Evolution of a dream

It’s 1989.

I’m 15 years old, and find myself yet again changing school. I made a friend named Dean, who gave me a cassette recording of an amateur radio show on the local radio station.
This cassette was given to Dean by his brother and given to Dean’s brother by a friend of the family, who recorded the show presented by *his* friend. So I’m like the 5th generation tape owner here. Until now, my involvement in music has been particularly low. I grew up hearing Elvis Presley, the Beach Boys, pop music, and a lot of country music, such as Johnny Chester or Slim Dusty. I liked none of these bands or genres, so I actually believed I didn’t like music at all. Until I had been shown a cassette with some Anthrax and some Metallica, and then I was hungry for more.
Metal.
It was a little difficult for me to get much exposure to metal * but this cassette opened a window for me. It was biblical in its teachings of what was to become so holy.

The next year, and if my calculations are correct (and recollections!), it really is quite amazing that Dean had heard about a concert in Germany. Well not just a *concert*, but a festival of concerts. If my calculations are correct, it was the first festival held in a town named Wacken, in northern Germany. And it was amazing to us because it was such a congregation of immense proportions. 20 bands, 50,000 fans. Back then, it was unimaginable to me how this was conceivable. And I still remember Dean telling me their catch cry slogan.
“Where Metal Dreams Come True”.

Now you have to realise that there was no internet back then. In fact, in my home town of Wagga Wagga, there was no accessible internet providers for many years. “Word of mouth” really meant what it said it meant. Information passed from person to person in the form of a chinese whisper, and in the back of your mind you always questioned the legitimacy of anything you heard, but you passed it on just the same.

But the catch cry hit home a very solid truth. Where Metal Dreams Come True. And where metal dreams came true was in Germany. I must say that I *never* had the travel bug. I think I understand why, mind you, but it was just not interesting to me to travel around to see things – especially true because I had heard of nothing worth seeing. Until now.
I realised that no metal band, especially not the ones I was coming to love, would ever set foot on Australian shore. And I would never see live any of the bands which were so famous for their live performances. Unless I went to Germany.
But even then I didn’t dream to travel. I knew that if I *did* travel, it would be to see this festival, but it was an ethereal dream of great expense and unrealistic realisations. It would never happen.

Years went by, and Wacken shows were heard about from time to time. They were a myth. Something that because you couldn’t become involved you could wonder if they really were true. My collection grew, but the only concerts I was ever able to see were small and local.
There was a Ratt concert that I wasn’t able to afford to see, which Dean went to. It was held at the local Uni and he had better connections than I, and somehow managed to get in.

There was also a Screaming Jets concert that I couldn’t afford to go to, and so I gave my interim license (proof of age) to a mate of mine so he could go.
They came back the next year, and this became my first ever concert. And they were bringing a band from Scotland, called “The Almighty”. I remember I had seen a full page advert in a magazine called Hot Metal. This gave the band some credence, so I purchased their album “Soul Destruction” before the show to familiarise myself. And I liked the music. So I enjoyed the show.

This was really a bigger event for me than I then realised. It was an international act, and it didn’t even really register. And the show was in a tiny nightclub which could probably hold 200 people. The stage was literally just a raised dance floor. The guys had no room to move, were standing right over their audience, it was all up close and personal, but it was all I’d ever known, so I didn’t even appreciate the situation. But I *liked* it.

I saw the Jets a couple more times, but never having such a huge support act. I also travelled three and a half hours to Canberra for two shows: the first was Faith No More, on the “The Real Thing” tour, and also Anthrax in 1992, (I think) on their Stomp 442 tour. They brought with them Cyco Miko – effectively Suicidal Tendencies. Also, I remember an Armoured Angel concert around that time, who actually came to Wagga (but then, they were an Aussie band trying to get on their feet.)

And then no more concerts. Ever. Well, I mean, not for about seven years.
By then I had moved to Sydney, and missed some really great shows, that I didn’t know had occurred or could afford even if I had. Stuff like Megadeth or Yngwie J Malmsteen, and also a Nevermore show.

My collection had ever grown, expanded. I was able to find the existance of foreign metal with a deft precision unmatched by anyone I actually knew. Effectively, this made me the smallest minority in an already minority group. But I didn’t care – I loved the music I had.

Yet it was clear that all the concerts I had ever seen, or even missed, were either Aussie bands, or American Bands – or iconic bands such as Iron Maiden. The bands that *I* loved were European, and never before had such a band stepped foot on Australian soil. The Wacken dream was still alive, but still ethereal.

