Aug. 2, 2026

Wacken Firefighters: The Local Band Keeping the Festival Spirit Alive

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode, Pipeman sits down with Anna Peters and Florian Rentmeister of the Wacken Firefighters. This unique band, known for opening the legendary Wacken Open Air festival, discusses their dual lives as musicians and firefighters (or supporters of the fire brigade), the evolution of Wacken, and the strong, supportive relationship between the festival and its host village. The conversation spans favorite musical moments, the impact of Wacken on the local community, and the positive spirit that defines metal culture.Main Topics Covered

Origins & Evolution of the Wacken Firefighters Band
- The initial days performing at Wacken starting in 2003
- Transition from casual field performances to main stage appearances
Adrenaline: Music vs. Firefighting
- Comparing the rush of live performance with emergency response
Musical Backgrounds
- How Anna Peters and Florian Rentmeister got into music and the Wacken Firefighters
- The influence of family and early exposure to metal concerts
Life at the Wacken Festival
- Favorite performances, including covers and crowd reactions
- Distinctive aspects of the Wacken crowd and festival culture
Community & Festival Dynamics
- The mutually beneficial relationship between the Wacken festival and local town/villagers
- Involvement of local fire brigade and the role of the festival in supporting community resources
- Post-festival life and the impact on local farmers
Special Access and Treatment for Locals and Farmers
- How villagers and local farmers participate in and benefit from the festival

Key Discussions & Stories

The Wacken Firefighters as the festival’s opening act, creating tradition and excitement for arriving visitors 00:40, 00:58.
Anna Peters describes the difference in adrenaline between firefighting and performing music 01:57.
Both guests’ early involvements in music and firefighting, and the blend of professional musicians and actual firefighters in the band 02:27, 02:59.
First metal concerts experienced: Blind Guardian for Anna Peters and Powerwolf for Florian Rentmeister, and their lasting influences 03:34, 03:50.
The unique atmosphere of Wacken: camaraderie, kindness, and the reality behind the "tough" metalhead stereotype 06:11, 06:36.
Community events anchored by the band, from Oktoberfest to lantern walks 07:49.
How Wacken festival proceeds financially support local public services, including the fire brigade 04:55.
Clean-up and restoration of the fields post-festival, plus how and why farmers tolerate the event 08:50, 09:33.

Notable Quotes

“We're literally opening the festival... We're the first band playing when everybody's arriving, and we're playing like Wednesday morning and Saturday.” — Anna Peters 00:44
“It's gotten bigger and bigger, the festival. We're switching stages here and there sometimes, so it's pretty fun.” — Florian Rentmeister 01:09
“Fighting fires is a little different because... there are people inside and you have to get them out, and there's way more adrenaline than just the having fun part playing music.” — Anna Peters 01:57
“This festival brings a lot of money to the community, which is spent to the fire brigade... So it's basically staying in the community, which is great here.” — Anna Peters 04:55
“The mosh pit has saved a lot of people from me kicking their ass, you know, because you get it all out in the pit and then whatever way any of the idiots do on the outside doesn't bother you now.” — Pipeman 06:44
“You all should totally come next year and watch us play.” — Florian Rentmeister 11:58

Resources & Links Mentioned

Wacken Open Air Festival: https://www.wacken.com/
Wacken Firefighters (Band): Typically found at festival schedules and community events in Schleswig-Holstein/Hamburg area

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WEBVTT

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Hey, you have lent you here Crue for se Wow,

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crazy you.

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This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe

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Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm.

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Here with Anna Peters from the Vacing Firefighters.

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Nice. Like this is to me the best interview of

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the whole weekend because without you, I think that there

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is no Valking.

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That's true.

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Yes, we're literally opening the festival. We're the first band

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playing at the landcast on Sunday when everybody's arriving, and

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we're playing like Wednesday morning twelve and Saturday twelve we

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played as well.

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Yeah. Nice.

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And we've been doing so since two thousand, so a

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pretty long time.

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Wow. So you've seen a lot of changes, haven't you. Yeah,

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a couple.

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It's gotten bigger and bigger at the festival. We're switching

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stages here and there sometimes, so it's pretty fun.

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It's wild too that like that first year where you

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played is where they basically came up with the idea, right.

