This year is the 16^th aniversary of the Wacken Open Air Festival the biggest metal festival on Earth !!. And this time the dates are August 4^th to August 6^th .As always the Wacken Open Air will feature incredible bands from all styles in metal, ranging from hard rock, heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal and more.

Just to have a sample of what is going on you can check the bands that are confirmed up to now for 2005:

As you may see the artists, besides covering all the metal styles include legends like Accept (in their reunion) along with newer bands like Reckless Tide and Endhammer.

This were the bands that played in 2004

Dio, Destruction, Helloween, Satyricon + Nocturno Culto, Amon Amarth, Bal Sagoth, Orphanage, Weinhold, JBO, Böhse Onkelz, Motorhead, Zodiac Mindwarp, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Arch Enemy, Children of Bodom, Methedras, Vanguard, Artefact, Engine of Pain, Gutbucket, Astral Doors, Hobbs Angel of Death, Misery Index, Sufferage, Mnemic, Raunchy, Dionysus, Satan, Kotipelto, Eläkeläiset, The Quireboys, Paragon, Brainstorm, Grave Digger, Warlock and Doro Pesch, Cathedral, Mayhem, Feinstein, The Rods, Onkel Tom, Unleashed, Hypocrisy, Dr. Rock, Everfest, Reckless Tide, thora, Voodoma, Supersoma, Gun Barrel, Disbelief, Griffin, Mystic Prophecy, Ektomorf, After Forever, thunderstone, Knorkator, Schandmaul, Death Angel, Anthrax, Nevermore and Saxon with friends and more.

This were the bands that played in 2003

Ancient Rites, Annihilator, Assassin, Bai Bang, Callenish Circle, Carpathian Forest, Circle II Circle, Dark Age, Dark Angel, Dark Funeral, Darkane, Dew-Scented, Diamond Head, Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, Dismember, Eidolon, Evidence One, Extreme Noise Terror, Freedom Call, Gamma Ray, Graveworm, Heavenshallburn, Human Fortress, In Flames, Kataklysm, Lordi, Lotto King Karl, Malevolent Creation, Masterplan, Metalium, Nile, Obscenity, Onkel Tom, Oratory, Primal Fear, Psychopunch, Rage, Raise Hell, Raunchy, Rotting Christ, Running Wild, Sentenced, Seventh One, Sinister, Sinner, Slayer, Soilwork, Sonata Arctica, Stratovarius, Subway To Sally, Symphorce, Testament, The Almighty Punchdrunk, The Crown, Thyrfing, Twisted Sister, Twisted Tower Dire, V8 Wankers, Vader, Victims Of Madness, Victory

As you can see there are bands for every taste. And there is also cheap beer and food that make the festival even better

On the website you can find also interesting pictures from the 2004 festival and many more information regarding the Wacken Open Air.

Also, if you want to have a look back into Wacken open Air history you can check this website where you can find all the information about the different festivals

Also, if you want to listen a little bit of what goes on every year at Wacken you may check the Armageddon over Wacken CDs. The Armageddon Over Wacken 2004 has just been released

We hope to get this year again from Argentina to Wacken as we did last year in order to do a special feature on the festival.