4th August(Fri)
We were exhausted because of traveling with the flight and looking around in the festival site at the first night, so as soon as we got to our room we went to bed straight away. So,we slept well and had a nice breakfast in the hostel, then we were ready to go to the festival! I had "Metal-breakfast" at the camping area when I went to this festival in 2003, but I liked the one in the hostel as well. By the way, many other audiences were having the breakfast there as well, and most of them including us were wearing metal T-Shirts, so the cafe was was full of black-colour

It cost to get on the taxi and anyway the bus was operated until the certain time, so we got on the bus to the festival site. When we arrived there, we found actually a bus stop and a place where several taxies were waiting were next to each other The festival site was huge including the camping area, besides it was dark when we were walking around, so we couldn't find them at the first night. Everything looked really different in the day and night, so we should have looked around in the day time at first. We brought a tent at that day, so after putting it up and leaving some stuff in it, we were walking to the festival area.

Six Feet Under was playing at the black stage when I got to the festival area. It was fine and warm, and a lot of audiences gained in front of the stage. I heard Six Feet Under had played at some festivals in Europe this year. It was the second time to see their gig but I wasn't familiar with their music though. Anyway I recognized their last played song "TNT" that was a cover song of AC/DC.

Six Feet Under

Looking around a lot of food shops, we went to the w.e.t stage to see an Ukrainian death metal band Fleshgore. I remembered they were from an eastern European country, and when I found their national flag on the stage, I recognized they were from Ukraine. I've seen their name on several metal websites, then I suppose they've been playing in the eastern European countries quite often. It was the first time to see a death metal band from Ukraine, but I guessed there were a lot of good bands in the metal scene in that country. When we were waiting for their gig, my boyfriend was chatting with an audience from Peru. Wacken is the biggest metal festival in the world, so of course the audiences were from all over the world. So I guess it's a really good opportunity to see many types of metal bands for the audiences, and to promote to the audiences for the bands at the same time.

Fleshgore

Korpiklaani is a finish band which I've often seen their name especially on the Japanese metal websites recently. I suppose there're quite many finish metal bands that their music is influenced by the folklore such as Fintroll and Ensiferem, so I expected Korpiklaani would be that kind of band as well. As soon as the band appeared on the party stage, I imagined they would be even more folk metal band because of their appearance. At first, a member having an equipment like an electrical violin started to play in front of a lot of audiences,and then a big reindeer's horn was tied up on a microphone for a vocalist Their songs were also much more folklore-influenced than I thought. They were really popular and the audiences enjoyed watching their gig so much. I recently recognized this band was popular, but they'd been like that since sometimes or long time ago if I think about their age??

Korpiklaani

A thing surprised me was that a Japanese band was playing in the festival. Besides this Japanese band wasn't exactly a "metal band" but so-called a "visual band" in Japan, so I was curious how their gig would be at the biggest metal festival held in Europe. Anyway Despairs Ray started to play at the party stage around 23:00. Their songs were partly industrial influenced and sang in Japanese and English. The Japanese visual bands have some certain types of styles including melodies, sounds and their appearance which are popular especially in the young Japanese girls, so I was interested how the audiences in Europe would react them. Surprisingly the audiences supported them well, and the band played energetically. I'm not into any Japanese visual bands, but I thought they performed well and their music was really different from any other bands playing in the festival.

Despairs Ray

The last band I saw at that night was Ministry playing on the true metal stage. I used to like and listen their songs so often when I was young, but I didn't know how they'd been. I was even surprised they'd still played Anyway I found I still liked their music, and was glad to see a band which I really liked when I was a teenager.

We had been supposed to stay in our tent and would back to the hostel in the next morning, so expecting not to rain the following day as well, I laid down in my sleeping bag. An advantage to camp there is that we didn't need to be aware of the bus schedule. Anyway the bus would run in the day time, so I was falling asleep but my boyfriend was still drinking somewhere else though

5th August (Sat)

True metal stage

tired at the last day?

Fish sandwich stand

5th August(Sat)
We woke up because it had been warmer in our tent in that morning. The time had past really quickly, besides especially we wasted the time a lot at the first night, so it was as if suddenly the last day had come. We wished we could have been there but we needed to get back to the hostel to take a shower and to change our clothes once. Fortunately we'd already found the way to the bus stop, so we got there easily. Some people had already been in a queue, but some of them weren't sure when the next bus would come, or even if it was the bus stop there Actually It was the first time to get on the bus from the festival site, so we weren't sure about it either. After all the bus came and run to the station.

It was the last day of the Wacken Open Air'06, so I tried to look around the food stands, atmosphere and so on. It seemed quite many audiences were tired or drunk as it was the final day. The numbers of audiences had been increasing, so it was really difficult to move among the stages and to reach to some specific areas such as the food stands that were opposite of the party stage.

Morbid Angel at the black stage and Orphaned Land at the party stage were playing at the same time, then I choose to see Orphaned Land as I'd never seen their gigs. I listened their songs for the first time as well, but I'd heard they'd been a kind of a gothic metal band though. Their songs were arranged with some Israeli folklore tastes, and they went with their music and atmosphere brilliantly. Leaving to talk about the festival a bit, their country Israel has got the political difficulties, then the audiences in front of the stage waved a Israeli flag and a Palestinian flag.

Orphaned Land

I got to the black stage to wait for Emperor well in advance. Expecting their last show since they reunioned, a lot of audiences had gained there. While we were waiting, Whitesnake was playing at the next stage that was the true metal stage, so quite many Emperor's fans were watching Whitesnake It was of course(?) the first time to see their gig, and they remind me about a teacher in the art class when I was a junior high school student as he liked Whitesnake and so he sometimes made students listen their songs in the class room
Emperor eventually played at the Inferno Festival in Norway and the Wacken Open Air, because 2 shows planed in the States in July had been cancelled. I saw their gig in the Inferno Festival as well, then comparing 2 shows, Ihsahn looked he was more relaxed and even talkative at the Wacken Open Air. They played their songs from each released album including the last one "Prometheus". The support members who were a bassist and a keyboard-player were the same as those in the Inferno Festival, then I was a bit aware of the keyboard-player's action, as he performed really enthusiastically, so his keyboard was so waving on the stage No encore was played, but they appeared after they played all songs on the stage once again, then replied to greeting from the tons of audiences. It seemed they thanked that their reunion succeeded, facing to their backdrop hanging at back of the drum set and holding their hands each other. It was like a last scene of a musical, but on the other hand, I thought this show was the final although a lot of audiences expected to see them more.

Emperor

Unfortunately we have to leave the festival site when Mötorhead was playing at the true metal stage, because we had to go to Hamburg in the early following morning. It was a terrible start as we lost the way many times and walked around a lot in the festival site at the first night, but eventually we really enjoyed the festival At least we learned it was better to arrive in Itzehoe a day before the festival would started, carrying a the festival site map, and not to depend on the securities
By the way, we had to reach the Hamburg station in the next early morning, but unfortunately no train was operated around that time. We recognized about it when we planed to go to the festival, then we found a taxi transfer service called "Travel Porter" in Hamburg. It basically operates the taxies between a point in the northen German regions and Hamburg Airport, but they served for our private arrangement that was from the hostel we stayed in Itzehoe to the Hamburg train station. It cost 90 euros, and this service was really door to door! A taxi we got on was so comfortable, and a driver was excellent as well. If you book a taxi by 3-4 people, it's even cheaper. So I really recommend this service to people going somewhere around the Hamburg Airport.