Fans can ‘pay with their blood’ for Wacken show

German heavy metal festival Wacken Open Air is offering a novel form of payment for its pre-festival showcase, encouraging fans to “pay with your blood”.

From next Monday (11 March), individuals who donate blood to Essen University Hospital will receive free admission to the festival’s warm-up show. The gig, set for one day after World Blood Donor Day, will take place at the Turock nightclub in Essen, Germany.

“The goal of the World Blood Donor Day campaign on June 14th is to fill the empty blood banks, recruit new donors and ultimately save lives,” organisers said in a press release.

‘Fill empty blood banks, recruit new donors, and ultimately save lives’

This preliminary gig will showcase three acts — Celeste, Downfall of Gaia and Friisk — in an evening ‘dedicated to the extreme varieties of metal’.

The four-day festival has encouraged blood donation for over a decade, offering a free t-shirt in exchange for six recorded donations on the official W:O:A blood donor passport.

The 33rd edition of the metal festival, set for 31 July through 4 August, will be led by Scorpions, Korn and Amon Amarth.

Additional performers include Blind Guardian, In Extremo and Axel Rudi Pell. This year’s instalment sold out in record time, with fans snagging all 85,000 tickets in four-and-a-half hours.

Fans looking to pay for the warm-up show the conventional way can find tickets at Eventim and Metaltix.

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.