WACKEN 2013 \\ Next Year's WACKEN OPEN AIR Is Officially Sold Out

All 75,000 tickets to next year's edition of the Wacken Open Air festival have been sold — a little more than a month after being made available. This marks the eighth time in a row that Wacken Open Air is sold out and it is the event's fastest sellout ever.

The next Wacken Open Air will take place August 1-3, 2013 in Wacken, Germany.

The festival billing is shaping up as follows:

AMORPHIS ANTHRAX ARCH ENEMY ASP BOB WAYNE CANDLEMASS DEEP PURPLE DIE KASSIERER DORO ESKIMO CALLBOY HAGGARD HATE SQUAD IHSAHN LEPROUS NIGHTWISH RAGE RAMMSTEIN SABATON SCOTT IAN (ANTHRAX) (spoken word) SOILWORK SONATA ARCTICA SUBWAY TO SALLY

Wacken Open Air was first held in 1990 as a small event for local German bands. By 1998 the event had become the major festival on the European metal calendar and has included over 70 bands from all over Europe, North America and Australia.

Wacken Open Air is usually held at the beginning of August and lasts three days, during which the festival-goers camp on several large camping grounds surrounding the actual festival area. The 70 or more bands perform across four separate stages over the course of the event.

Wacken Open Air, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009, was honored with a Live Entertainment Award in 2008 in the "Festival Of The Year" category. This award recognizes distinguished achievements in live entertainment and is given out by Live Entertainment Award (LEA) committee.