Wet Birthday For Die Toten Hosen

German punk band Die Toten Hosen played an exclusive Austrian festival show at Nova Rock as part of its 30th-anniversary celebrations, and was lucky the party wasn’t a washout.

Ewald Tatar from Nova Music, which runs the three-dayer at Nickelsdorf, told Pollstar that on the first day the weather was so bad he had to cancel the acts playing the second stage, which included Within Temptation and Marilyn Manson.

The upside was the weather didn’t dampen the spirits of the crowd, as the country’s biggest festival came less than 1,000 tickets short of a 55,000-capacity sellout June 8-10. It did more than 95 percent business.

Although it rained for only an hour on the second day and the third day enjoyed “perfect festival weather,” Tatar said that for him it wasn’t the best festival weekend he’d ever enjoyed.

“I daren’t go ahead with the second stage on the opening day,” he said. “It’s a shame to have to cancel shows but it wouldn’t have been safe in that wind.”

The Austrian weather obviously hasn’t deterred Die Toten Hosen from making a swift return visit to their Austrian neighbours, as they’ve already confirmed three major arena shows for the autumn.

“They’ll sell out in a day,” Tatar confidently predicted.

The other acts at Nova Rock included Metallica, Slayer, Mastodon, Cyprus Hill, Rise Against, Limp Bizkit, Machine Head, Killswitch Engage, Opeth, and Trivium.