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Yeah, yes it was. Yeah, two thousand and three we

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started playing here at the Vaking Festival and it was

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basically just grab your chairs, your instruments, go somewhereround the

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field and play some music, right and now it's very

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bigger and we're playing Rocking US stage with RHPA and everything.

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It's great. So as far as adrenaline goes, would you

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say your adrelline is about the same fighting fires as

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it is playing metal.

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O Fighting fires as a little different because sometimes you

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know they are people inside and you have to get

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them out, and there's way more adrenaline than just having fun.

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Pot blame Musicah, yeah, that's true, that's true. So did

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you do music before being firefighters or did that come after,

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like because you all met each and you're like, oh,

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that's still a band. We're all metal heads.

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For me personally, i'm a firefighter since I'm ten year olds,

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so it's the youth firefighting group and I learned it

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from theren and I played music nearly the same time,

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so I started all the same. But most of the

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musicians at the Rocking Firefighters are and firefighters at the

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and every time, so most of them are just musicians

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and just there for the music.

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Yeah. Nice, And how about you.

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I've been playing since I was six and I joined

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to walk in Firefighters, But me personally, I'm not a

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firefighter in my free time.

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So yeah, so what was it your parents or were

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you just drawn to music?

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It was my mom. She's she's the boss off the

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Vacuum tier, so she kind of got me into it.

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But I really like it now.

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Nice? Nice, And so what would you say for both

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of you? Is the first live band you ever saw

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that you were looking at them and like, oh, I

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want to do that.

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So for me, my first metal concert was Blank, Guardian

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and a Small Man. You're like two thousand people and yeah,

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I really enjoyed it and stick to it and.

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You were addicted after that? Yes, definitely? And how about you?

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My first metal concert was Power Wolf Wow. And I've

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been going to the concerts now every year when they

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do go on tour, so like I've been there like

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four or five times now.

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So yeah, and you're going to be there tonight, right,

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I am. They should bring you on stage and let

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you play with them. They should. I'm putting it out there.

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You know, we aren't allowed to go there and just

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like the normal people in the crowd and having fun

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there doing some mushbits.

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Do you find that this town maybe, with having all

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these people over the world, I mean, makes your job

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harder outside the festival, meaning fighting fires.

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So most of us don't fight fires in a free time.

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For those of them who do, it makes the job

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way easier.

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Oh okay.

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Brings a lot of money to the community, which is

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span to the fiber God and things like this, So

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it's basically staying in the community, which is great here.

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See. I love that, and I find that it's very organized,

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so like the idea of something happening would be unlikely

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because of all the preparation they probably do.

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Correct.

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Yeah, and what was your favorite part of playing this year? Oh?

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Playing this year? My favorite part was our cover of

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Age of Spades.

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Oh nice. We played it the first.

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Time here at the festival and I played the drums

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and its cool.

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Nice.

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My favorite part is just watching all the people run

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to our stage with excitement in their faces on Wednesday

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when everything starts and we're the opener. So that's just

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the best part. Seeing the happy face is excited to

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see us.

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Play, and it's pretty cool. And that's somebody that's festivals

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all over the world, like the people at vaking a

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little above all the rest. They're so into it. Yeah,

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you know, and this is like one big happy family.

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I haven't seen any issues, any problems at all.

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You know, I never see any issues with those people here.

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They're so kind, they're just always happy. So that's very good.

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And see that's the bad stereotype about metal heads. Oh

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we're evil, we're bad, we're tough, but we're just a

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bunch of big you know, like pussycats that just happened

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to go into a mash pit. Yes, that's true.

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And after the mashped we're just hugging each other and

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stringer beer together and have a great time.

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Yeah, exactly. I've always said that, you know, the mash

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pit has saved a lot of people from me kicking

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their rass, you know, because you get all out in

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the pit and then whatever way ay the idiot's doing

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the outside doesn't bother you. Now, so what is next

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for you guys? As a band? Do you do? What

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other things do you do around the area or do

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you even go outside the area.

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So basically we're staying Achelisa College down in Hamburg area,

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and we're playing like around thirty concerts a year. Yeah,

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so we're rehearsing every week, playing some concerts or two

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a month. And yeah, but there are no bigger plants

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at the moment now.

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And do you find that also like if if the

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firefighters have like some event or something that they automatically

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have you play.