And then in 2001, beyond all of my wildest dreams, beyond all expectations and bewilderment, hope of all hopes, I learned that Edguy was touring Australia.
I can hear you now. Even through this worldwide forum called the web, I can hear you say “who the hell is Edguy?” And not just because you just read what I typed. (If you even made it this far!!)
Edguy is a band that formed in Germany, in 1992, when two guys met each other in their music class, and realised they shared the same passion. They got a foothold in the Industry, which was later boosted by having as a guest vocalist Hansi Kursch, the vocalist for Blind Guardian. (Who? Look them up. **)
This really is why I took an interest in them, and bought their album “Vain Glory Opera”. I was greatly surprised, of course, to love the entire album.
So Edguy had become another one of those bands. A band that I loved listening to, that nobody else had even heard of, and here they were – touring down under!
I was over the moon. I was beyond elation. That concert couldn’t come quick enough. Every day in waiting was an eternity. And not just for me, I’ll wager. My work colleagues would have had the same sensation in waiting for me to come back down from whatever planet I was racing across.

But it was worth it. And then some. That concert was the best show ever. It was the ultimate in concert performances, never to be outdone. It exceeded all expectations, and the expectations began high.
I don’t know if I was just in a zone, but there was an electric charge in the air that night, in the Manning Bar in Sydney. I swear the place was registered to hold 300 people but had crammed in 500. It was jammed packed. You could hardly move!
How in the world could there be 500 people in the one place who loved this band, unheard of? 500? Just like me!? 500 screaming fans, all sharing a common bond in that we were at the first European power metal concert in Oz. (well, the first performance was in Melbourne. But otherwise…)

And the band gave an effortless, incredible, performance. They played to perfection, and Tobias Sammet, the frontman, was incredibly entertaining. I was frontstage the entire time, and the stage was only waist high, so the band was within arms reach the entire time, and used that to great effect. Tobias even managed to sneak to the back of the crowd to question two patrons why they weren’t having as great a time as the rest of us. I have never been *so* hoarse ever again as I was the day after that show. I was given *three* guitar picks by the guitarist Jens – one of which I gave away, one other I dropped by accident on the floor.

Everything Tobias did felt spontaneous. None of his humour was scripted, and he made us laugh between every song. Audience participation was intense, and there was such a connection between the band and the crowd that was just so amazing.
One thing I’ll always remember is that Tobias promised that he would take back to Germany how great we were, and next time maybe even bring back even bigger bands, such as Blind Guardian or Gamma Ray. And it was clear, then, with the crowd’s reaction that my dream was not mine alone.

They came back in 2004 which was also a special performance. Alas, it was without any of the great bands so promised, but there is more to that, perhaps later.

In 2002, my grandmother passed away, leaving me a small amount of cash (due to the fact that there were so many people so entitled.)
Her possessions were divvied out among my relatives and I, but for this cash, I decided to do something that would never be forgotten. Instead of buying something that would become obsolete or not leave a lasting impression, I wanted to do something with such an impact it could always be remembered, and be something – the last thing – that was given to me by Nan.
And it so happened – by fate, or destiny? – that Wacken was garnered the most impressive lineup I have before or since ever seen.
Approximately half of the 50 or so bands were straight out of my collection. At least… well, there were A LOT. And not just subsidiary purchases that were less significant. I’m talking *the* bands. The ones that had made an impact on my musical choices through life. Rage, Gamma Ray, Annihilator, Iced Earth – who were later replaced by Twisted Sister and equally as influencial – Testament, Sentenced, and then some. No Blind Guardian, mind you, but I mean, you can’t have everything, right?

There were just TOO many bands there that I loved. Primal Fear, and their sister band Sinner, Sonata Arctica, Symphorce, Circle II Circle, and did I mention Rage and Gamma Ray? These two were my first two loves in European metal (Gamma Ray was formed by the founder of Helloween. That counts.) This was massive.

So my nan’s money purchased the air fare for Rachel and I to travel to Frankfurt, Germany. From there, it was a simple case of driving to Wacken, where metal dreams come true. Where metal dreams DID come true. Everything was just as they promised. 50,000 fans, all in the same place. Joined by a common bond – the love of the music. It was a cultural exposure that isn’t documented. The Deutsch have a different attitude toward metal than I (or many Aussies I’ve met) have – simply because of the abundant availability.
I met people who spent the entire three days in the campsite! They were there for the party because they’d seen all their favourite bands in concert so many times they didn’t need to do so here.
I could write forever about the experience, so I won’t.

