Wacken Open Air: How RKiSH and the DRK Manage the Festival

Wacken Open Air is one of the biggest heavy metal festivals in the world and every year, draws tens of thousands of fans to the little village of Wacken in the north of Germany. The medical care and logistics masterpiece behind this huge event are impressive. 

Christian Mandel, press contact and paramedic with RKiSH, a non-profit emergency services co-operative, and Nils Bade, Head of Medical Warehousing and Logistics for First Aid at the DRK (German Red Cross), give us an insight into their work and into the particular challenges of this festival.

Christian Mandel on the Wacken deployment

Christian Mandel is on the ground at Wacken every year, dealing with public relations and other jobs from an elderly caravan which serves as the press and communications office. The gazebos in front have become established as the place where the ambulance crews on duty meet up and hang out. Wacken is in the catchment for RKiSH, which is why the full-time EMS field providers are primarily responsible for medical care year after year. Mandel is keen to emphasize that the density of emergency vehicles per head of population makes Wacken one of the best-serviced regions in Germany during the festival.

“It’s remarkable how little actually happens, given the number of people who are here,” says Mandel. But if it comes to it, the EMS field providers are ready for action. “We have up to three emergency physicians and ten ambulances on duty in parallel. In total, there are a good 300 people on site during the festival with all the technicians, IT, and the press office. That’s not including all the German Red Cross volunteers who perform first aid."

What is particularly impressive is the fact that a temporary city appears over an area of over 400 hectares. Mandel highlights the collaboration between the various authorities and organizations with responsibilities for safety as a very positive feature. “It’s exciting and pleasurable to see how well the collaboration between the blue light agencies works. Everything is co-ordinated and designed to fit in with the festival.”

Challenges and improvisation

Working in a field involves particular challenges. “We operate with a system of co-ordinates here, making it harder to locate patients than in a town with streets and house numbers,” says Mandel. “Last year, the mud and water made it particularly bad, because vehicles were getting stuck. This year, we are battling heat and dust which lead to more cardiovascular problems and eye irritation. Improvising on duty is a real art form here, but it gets the job done properly.”

Festival-goers likewise contribute to the success of the operation - simply by making way for the ambulances if the blue lights are switched on, for example, or, like last year, helping release emergency vehicles which have got stuck. “Metal fans are brilliant and very peace-loving. They just want to party and have fun. They’re not interested in anything else,” adds Mandel.

Nils Bade on logistics and the role of the German Red Cross

Nils Bade has been working for the Red Cross at Wacken Open Air since 2005 and is responsible for the warehousing and logistics of the first aid organization. “Our job is to back up the first aid organization during the whole of the festival,” says Bade. “If you count all the departments, there are some 560 people on duty.”

According to Bade, the weather and resulting injuries present a particular challenge. “If it’s hot, we have a lot of cases of heat exhaustion, sunburn, and allergies. If the weather is poor, people run around with no shoes on and cut their feet open; then they need surgical intervention. Our biggest opponent is the weather.”

The role of WEINMANN

WEINMANN plays a key role in equipping the EMS field providers. “We love the WEINMANN devices - we can use them both for training paramedics and for diagnosis purposes,” explains Bade.

The collaboration arose from an idea from Bade and WEINMANN’s application specialists. “We thought it would be cool if WEINMANN came along with devices to support us. No sooner said than done! We did it back in 2023, and as it was so successful, repeated the exercise in 2024. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and a number of organizations bought the devices on the basis of the product training.”

More of the same!

Medical care and the logistical organization at Wacken Open Air are a good example of successful collaboration and improvisational skills. Despite the challenges presented by the weather and the infrastructure, the committed team of RKiSH and DRK manage to keep safe what is temporarily the “third-largest town in Schleswig-Holstein” and deliver the best possible care to festival-goers.