Catton Park, Derbyshire – 6th–9th August 2026
Twenty-five years.
Twenty-five bloody years of riffs, pits, battle jackets, questionable camping decisions, warm cans, corpse paint, inflatable nonsense and enough distorted guitars to frighten every respectable neighbourhood watch committee in Britain.
In 2026, Bloodstock Open Air celebrated its 25th anniversary, and rather than quietly sticking a few balloons around Catton Park and wheeling out a birthday cake, Britain’s independent metal institution decided to throw one enormous four-day birthday party.
And what a party it was.
With Saxon, Lamb Of God, Slaughter To Prevail and Judas Priest leading the charge across the expanded weekend, alongside Body Count, Sepultura, Testament, Bleed From Within, Municipal Waste, Biohazard, Kittie, Orbit Culture, Death Angel, Black Label Society, Northlane, Life Of Agony, Carpenter Brut and a frankly ridiculous amount more, Bloodstock’s silver anniversary felt less like a festival line-up and more like somebody had emptied an entire metal fan’s record collection onto Catton Park.
Welcome back to the hallowed ground.
Welcome back to Bloodstock.
And somebody please find the sun cream.
🩸 Twenty-Five Years Of Bloodstock
There’s something special about Bloodstock that becomes obvious almost immediately after arriving.
It isn’t trying to be everything to everyone.
This is a metal festival.
Properly, unapologetically and gloriously metal.
Battle jackets aren’t retro fashion statements here. They’re practically formalwear.
Band shirts become conversation starters.
Someone dressed as something completely ridiculous will stroll past you before lunchtime and absolutely nobody will question it.
And despite the terrifying noises coming from virtually every direction, Bloodstock remains one of the friendliest festival environments around.
That’s always been the secret ingredient.
The bands might bring people through the gates, but the Bloodstock community is what keeps bringing them back.
For its 25th anniversary, the festival expanded the celebrations further, including opening the Ronnie James Dio Stage on Thursday – turning what was traditionally the warm-up into another substantial day of live music.
Translation?
More bands.
More riffs.
More opportunities to destroy your knees before Friday morning.
Excellent.
⚔️ THURSDAY – THE BIRTHDAY PARTY BEGINS
Thursday at Bloodstock normally feels like everybody arriving at the world’s loudest family reunion.
Tents go up.
Drinks get opened.
Friends who haven’t seen each other since last August suddenly appear.
Someone has already lost a camping chair.
Standard procedure.
But the anniversary edition immediately felt different.
For the first time, the Ronnie James Dio Stage was getting involved in the Thursday action, meaning Bloodstock 2026 wasn’t gently easing itself into the weekend.
It was kicking the door off its hinges.
🦖 Heavysaurus – Metal For The Entire Family
Only Bloodstock could celebrate its 25th anniversary by unleashing a collection of heavy-metal dinosaurs onto the main stage.
And frankly, we’re all for it.
Heavysaurus provided one of the most wholesome sights of the weekend, bringing their family-friendly metal madness to Catton Park and proving that you’re never too young to start throwing the horns.
Watching kids experience heavy music in a festival environment alongside parents who probably remember attending Bloodstock before those children were born summed up the anniversary beautifully.
Metal isn’t dying.
It’s simply recruiting the next generation.
And apparently they’re dinosaurs.
⚔️ Saxon – British Heavy Metal Comes Home
There are certain bands that simply belong at Bloodstock.
Saxon are one of them.
Few bands embody British heavy metal quite like Biff Byford and company, and seeing them helping launch Bloodstock’s anniversary weekend felt wonderfully appropriate.
Those riffs have travelled around the world for decades, but they still sound completely at home blasting across a field full of denim-clad metalheads in Derbyshire.
This wasn’t about chasing trends.
This was about celebrating heavy metal history.
Big choruses.
Bigger guitars.
Raised fists everywhere.
Bloodstock’s 25th birthday celebrations were officially underway.
🔥 FRIDAY – WALK WITH ME IN HELL
Friday morning.
The tents are roasting.
Someone’s eating noodles for breakfast.
You’ve already spent considerably more money than planned.
And there’s metal happening before you’ve properly located your soul.
Bloodstock has begun.
Friday delivered everything from underground discoveries to absolute festival-destroying heavyweights.
And somewhere in between, thousands of people attempted to remember where they’d left their water bottles.
🎉 Party Cannon – Subtlety Has Left The Festival
If you’ve somehow reached Bloodstock without encountering Party Cannon, congratulations.
Your innocence is about to disappear.
Their ridiculously colourful aesthetic remains one of extreme metal’s funniest visual contradictions.
Then the music starts.
Absolute carnage.
Brutal death metal delivered with all the restraint of a demolition crew discovering energy drinks.
Bloodstock crowds understand exactly what Party Cannon are about, and the resulting chaos was glorious.
☢️ Municipal Waste – The Pit Is Open
Few phrases in festival life are more dangerous than:
“Fancy watching Municipal Waste?”
Because approximately thirty seconds later you’re standing next to a circle pit large enough to affect local weather patterns.
Municipal Waste remain one of modern thrash’s most dependable live bands.
