Wacken is THE heavy metal town in the world, but punk rock has always been a part of the festival. That’s why the organizers made a documentary about the genre. It will be released on December 8th - on top of that on the same day there will be new punk rock band confirmations for the upcoming festival in the W:O:A advent calendar.  

“We’ve always had punk bands in our lineup“, says Thomas Jensen, one of the founders of Wacken Open Air. To do what you want, to protest against politics and social systems, being different - these are all common threads of heavy metal and punk rock.

Henry Rollins, Charlie Harper solo and with the UK Subs, Betontod, Kärbholz, Pyogenesis, TV Smith and others were part of the lineup of W:O:A 2017 - in the documentary they all take a look at the similarities of punk rock and heavy metal, talk about their first meeting points with the genres and enthuse about the energy, that is liberated through this music.

"Kids from all over the world will make noise in garages for 300 years or more. There will always be crazy and angry people who make this great music that liberates others”, says Black Flag legend and spoken word artist Henry Rollins.

The protagonists all agree on Motörhead as link between the two genres. The documentary shows spectacular Wacken Open Air live performances of them, and as well of Slime, Napalm Death, Dritte Wahl, Boomtown Rats, Walls Of Jericho, Turbonegro.

On that note: “Never mind the bollocks, here’s punk rock at Wacken Open Air!”

The documentary will be released on December 8th at 11 AM. The new punk rock band confirmations will be released the same day at midnight in the W:O:A advent calendar. A trailer for the documentary can be seen below: