Wacken Open Air nursing home escapees weren’t elderly, didn’t attend festival

Remember the two elderly men who fled a nursing home to attend a heavy metal festival? It turns out they weren’t so elderly, nor did they escape from a nursing home. In fact, they didn’t attend Germany’s Wacken Open Air festival at all.

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On Sunday, we picked up the story from Deutsche Welle that first reported the geriatric German headbangers. But, as pointed out by Consequence of Sound, the news outlet now says it was misinformed about the Wacken Open Air incident.

The two men are actually 58 and 59 years old, it would seem. And they escaped from a mental health facility, not a nursing home. But perhaps most surprising of all is that the duo didn’t even make it to Wacken Open Air last week.

Instead, the pair somehow found themselves at a medical tent for festivalgoers on Saturday, which jumpstarted the erroneous metal-elder tale. The initial story originated from a statement by Itzehoe police, which has since been corrected.

“The men did, indeed, leave their care home and headed to the town of Wacken, which is located near the festival. However, the men did not have tickets for the festival and were not at any of the festival events.”

“They have mental health issues,” police spokesman Peter Berndt tells a German news channel, saying the men “went to Wacken [the town] to party and also consumed alcohol.” He added that the alcohol contributed to their “helpless situation.”

Apparently, many metalheads were praising the two as heroes on social media, based on the incorrect reports of the metal-loving seniors. Are you bummed out that the story turned out to be false? Sound off in the comments section below.

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