Fast.
Fun.
Chaotic.
Completely allergic to standing still.
This wasn’t a performance designed for quiet appreciation.
This was music designed to make several thousand people temporarily forget they’re approaching middle age.
💀 Sepultura – Roots Bloody Roots
The name Sepultura carries enormous weight.
Their influence stretches across generations of heavy music, and seeing their songs thunder across Bloodstock was another reminder of just how deeply those riffs are embedded in metal culture.
There was groove.
There was fury.
There was nostalgia.
And yes, when those unmistakable classic riffs arrived, Catton Park responded accordingly.
Necks suffered.
No regrets.
🔥 LAMB OF GOD – BLOODSTOCK GETS DESTROYED
Then came Friday’s main event.
Lamb Of God.
Bloodstock and Lamb Of God have history together, and their return to headline the Ronnie James Dio Stage felt like two old mates meeting up and immediately deciding to cause property damage.
The anticipation before the band appeared was enormous.
Then came the explosion.
Literally.
Pyro erupted, guitars crashed into life and suddenly Randy Blythe was commanding Catton Park like a man who’d personally declared war on everybody’s remaining energy reserves.
This was monstrous.
Ruin immediately set the tone.
Those jagged riffs sounded enormous.
Blythe prowled the stage, barking vocals into the night while pits erupted across the field.
Desolation landed like industrial machinery falling down a staircase.
512 brought another surge of bodies forward.
Then came Walk With Me In Hell.
One of modern metal’s great festival songs.
Thousands of voices.
Thousands of horns.
Thousands of heads moving simultaneously.
Absolute scenes.
By the time Redneck arrived towards the end, whatever remained of Friday night’s collective neck muscles had officially resigned.
Lamb Of God didn’t merely headline Bloodstock.
They reminded everybody why they’re one of the defining metal bands of their generation.
Friday finished exactly as Bloodstock Fridays should.
Sweaty.
Deaf.
Happy.
💀 SATURDAY – NO MERCY
Waking up Saturday at a four-day metal festival is a spiritual experience.
Your body says no.
Your festival programme says yes.
Coffee negotiates the ceasefire.
Back into Catton Park we go.
🐸 Froglord – Praise The Amphibian
Bloodstock’s smaller stages remain absolutely essential to the festival experience.
And Saturday morning delivered one of those wonderful “what on earth am I watching?” moments courtesy of Froglord.
Sludge.
Doom.
Massive riffs.
Amphibian mythology.
Because apparently frogs needed their own branch of doom metal.
The Sophie Lancaster Stage was packed for their short set, proving once again that Bloodstock crowds don’t simply wait around for the famous names.
They actively seek out the weird stuff.
Long may that continue.
Praise the frog.
⚔️ Bleed From Within – Britain’s Next Metal Giants?
If you’ve watched Bleed From Within rise through the British metal ranks over recent years, their Bloodstock appearance felt like another major checkpoint.
Everything about this band is getting bigger.
The riffs.
The production.
The confidence.
The crowds.
Their modern metal assault translates brilliantly to festival stages, balancing enormous grooves with the sort of choruses that demand participation.
There is increasingly little doubt that Bleed From Within belong among Britain’s premier heavy bands.
The interesting question now isn’t whether they can climb higher.
It’s how high?
💥 Biohazard – New York Hardcore Hits Derbyshire
Some bands play gigs.
Biohazard start incidents.
Their fusion of hardcore, metal and street-level groove remains tailor-made for festivals.
Within moments, bodies were moving everywhere.
This is music built for participation.
You don’t watch Biohazard while politely holding your drink.
You get involved.
And Bloodstock absolutely did.
🩸 Slaughter To Prevail – Absolute Violence
Saturday’s headline slot belonged to one of modern metal’s fastest-rising forces.
Slaughter To Prevail.
Whatever your opinion of deathcore, you cannot deny the scale this band has reached.
The anticipation was enormous.
Then Alex Terrible appeared.
And Catton Park went feral.
The sheer physical weight of Slaughter To Prevail’s sound is ridiculous.
Breakdowns don’t arrive.
They detonate.
Guitars churn.
Drums batter.
Vocals sound like something enormous has escaped from underneath the stage.
And the crowd?
Utterly unhinged.
Circle pits opened.
Crowd surfers appeared.
The front became a constantly moving mass of humanity.
This was a fascinating headline booking because it represented something Bloodstock has always done extremely well.
Respect the legends.
But give the future a chance.
Slaughter To Prevail aren’t a heritage act.
They’re part of a newer generation pushing extreme metal into increasingly huge venues.
Saturday night felt like another milestone in that journey.
☠️ SUNDAY – ONE LAST RIDE
Sunday morning at Bloodstock.
Nobody knows what day it is.
Your phone contains photographs you don’t remember taking.
Your tent resembles an archaeological excavation.
You have approximately £4.72 remaining.
But Judas Priest are playing later.
We go again.
🖤 Kittie – Welcome Back
The resurgence of Kittie has been one of metal’s most welcome recent stories.
A generation who grew up with the band now stands alongside younger fans discovering them for the first time, creating a crowd that spans eras of heavy music.