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Yes, yes, so replay at the events off the fiber

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gods like they do October fests, they do a land

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on rock, they do like a Christmas party and we

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are every time part of.

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It and nice lay some music that yeah nice? How

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would you describe and you may not know the answer.

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How the fucking firefighters are unique from other firefighters that

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you would know of, or like other companies, or however

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you put it.

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Pretty much they are the same as the other fire

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regods in Germany, but here and that there are some

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small extras they have, like they have some extra SUV's

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prepared for fighting fires here at the Camgrownrich a unique

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for this festivout it.

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Especially right, So what is it like since I'm not

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from here, what is it like when this festival's gone?

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Oh, it's dirty. There's a lot of trash, a lot

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of people collecting bottles and all that stuff. It you

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kind of the festival's quick are gone than it's prepared,

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so that's pretty Yeah, it takes like a week and

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then everything is fine. But you can't really use the

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fields because everybody stepped on him. So the farmers have

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to wait a little to get their stuff done. But

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it's quiet, it's very quiet and dirty.

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Now, are the farmers okay with it because of the

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amount of money that's brought into town or does it

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like kind of inconvenience them? I am pretty sure.

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That they're fine with it, because otherwise they wouldn't allow

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them to use their fields. Of course, there's a huge

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part of their income missing because they can't use the

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fields in that in summertime, just like ahead time for farmers.

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But I think the support for the community and all

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that stuff matters for them more.

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Yeah, that's great, that's great to hear. Maybe there's supplemented

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some now I don't know, you know, to where during

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the time where they're losing income, maybe they're supplemented by

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the festival. Yeah, and then it's okay. And did the

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farmers you might not even notice. Do they get invited

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to come to the festival? They do n I mean.

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Most of them are villagers, so we get a village

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band and they're allowed to go on the field as well.

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So what's the difference between a village band and say

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the regular people. If any exceptions, they're acknowledging.

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So the village people are officially only allowed to be

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in the infield ones, so only one day they can choose,

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and they have to pay twenty bucks for it. But

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other than that, there's no such difference. But I think

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that's also because okay, because we have we can't really

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go to our jobs. We can't go to work. So

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I think that's a pretty good yeah, right, yeah, I

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don't know the word.

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The religious can't go here for free, so they don't

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have to pay money for it.

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See that's pretty cool because I don't know anywhere else

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that does that, to be honest, you know, So that's

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a pretty cool thing. Is there anything else you want

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to tell me about the festival, about what you guys

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do or the relationship between the two.

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So I think the Waking Festival is a great coincidence

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between the organizers of the festival and rock in Town.

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So they lived together, and it's great just to be here.

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It's a huge family. Yeah right, And I love looking

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at your battle vest with all the fucking patches. You're

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like the veteran.

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Since twenty ten.

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Yeah, nice, nice, Okay, a final words you want to

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give the listeners.

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You all should totally come next year.

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Yes, that's the best last words right there. Well, I

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thank you for doing what you do for the town

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and more importantly what you do for Vakan Open Air,

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and you guys are great. I love that you get

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to play at the festival. I love that you get

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to enjoy it, and I love that it's your town

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so you're treated like it's your town instead of a

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lot in the States. A lot of times that doesn't happen.

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It's like there's one festival I do. They have signs

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up everywhere from the people that live there, like what

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you would call the villagers. Yeah, and they're not. Those

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people aren't happy at all. They want the festival move.

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They have tried to move it. In fact, one year

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they did get it moved, and then the festival got

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moved back. And like you walk by to go in,

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there's signs everywhere get out, you know, and nasty signs.

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So it's really mar On whoever runs voking to team

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up with the town, because I think that's important. You

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don't want to be like invading the town, you want

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to be helping the town. So I'm glad that you

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guys said that's what happens.

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I know the festival wouldn't be as good and as

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nice as it is if the villagers wouldn't be happy

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with it being here.

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So and I'm sure small town like this, the villagers

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probably have more power. Yeah, you know, it's not like

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the United States, where money is the only thing that talks.

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Yeah.

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So I love that. And thanks for being on the

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Adventures of Pipe Man. Thank you for having us, Thank

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you for listening to the Adventures of Pipemin.

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I'm w for CUI Radio.

Wacken Firefighters: The Local Band Keeping the Festival Spirit Alive

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