COLOGNE, Germany — Wacken Open Air, the world’s largest heavy metal festival, is turning it up to 11 this year with a 3D documentary on the legendary head-banger event.
Wacken 3D – Louder Than Hell will shoot in the small German town of Wacken in July and August this year, including around-the-clock shooting for this year’s festival, which runs Aug. 1-3.
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The Wacken lineup reads like a who’s who of heavy metal. Among the acts scheduled to perform this year are Alice Cooper, Anthrax, Anvil, Deep Purple, Motorhead and Rammstein. Every year, about 75,000 metal fans from around the world descend on the tiny Northern German village of Wacken for the event. Tickets sell out within days of going on sale and before the lineup is even known.
Norbert Heitker, who has directed music videos for the likes of Rammstein and German punk band Die Arzte, will direct Wacken 3D with Tomas Erhart producing for shingle Jumpseat 3D and acting as director of photography. Stefan Schubert of Wuste Film is co-producing. They will shoot the event using 18 3D cameras and include extensive backstage and behind-the-scenes footage.
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This isn’t the first time Wacken has attracted the attention of documentary filmmakers. In her award-winning doc Full Metal Village (2006), Korean-born, Germany-based director Sung Hyung Cho looked at the sharp contrasts and strange connections between sleepy village life in Wacken and the annual long weekend of heavy metal madness.
Indie distributor NFP will release Wacken 3D theatrically in Germany in the spring of 2014.
