The Cambodian Death Metal band Doch Chkae was thrilled to receive an invitation to travel to Germany, all expenses paid, and play the huge Wacken metal festival there this year.

But when they applied for the visas they were denied due to their impoverished backgrounds and the “risk” that they might not return to Cambodia despite having letters from the German festival organizers pledging that the costs would all be taken care of and that they would personally make sure that Doch Chkae returned home after the festival.

The teenagers in Doch Chkae spent their childhood as trash pickers literally living in a garbage dump just outside of Phnom Penh. They were lucky enough to get involved with an NGO who provided them with instruments and helped them to discover metal by bringing them to one of fellow Cambodian metal band SLITEN6IX’S early shows.

They’d still really like your help in their quest to get to play Wacken and it won’t take much of your time: Please consider signing this change.org petition that makes the case for granting them cultural visas to Germany’s Foreign Minister. It’s a long shot – but then so was a death metal band forming out of the slums of Phnom Penh.

There’s a petition up now to help the cause – consider signing it:

https://www.change.org/p/bundesau%C3%9Fenminister-heiko-maas-lasst-die-waisenkinder-band-doch-chkae-f%C3%BCr-wacken-einreisen

This story first broke on the German Metal Hammer site:

https://www.metal-hammer.de/wacken-open-air-kein-visum-fuer-waisenkinder-band-1083601/