When it was over, there was a change in me. A dream had come to fruition, and really, I didn’t have any other dreams. I guess I still wanted to see Blind Guardian, and a few other bands that I love, but … I had now seen live so many of the bands I love that the impact wasn’t so significant. I knew. I knew what the concerts would be like. I knew that my dream had concluded, and so it evolved.

I started dreaming a new dream. A bigger dream. One much harder to fulfill than the last one ever was – and when I look back to the beginning of that dream, it seemed so inconceivable that to have actually achieved it can’t be fathomed, even though I know it’s true.
It took fifteen years to come to fruition, and when you look at it like that, it’s the single greatest achievement of my life. When I first started listening to metal, it seemed to be a *fact* that I’d never see them. It was completely inconceivable to change.

So my new dream is so immense that I wonder if it will take as long to complete.
My dream, conceptually, is simple. Bring Wacken to Australia.
Not Wacken, per se, certainly not the town that *is* Wacken, but the idea of the festival. The culture. The culmination of bands and the fruition of dreams. I would have to take a lot of things from Wacken, simply because it is a model that has worked. I haven’t investigated, but I sure hope that wouldn’t be a problem.

I’ve been to many concerts since 2003, and in fact many of the bands I’d have died to see in Germany have in fact played Australian shores now. Many are those I saw in Germany: Gamma Ray, Nightwish, and well, ok. Not that many. But others include the infamous Blind Guardian who toured in Feb 2007, but only played in Melbourne. Also there was Evergrey, and.. well, did I mention Gamma Ray? Not to forget Helloween are on their way over as I type, and Iron Maiden played last night (and will again tonight, tho’ without me in the audience). Anthrax have returned twice, Nightwish also – and Megadeth too, and even the shows I *missed* were huge. Angra played Sydney while I was in Melbourne watching Nightwish, and played Melbourne while I was in Sydney, watching Nightwish. Then Angra loved Sydney so much they came back that weekend, when I was travelling to Wagga. While I was in Germany in 2003, Doro Pesch – formally of Warlock – played Oz.
In each of these shows I try and take stock of things such as the number of people there, the shirts they wear, and the price they paid.
There is a level of dedication and commitment in these fans that is tangible. The shirt you wear to a concert are your colours, your pride, a statement of who you are and who you listen to. So when I see European power metal shirts at an Anthrax concert it means more to me than it would just seeing a metal shirt worn down the street.
There are people dedicated enough when a band tours to see more than one show of that band, and in more than one location.
When Nightwish toured recently, Rachel and I bought tickets to BOTH shows in Melbourne, and also the show in Sydney. That’s three times we saw them on consecutive nights, with air fare and accomodation between. I wasn’t the only one, and many others do it by grander scale.
At Blind Guardian, there were people from outback New South Wales there. There were people from PERTH. These people are willing to travel, willing to pay. They went to both shows in Melbourne (as did I) and perhaps would have followed them to other cities if they so much as went. I know a person who followed Edguy through four cities one year, from Adelaide to Brisbane.

What I’ve seen is that there are a whole lotta people who have a whole lotta commitment to these bands, and I actually believe that had I the funds behind me, a successful venture would be created. And so I have dreamed. I don’t dream often, so I don’t dream small.
I have dreamed of a place where people from Australia can all travel to, over a long weekend, and listen to all their favourite bands. The success is in the fact that *everyone* would have to travel, the bands and the fans, but because of this, it would be a huge success.
It’s worth it for a fan to travel to see even three of their favourite bands, because I’ve seen them do it just to see one (as I have also done).
And its worth it for the bands to fly to Oz just to do one show, because ALL their fans would be there, not just the small cult population in each major city. 300 in Sydney? 500 in Melbourne? 200 in Bris or Adelaide? Or perhaps 900 instead at my show.
Saves their costs in flying city to city, and renting motels for a week or two. And they could even relax for a day to see Australia – and let’s face it. They all want to. Or mingle with their fans, and increase their fan base. Because there would be people there who had never heard of them – come to see other bands instead, but are caught up in the moment, or watch the show between the two they wanna see. Or meet the band and think they were so cool, they’d catch their show. Or even through word of mouth of people they had met on the day, or last year, or whenever. “You like Maiden? You really need to see Edguy, and probably these bands too. But don’t miss Edguy!”

