Two elderly Germans escaped from their nursing home to attend a heavy metal festival, the German media Deutsche Welle reported.

The nursing home called the police after they found two of their residents disappeared on Friday.

Soon the lost pair were found by police at the Wacken Open Air festival, which is 40 km away, at 3 am local time in a "disoriented and dazed" condition, the local police spokeswoman Merle Neufeld said.

"They obviously liked the metal festival," said Neufeld. "The care home quickly organized a return transport after police picked them up."

A spokesperson for the festival did not know whether the two men had bought tickets to the event. The 29th edition of the festival was fully sold-out and bands including Judas Priest, Danzig and Nightwish took to the stage in front of the crowd.

Founded in 1990, Wacken Open Air has been described as "the biggest heavy metal festival in the world." It takes place annually in Wacken, a village in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany, attracting approximately 75,000 people every year.