Well! It's that time of year again! My favourite weekend in August. The weekend of beards, tattoos and battle jackets! Also known as Bloodstock Open Air!
I've been coming to Bloodstock since it was a much smaller festival back in 2009! The headliners the first year I frequented this beautiful field in Derbyshire being Nightwish, Dimmu Borgir and Opeth!
The festival has come a long way from it's original roots of a one day INDOOR festival in Derby at the Assembly rooms (it was indoors till 2006 I believe!) It has now grown to the 3 day outdoor festival that we all know and love!
The first day of the festival is officially the Friday, but if you're camping you can get on site from the Wednesday! New for this year, they've finally given in and legalised bin jousting! For years, the stayers of Midgard (The party campsite!) have taunted Vicky and the BOA crew with videos of the infamously illegal Bin Jousting! If you're new to Bloodstock or indeed just have no clue what bin jousting is. The clue is absolutely in the name! Two big industrial bins, with a person atop each bin, being ran at each other with the aim of knocking the other person off! These matches have been infamous for injury in the past, with people breaking limbs and all sorts! However! This year, it's legal! There have been specially reinforced and bolstered bins made, and adjudicators have been assigned! You might even catch a member of the Bloodstock team atop a bin! Or even a Spudman if you're lucky!
The arena at Bloodstock has a great set up, alongside he main stage (known at the festival as the Ronnie James Dio stage!) there is the second stage, known as the Sophie stage, in memory of the beautiful Sophie Lancaster who was brutally murdered in 2007 and the festival also do a lot of work with the charity themselves!
This is also accompanied by a few more smaller stages across the arena - The EMP stage and the New Blood stage. The latter being the stage played by bands who have been through the festivals battle of the bands heats!
You will truly find something for everyone at Bloodstock, as if there isn't a band you wanna see. They also have a battle arena and a gaming area! As well as all sorts of other bits going on across the festival site including a gallery which always includes artwork from previous years and beautiful photos!
This year it also includes an incredibly special nod to Lemmy of Motorhead. A mock up of his dressing room, alongside a bust containing his ashes is visible and open for everyone to visit and pay their respects to the beautiful hero . Bloodstock have a long standing and personal history with both Motorhead and Lemmy himself, and it's touching to see him commemorated in such a tasteful and beautiful way and in a way that the fans can be a huge part of for years to come.
If you're lucky enough to nab yourself a VIP ticket, you'll also have access to Serpents Lair. A VIP section just behind the main arena, which also has it's own stage as well as its own camping area with flushing toilets and showers!
We could only do Friday and Saturday this year unfortunately due to some other plans, but this didn't take away from the incredible time that was had!
Friday saw the triumphant official return of Bloodstock for 2024 officially opening with the unmistakable Motorhead air raid siren being heard throughout the festival, signalling the start of the festival!
Some of my personal highlights of Friday (as it would take me forever to tell you about every band I saw, running between stages!)
Hatebreed I haven't seen Hatebreed live for one reason or another in a number of years and I've really missed these guys! They joke about 30 years of Hatebreed and instead of their infamous walls of death like back in the day, they now have the BALL of death! . Watch out if you're at one of their upcoming shows that you don't get taken out by the giant ball! Jamey Jasta was as always, on top form!
Friday night was topped off with the announcements of next years headliners as well as 16 other bands! SPOILER ALERT if you haven't seen already.... Trivium on the Friday night, Machine Head on the Saturday night and Gojira on the Sunday! An obscene trio of headliners! It's no wonder this is selling so quickly already for next year!
Saturday rolled round, and so did the crazy warm weather! Bloodstock is always a weekend of the weather going one way or the other! Either ridiculously hot or an absolute swamp! This year, it was GLORIOUS!
Saturdays highlights (this was a toughie!)
Convey! These guys won their way through Metal to the Masses and won their final round to play the New Blood Stage Saturday! These guys blend nu metal and hardcore seamlessly and for a relatively new band they sound absolutely ridiculous live. Don't let these guys pass you by, they are going to be on that main stage before you know it! They also had a Pikachu get killed during their set! I hope you're doing ok Pikachu!
Combichrist I have loved this band for waaaay too long. I saw a person with a top that read "I've loved combichrist since before they were metal" and I have to say that's a hard relate! They've come a LONG way since the very first album of theirs which was hugely EDM influenced! I've listened to and loved this band since I was 15 years old and somehow they've always evaded me when they toured! These guys absolutely smashed it on the Sophie Lancaster stage, and despite how sweaty it was in the tent. Everyone seemed to agree!
Architects These guys had a hugely mixed response online when they got announced as headliners last year! I for one, have been incredibly excited to see them smash a headline set! N they didn't disappoint! They drew a huge crowd and sold out the Saturday tickets for the first time in Bloodstock history. These guys are beyond deserving of the headline slot, they absolutely smashed their set with a hefty mix of older songs along with stuff from the newer albums. The touching mention of Tom did also not go amiss with fans, with people chanting his name back at them.
A fantastic headline set from the Brighton boys and I'm excited to see what they get up to next!
Special mention goes out to the lads in Sylosis! We were really looking forward to their set and they unfortunately were hit with huge sound issues which ate up half of their set time! What we did hear though, was fantastic! Hope to see those guys again soon!
Overall, if you've never been to Bloodstock next year is a great start! A festival full of friendly bearded and tattooed folk who all have a shared love of the scene! The organisers always pull amazing line ups out the bag and are all fans themselves.
Highly recommend giving BOA a go if you've never already and I'll see you all next year!
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