Wacken, a small village in the north of Germany with 1,850 residents will get its own beer pipeline for its yearly hard rock festival, which attracts more than 75,000 people in three days. The new pipeline will have a length of 7 kilometers (4 miles) and will provide enough pressure to pour six beers in six seconds. Last year every festival-goer consumed in average 5.1 liters (1.35 gallons) of beer, which added up to 4,000 hectoliters (105,000 gallons) over the whole weekend.
Right before the start of the <link http: www.wacken.com en>Wacken Open Air (W:O:A) 2017 festival at the beginning of August, workers started laying empty ducts with a diameter of 35 centimeters (14-inch) containing not only the beer pipeline but also power and fibre optic cables, drinking water and wastewater pipes.
According to the organizers, the beer pipeline is an investment in the future because beer trucks will no longer plough up the 2.2 million square meters large festival area. "This means that it is no longer necessary to distribute truckloads of beer every day at various locations on the premises," said festival spokeswoman Frederike Arns.
W:O:A started in 1990 with only 800 tickets sold and has since then evolved into the biggest heavy metal festival in the world. This year W:O:A will feature 150 bands including rock legend Alice Cooper, Thrash-Metal-pioneers Megadeth, Volbeat, Amon Amarth, Kreator and Accept. The Wacken Firefighters will again this year play their traditional <link https: www.youtube.com>oompah-music at the inofficial opening of the festival.
Since June 2016, Wacken has also its own craft beer brewery, which is not related to the festival but hopes to profit from the legendary reputation of the village and its festival. Wacken Brauerei claims to be the Beer of Gods and has consequently named its beer after norse gods.
