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W:O:A founders to receive EFA lifetime achievement gong

Thomas Jensen and Holger Hübner will be honoured for 30 years of Wacken at the European Festival Awards 2019

By IQ on 17 Dec 2019

Wacken Open Air founders Thomas Jensen (left) and Holger Hübner

Wacken Open Air founders Thomas Jensen (left) and Holger Hübner


Holger Hübner and Thomas Jensen, co-founders of German metal festival Wacken Open Air, will receive the lifetime achievement award at the 11th European Festival Awards (EFAs) on 15 January 2020.

The other nominees for the awards, which take place during Eurosonic Noorderslag in Groningen, Netherlands, were revealed last week, with over 350,000 votes cast across the 14 other categories.

Jensen, the bassist in a band called Skyline, and Hübner, who was working as a DJ, co-founded Wacken Open Air in 1990.

Nearly 30 years on, the festival is arguably the world’s most important metal/hard rock event – Wacken 2020 sold all 75,000 tickets in the space of a few hours – and their company, ICS, also includes a roster of other hard rock festivals, a touring division, a booking agency (Seaside Touring), ticketing platform Metaltix and the Wacken Foundation, a nonprofit which provides tour support and other assistance to young bands.

Last year’s EFA lifetime achievement award was collected by Eurosonic founder Peter Smidt, with Wacken picking up best major festival and Roskilde Festival being awarded line-up of the year.

Read IQ’s special 30th-anniversary feature on Wacken Open Air here.

 


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