Until then, the pit had already served as a meeting venue for up to 3,000 members of biker club 'No Mercys', it was therefore perfectly suited for their plans and also presented an opportunity to attract motorcycle fans.

[5] In 1991, the number of visitors increased to 1,300,[5] and with Skyline returning, Bon Scott, an AC/DC cover band from Hamburg, Gypsy Kyss, Kilgore, Life Artist, Ruby Red, and Shanghai'd Guts joined them on stage for an all-regional roster.

The additional post-concert costs for garbage disposal on the campground, where 2,500 paying guests and many more were present and celebrated, as well as the significantly oversized security, among other things, meant that the organisers recorded a loss of around 25,000 D-Mark that year.

[13] However, for the first time, national media became aware of Wacken Open Air, especially Rock Hard magazine, as well as the newly founded TV station VIVA with its Heavy Metal programme Metalla.

[13] Ticket sales for the 1996 festival again started sluggishly, despite a headliner like Kreator and numerous internationally renowned bands such as The Exploited, Gorefest, and Crematory.

[14] As a result of many visitors flooding the village in 1996, the inhabitants of Wacken voiced their concern over an event of this size being held in the local gravel pit.

Uwe Trede offered to relocate the festival site to his own property and the areas previously used as campgrounds and took care of the acquisition of additional land.

[15] Over the years, the size of Wacken Open Air has grown continuously, and now dozens of bands and tens of thousands of visitors flock to the festival.

Even though the organisers said in 2006 that 62,500 visitors were "the limit of what is possible",[16][citation needed] changes were made to the structure of the festival grounds the following year by allocating a larger area to the "Party Stage".

The fact that many well-known bands, including the Scorpions, Saxon, Twisted Sister, Dimmu Borgir, Slayer, and Helloween, have recorded live DVDs at Wacken, shows how esteemed the Open Air has since become.

Since 2002, the so-called "Metal Train" has been travelling from Munich to Wacken and back before and after the festival to bring fans to the Northern German village and provide a matching entertainment programme.

Marking the local church's 150th anniversary, the team, together with the parish, organised a concert by the band Faun, which was framed by two readings and sermons by "Volxbibel" author Martin Dreyer.

[22] As is common with festivals of this size, Wacken Open Air received criticism for its hygienic conditions, prices, security personnel, as well as for the overcrowding and commercial orientation of the event.

In 2008, the organisers also contributed 1,000,000 Euros to the expansion of Wacken's local outdoor swimming pool in order to make the festival even more attractive to the residents and visitors of the town.

[24] For the 23rd edition of Wacken Open Air, the sale of an "X-Mas Package" started on Monday, 8 August 2011, shortly after the end of that year's festival, and was sold out within 45 minutes.

An action for exceeding the maximum noise limit, brought before the Administrative Court of Schleswig by residents of Wacken, ended in January 2013 with an out-of-court settlement.

Now, if the average noise level of the festival exceeds 70 dB, the organisers pay 1,000 Euros to the community, which donates the money to charitable causes.

At the same time, 700,000 Euros worth of drains were installed in front of the stages in order to improve the drainage of water masses during heavy rains.

[38] A total of approximately 5,000 employees work for the festival, including 1,800 security staff members, 150 cleaners, 70 construction and dismantling assistants, as well as 400 police officers, 250 firefighters, 900 paramedics, and six emergency doctors.

The area in front of the main stages comprises both the Bavarian beer garden and a large shopping mile called Metal Markt.

There are also various food stalls, the Wacken Foundation Camp, ATMs, and the Movie Field, where Heavy Metal documentaries and feature films are screened.

[44] Since the large crowds lead to a bottleneck situation in terms of mobile service, some providers now set up portable base stations for GSM, UMTS, and LTE+ during the festival.

Every year, hundreds of helpers from various relief organisations from all over Germany arrive before the festival to prepare the medical camp and care for people in need during the event.

[54] Since the 2017/2018 season, the Wacken Foundation's lettering can be found on the jerseys of German 3rd league club FC Carl Zeiss Jena.

One week after the festival ended, young people from all over Germany were invited to write and play their own songs under the guidance of professional musicians.

[57] The festival works with the organisers of the so-called Wattolümpiade ("mudflat Olympics") in Brunsbüttel to promote the slogan Stark gegen Krebs ("Strong against cancer").

For five years, regional, national and international Metal bands like De la Cruz, 5th Avenue, and King Køng played at Knust every Monday.

After a break of almost 20 years, Metal Monday was revived by the Wacken Open Air organisers in 2014 in cooperation with the Knust, Seaside Touring, All Access, and Hamburg Konzerte.

[85] Schleswig-Holstein's Prime Minister Peter Harry Carstensen (CDU) commented on the opening of W:O:A 2009: "I don't come here to listen to the music, but I do identify with the festival".

When Holger is nearly electrocuted by a live wire he (in a coma) and his co-organizer Thomas reflect on their creation, the Wacken Open Air Heavy Metal Festival that in 1990 had an audience of 800 and now attracts 100,000 fans per year.