JEDDAH: Saudi rockers Wasted Land made history on Saturday, when they became the first band from the Kingdom to appear at Wacken Open Air 2024, the world’s biggest heavy metal festival. Vocalist Emad Mujallid, guitarists Ayman Al-Ghamdi and Ahmed Khoja, bassist Mahmoud Al-Tayeb and drummer Tameem Helmi raised the Saudi flag as they took to the stage and launched into their pounding set. Jeddah’s German Consul-General Eltje Aderhold was among the crowd of thousands of headbanging metalheads from all over the world. “Standing onstage, playing to a crowd of heavy metal fans (at) the biggest metal festival in the world … and on top of that, you’re officially representing Saudi Arabia … it was really a different experience and unforgettable moment,” Al-Ghamdi told Arab News from the small town of Wacken in northern Germany. “After 20 years, the chance to play the biggest metal festival in the world was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” The band earned the right to play after seeing off the challenge of five other groups to win Wacken Metal Battle Middle East 2024 in Jeddah in May. Describing what it was like to perform in front of such a big crowd, Al-Ghamdi said: “It was a mix of excitement, nervousness and pride. It was overwhelming at first but once we got to the stage things got easy for us. “We performed and enjoyed our set to the best that we could and we didn’t expect the positive reactions we received from those who we didn’t know. “Many of them were very surprised that we are from Saudi Arabia … they really showed us their support and we’re really, really grateful for that.” Saudi Arabia is not known as a hotbed for heavy metal, so to play at Wacken was an “honor” for Wasted Land and a chance to “showcase what Saudi Arabia has to offer,” Al-Ghamdi said. “After playing at Wacken Open Air, even though we didn’t win, we are grateful just to have played there. We’re proud that we gave our all and represented Saudi Arabia at the biggest metal festival in the world.” The 2024 festival lineup also included The Scorpions, Amon Amarth, In Extremo, Blind Guardian and Beast Black, among others.