressed up as if the apocalypse happened two weeks ago, and they

!are still recovering from it. The atmosphere in the Wackinger village is just amazing. People come there to really take some time of from the crowded, noisy festival just a short walk away. And even with the festival that close, you feel like in a different world.

The Crowd People don’t just visit Wacken. They live it. Many of them save money all year, just to be able to go to what is for them the most important weekend of the year. Forget Easter, never mind Christmas. It’s Wacken time baby. You can easily pick them out on the roads leading to Wacken. Many vehicles have the letters W.O.A. on the back window. They all start waving at each other with more passion, the closer they get to the holy ground. As soon as people arrive at the camping grounds, something amazing happens. On most festivals, they put up their tents, and that’s it. Not at W.O.A. There you build a home away from home. You see the most amazing constructions being build. Some even have specialized vehicles complete with a second floor. Others have their own garden or a swimming pool. It all is possible at Wacken. That’s why some people don’t even leave the camping sites. They get their food and drinks at the on-camping supermarket, and they party hard all weekend. But of course most of the fans do want to see their band.

A festival is a festival. A crowd is a crowd. But there’s no crowd like the Wacken crowd. Some of them pick a spot in the middle of the field to see the whole festival, others rush from stage to stage to see their bands as close as possible. But they all are extremely friendly. Wherever you go at Wacken, people start talking to each other. People who don’t know each other. They might not even speak the same language. But they all understand metal. And who needs English or German when you speak a language, expressed in black and skulls. In horns and tattoo’s. In dust and crowd surfing. !The Grounds As I told you before, W.O.A. is a city on it’s own. A city needs its own infrastructure. And that’s one of the best in Europe when it comes to festivals. Hot showers, supermarkets, free drinking water on every corner, plenty of security and safety workers, … All to give you the best experience possible. And all with a smile. On the camping sites, you could lose your tent easily. That’s why the people of Wacken have given all roads on site a name. Metallica Avenue, Grave Digger Gasse, Slayer Street,

Gorgoroth Road, Carcass Street or Street In Flames. They all have their population of partying, collourfull people. And they all help to find your way around the site. But still, even with the street names, people lose their own spot. Some of them just sleep outside and continue the search the next day, when they are more or less sober again. Others find a place to eat or sleep with total strangers. And that for me is W.O.A. A place resembling the most with what I think Woodstock must have been like. The spirit of Woodstock lives on in a small village in Northern Germany. People enjoying the music they love, making new friends, having a great time creating memories for life. Some will remember them the next day, others might never know what happened the day before. Still, they will have that to remember. My first Wacken was epic. A festival I will never forget, because of the atmosphere, the bands, the crowd,… Because it is Wacken Open Air. On the next pages we will bring you a selection of pictures, taken at W.O.A. 14. The pictures tell you the story. We don’t think you’ll need much explaining by the images. !For SWM, Wim Op de beeck Pictures originally taken for Snoozecontrol Magazine.

U Have read a free preview for the first edition of Shutterwall Magazine. Much more will be in our first full edition. Do you want to subscribe to our magazine? Please send an email to shutterwall@gmail.com, and we will send you all the info you need. Or just go to shutterwall.net/store/, click on the magazine section, and choose the subscription you would like. For a general idea of wat you would buy, we include the first cover on the next page. And remember: when it has a guitar, a bass and a drum… it’s likely to end up in Shutterwall Magazine.

2014 PHOTO SPECIAL

ANTWERP METAL FEST WACKEN OPEN AIR SOS FESTIVAL MANCHESTER !ARCH ENEMY AMON AMARTH ENDSTILLE STEEL PANTHER DIABLO BOULEVARD LEAVE SCARS TEMPTATIONS FOR THE WEAK And Many More