Wacken festival: Ageing metalheads escape care home for moshing

Think you're too old for moshing? Then spare a thought for the two elderly gentlemen who escaped from a German care home and were found at a heavy metal music festival.

Police said the pair were discovered "disorientated and dazed" in the early hours of Saturday at Wacken Open Air.

"They obviously liked the metal festival," a police spokesperson told broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk.

The metal event in northern Germany is billed as the world's biggest.

It draws metal fans from around the world, and has been running since 1990. This year's event, which sold out, featured headline acts Danzig, Judas Priest, Hatebreed and In Flames.

Staff at the Dithmarscher retirement home discovered they were two residents short during their Friday night head-count.

The ageing metalheads, who have not been identified, were found at 03:00 local time (01:00 BST) on the festival grounds, a police statement said.

The nursing home had already alerted police to their disappearance.

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The pair were apparently reluctant to leave the four-day festival, but were persuaded to return to the care home in a taxi, with a police escort.

It was not known how the men got access to the festival, or whether they had tickets.

Police said that overall the event passed off peacefully, with a few minor incidents.

Wacken is a village in northern Germany with a population of 1,800.