Thursday 16 August 2012

My first festival - Bloodstock 2012 (Bands)

I am back from a fantastic weekend at Bloodstock Festival; here I want to share the experience of the festival, what bands I saw and some hints and tips I have learnt along the way. I had been to Reading Festival before but for the day; since then I have always wanted to experience a full weekend including camping. Up until now I didn't have the time or money to do so. I was very nervous packing my stuff ready to go; I had hints and tips from my friends who have experienced festivals on what to bring and to expect that helped. I wanted be sure I had everything I was going to need; tent, sleeping bag, food, drink and most importantly your ticket so once I had everything prepared I was on my way.

Arriving at the site at about ten; my boyfriend and I picked the camp site Hel, a more than perfect spot and set our tent up. We then headed to the main arena since my boyfriend wanted to watch the band Malefice; from what I heard they didn't sound bad at all, would have paid more attention if I hadn't been spaced out and tired since we left very early that morning. The main stage saw some very big names in metal on stage such as Iced Earth, Dimmu Borgir, Dio Disciples, Testament and many others. The bands I enjoyed the most this weekend were Pythia, Behemoth, Hatebreed, Rising Dream, Kobra and the Lotus, Dimmu Borgir and Alice Cooper; I loved how theatrical Alice Cooper and Behemoth were.


Behemoth's opening was very haunting and atmospheric with the band members appearing from out of the blue, one minute there was an empty drum kit, the next there was the band's drummer Inferno; along with a passionate performance and incredible stage props that gave an indication of what they were about. This performance was particularly important to Behemoth; they were due to play a couple of years ago unfortunately had to pull out since frontman Nergal was in hospital receiving treatment for leukaemia at that time. Luckily he is clear; so it was a touching moment when he shouted out to the crowd 'It's fantastic to be alive'. 

Saturday's headliners Machine Head just didn't quite do it for me; compared to Behemoth's performance the previous night I found the performance from Machine Head to be quite bland. It may have also been to do with all the hype and suspension around the fact they were the mysterious headliner that weren't revealed until June. I think they are fantastic musically; but their live performance wasn't quite what I expected it to be. 


I had seen Alice Cooper before and remember his theatrical stage tactics; he first appears on a huge tower with a jacket on that had six metallic arms attached to the sleeves as he performs The Black Widow. It was great that he performed a varied collection of songs; the setlist included brand new ones such as I'll Bite Your Face Off and classic anthems such as No More Mr. Nice Guy, School's Out and my personal favourite Poison. Definitely the perfect end to a great weekend and well worth waiting for. If you missed his spectacular performance at Bloodstock then you do not have to worry as he will be back in the UK for a tour in October.


Other great stand out performances for me came from Pythia, Hatebreed and Rising Dream. Pythia's admiration for gothic literature really was reflected through their medieval costumes and very well scripted passages in between, Emily Alice Ovenden's vocals were so powerful and clear that made their set more magical. I loved how Hatebreed got all the crowds pumping and showed so much energy. Rising Dream's style of music was very unique to me; the front woman Ines Tancheva sang the verses in harsh growls and the chorus's in clean vocals that took me by surprise. I also enjoyed Dimmu Borgir and Kobra and the Lotus.

Well that was my experience of the bands; in my next post I shall share some hints and tips that I have learnt about festival survival that made my first festival experience generally fantastic.



Photos:  Peter Russell

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