Germany’s Wacken metal festival halts admissions after persistent rain turns site to mud

BERLIN (AP) — The Wacken Open Air heavy metal festival in northern Germany is opening with a reduced audience after persistent rain turned the grounds to mud. The weather forced organizers to order a halt to all new arrivals. Organizers of the famed music festival in a rural area northwest of Hamburg had already told fans on Tuesday that no more cars and trucks could be admitted to the site. That’s because camping areas, the grounds and access roads were in poor condition because of heavy rain in recent days and more was expected. They announced early Wednesday a “total admission stop.” They said that “the reasonable visitor capacity for Wacken Open Air 2023 has now been reached.”