The history of Bloodstock

Ten years on from the first Bloodstock Open Air in 2005, BOA 2015 marked yet another milestone in our journey from humble yet hopeful beginnings to becoming the award-winning beast you know today and, of course, the UK’s No. 1 metal festival. As with previous years, we endeavoured to make everything just a little bit bigger and a little bit better without compromising our aim of keeping the festival friendly, fun, and on a human scale. If the feedback is anything to go by, we’re delighted to say that we succeeded.

The Thursday evening pre-show had a particularly pronounced party atmosphere this year with Arnocorps and Red Rum setting the Sophie stage alight with all manner of antics and shenanigans. Joined by Desecration, Metaprism and Reign Of Fury, together they helped transform the Thursday from a welcome warm-up for early arrivals into a night of full-on mayhem to rival any other of the weekend.

The festival’s main stage, re-named in honour of the late, great Ronnie James Dio, played host to yet another stellar line-up of international talent, not least 2015 headliners Trivium, Within Temptation and Rob Zombie. All three acts really stepped up to the plate delivering spellbinding sets truly worthy of the Bloodstock legacy. Elsewhere, the line-up was an embarrassment of riches: Armored Saint, Black Label Society, Cannibal Corpse, Dark Angel, Death, Enslaved, Napalm Death, Opeth, Overkill, Sabaton, Sepultura… to name but a few AND those are in alphabetical order, because how else to sift through all the sheer awesomeness on display? 

As ever, both the Sophie Stage and the Hobgoblin New Blood Stage hosted more than their fair share of greatness too, the latter in particular emphasizing Bloodstock’s ongoing commitment to up and coming bands. Contrary to the dire predictions of doom-mongers, if the runaway success of this year’s Metal 2 The Masses campaign as reflected on the New Blood Stage is anything to go by, grass roots metal is very much alive and well. Meanwhile over on the Sophie stage, headliners Delain, Fleshgod Apocalypse and Godflesh crowned an impressive supporting cast which included the likes of Conan, Jettblack, Onslaught, I Am I, Planet Of Zeus and Trepalium. Oh, and Lawnmower Deth turned up again too. 

In the wake of the wonderful reception to its opening in 2014, this year once again witnessed the Rock and Metal (RA M) Gallery, a showcase for a varying selection of rock-related art and memorabilia. Returning this year was the amazing guitar maker Cynosure who presented several of his unique creations including the RAM Guitar, specially commissioned by Bloodstock founder and gallery creator Paul Raymond Gregory. Also featured were renowned artist Mark Wilkinson (Marillion, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden), rock photographers Fiaz Farrelly and Alison Richards, and authors Ramon Martos (‘…And Justice For Art – Stories About Heavy Metal Album Covers’), and Alex Lewis, whose work on Tolkien brings together Paul Gregory’s own Tolkien-inspired creations and the enormous influence that The Lord Of The Rings and Tolkien’s other writings have had on metal music.

Another year, another storming Bloodstock, and – at the risk of repeating ourselves – we simply couldn’t have done it without the amazing bands, incredible fans, and the army of industry professionals and valiant volunteers who make it happen. By the fans, for the fans – see you all again soon!