Everything builds upon itself. Not to forget the economic gain of a community that hosts for as many as 20 bands (and crews) and 10,000 fans. Or more.
The Acer Arena last night was almost packed. It’s a 21,000 seat arena and that probably doesn’t include the standing area which I guess held another 2000 people last night. Even if there was 20000 people, that’s a huge exposure for any other band who catches some of that. A silver ticket costed $100, a gold was $180, standing tickets were $140. Even at $100 a ticket, that’s 2 million bucks turnover, without food and drinks. For one night, and they are holding the show two nights.

Catering to 20000 fans would be a factor. In fact, you’d need to cater to more. If you billed Iron Maiden and even just five other bands you can easily get fans of the other bands who are no fans of Maiden. And that was just SYDNEY. Maiden played Melbourne also, which would have been just as big, and I doubt the crowd was even as high a percentage of Melbourne fans catching an extra show as 5%. So let’s double that number. 40000 fans. Make it an even 50000 fans that you can expect to turn up each year to an annual event, if you get the right billing, at the right time of the year, when everyone is available (or makes themself available.)
At $100 a ticket, that’s 5 million in turnover on tickets alone. Yes, your expenses are high, especially your set up costs. But Wacken has been running 20 years now. At some point their expenses flattened, while their revenue increased. They must be profiting or they’d be closed. If any fan of any band is willing pay $100 to see ONE band, how much would they pay to see more?
I am going to say not much more, simply because there are other factors involved. Travel. Accomodation (which is why camping is provided at Wacken), food. These are hidden costs that fans need to and will consider as part of the cost.
But if any fan is willing to fork out as much as three grand to go to Europe every year to see Wacken (and other festivals to make it worth their while), they would certainly pay $100 plus maybe $300 airfare, plus food for a three day weekend on their homeland.

To establish the festival ground, you can generate income from vendors such as food, liquor or retail. Promotions, advertisement, and self made merchandise. I believe that every year the planning would be almost year long, just to make the next show available. So it would be a full time job, and actually require a staff that needs to get paid. But all in all, it would be a success. If it wasn’t, there would be no Wacken.

Not to forget the impact on the community. 50000 mouths need to be fed for three days. Bands need accommodation. That’s a lotta motel rooms (that I would try to buy in bulk), and all these fans might wanna go into town, or look around. Or in the least get to the camp ground from the airport – which is a lucrative contract for a bus company. Taxis would do well also. Local taverns would prosper. So too would any custom tailored retailer who set up on the grounds. CDs, shirts, memorabilia, and other heavy metal accessories would all sell like hotcakes.

So that’s my new dream. The problem is that it would require a massive amount of capital to kick it off.
I don’t dream small. I want proper plumbing for showers and toilets. I don’t just want portaloos, I want a permanant festival ground, owned and operated by me. (I could lease this out, of course, to other clients during the year.) I want this to be an enjoyable experience to make sure people return year after year.
So I’d have to buy the land, and goodness knows how many permits to be too loud for too long. Plus what festival doesn’t sell beer? So there’s a liquor license required, and they ain’t easy to get. And a Security contract.

But the huge cost is in my stage idea. I don’t want to reveal it cos, well, it’s such a GREAT idea. Wacken have a temp stage that they assemble every year, and dis-assemble afterward. They run the show in a farmer’s paddock, and leave it as a paddock afterward. I wouldn’t have to do this. I could have a grand stage, permanantly erected, and I have – as I said – a vision for that. This vision is what would actually make the venture such a success.

Not to forget the costs of bringing big named international bands to Australia at a time assigned by me, not them, to fit into my schedule, not theirs. That is significant also, but would ease over time as popularity grew, and word of mouth spread about the festival’s achievements.

Could you imagine if I pulled this off? It would be a dream come true. Doubly so, because I would be creating the MEANS to achieve my own dreams – to see those bands live that I always thought I’d never see. Manowar on Australian shores? That would be intense. Every metal band out there would have a “Down Under” DVD. Edguy down under. Blind Guardian Down Under. Manowar Down Under. They’d probably call it Manowar goes down under, or something else with crude connotations.

I would never have to *work* again, I would only have to constantly chase my dream. That would make it three dreams in one, no?
And it would have all started from a single cassette given to me by a friend, a long, long time ago.

* A blog on this to follow, perhaps.
** Blind Guardian, by all surprises, was first introduced to me on *that* cassette! I searched all media for four years and never heard or read their name. Nobody knew who they were, but my favourite song on that cassette was theirs. I searched and searched, and one day by pure chance happened upon their album. A new passion developed for German Power Metal. Well, I mean, Helloween was already in my reportoire but that’s a technicality. And Rage. Shoosh.