And the band sound vicious.
Heavy, confident and revitalised, Kittie’s Bloodstock appearance wasn’t some nostalgic victory lap.
It was a reminder that they’re still capable of delivering serious damage.
⚔️ Orbit Culture – Sweden’s Heavyweight Contenders
Keep watching Orbit Culture.
Seriously.
The Swedish metallers have been steadily developing into one of the most exciting heavy bands around, combining crushing modern production with melodic death metal DNA and riffs that sound absolutely enormous outdoors.
Bloodstock felt like another step forward.
There’s an authority developing in their performances now.
The sort that suggests considerably larger stages are waiting.
💀 Testament – Thrash Royalty
Sunday also delivered genuine thrash royalty courtesy of Testament.
There is something beautifully reassuring about watching veteran thrash bands at Bloodstock.
No nonsense required.
Plug in.
Turn up.
Destroy.
Testament’s catalogue remains packed with riffs capable of causing involuntary headbanging, and Catton Park needed very little encouragement.
Old-school metalheads rejoiced.
Younger fans discovered why these bands remain so respected.
Everybody’s neck hurt.
Job done.
🚨 BODY COUNT – ICE-T DECLARES WAR ON BLOODSTOCK
Then came one of the weekend’s most entertaining performances.
Body Count.
Led by the endlessly charismatic Ice-T, Body Count bring something completely different to Bloodstock.
Metal.
Hardcore.
Rap.
Punk attitude.
Street-level fury.
And absolutely zero interest in behaving themselves.
Ice-T remains a phenomenal frontman because he understands entertainment.
He talks to the crowd.
He provokes them.
He makes them laugh.
Then Body Count launch into another riff and the place explodes.
The performance was confrontational, unpredictable and ridiculously entertaining.
Exactly what festival sets should be.
Among a weekend stacked with great bands, Body Count provided one of Bloodstock 2026’s biggest talking points.
🏍️ BLACK LABEL SOCIETY – RIFFS THE SIZE OF WALES
You know what you’re getting with Black Label Society.
Guitars.
Beards.
More guitars.
Possibly additional beards.
And riffs capable of moving agricultural equipment.
Zakk Wylde remains one of rock and metal’s great guitar personalities, and watching him attack a guitar is somewhere between witnessing a virtuoso performance and seeing somebody wrestle farm machinery.
Subtle?
Absolutely not.
Would we want it any other way?
Absolutely not.
🤘 JUDAS PRIEST – METAL GODS CLOSE THE ANNIVERSARY
Eventually, after four days of noise, dust, beer, friendship, riffs and increasingly questionable personal hygiene, Bloodstock reached its final headline performance.
And who better to close a 25th anniversary celebration than Judas bloody Priest?
This wasn’t simply another headline booking.
This was a celebration of the music Bloodstock exists because of.
Few bands have contributed more to defining the sound, look and mythology of heavy metal than Judas Priest.
And decades into their career, they still command enormous stages.
Then there’s Rob Halford.
The Metal God.
That voice remains one of heavy music’s great instruments.
When those classic Priest songs roll across a festival field packed with metalheads, generations disappear.
Teenagers discovering Priest stand alongside fans who’ve been following them for forty years.
Everyone knows the riffs.
Everyone knows the choruses.
Everyone raises the horns.
And that’s why Priest were the perfect band to finish Bloodstock’s anniversary.
Because Bloodstock isn’t simply about where metal is now.
It’s about where it came from.
And where it’s going next.
🌱 THE NEW BLOOD STAGE – BLOODSTOCK’S SECRET WEAPON
It’s easy to look at a poster containing Judas Priest, Lamb Of God, Saxon, Body Count and Slaughter To Prevail and spend the entire weekend bouncing between established names.
But you’d be missing one of Bloodstock’s greatest features.
The New Blood Stage.
Through the festival’s Metal 2 The Masses programme, grassroots bands from across the country get an opportunity to perform at Bloodstock.
For some musicians, it’s their biggest show yet.
For fans, it’s an opportunity to discover tomorrow’s bands today.
That’s hugely important.
Festivals can’t survive forever by recycling the same headliners.
Scenes need new artists.
Bands need opportunities.
Audiences need somewhere to discover them.
Bloodstock understands that better than most.
Walking into the New Blood tent and discovering a band you’ve never heard before remains one of the festival’s greatest pleasures.
You might be watching somebody playing Bloodstock for the first time.
Five years later?
They could be standing on the Ronnie James Dio Stage.
❤️ THE BLOODSTOCK FAMILY
And ultimately, this is why Bloodstock continues to thrive.
The community.
Heavy metal festivals occasionally look terrifying from outside.
Thousands of people dressed in black.
Massive circle pits.
Death-metal vocals roaring across fields.
People wandering around dressed as Vikings before breakfast.
But underneath all of that noise is an extraordinarily welcoming community.
Someone falls in a pit?
They’re pulled back up.
Someone loses something?
People try to return it.
Someone turns up alone?
There’s a very good chance they’ll leave with new mates.
Entire friendships have been built around this festival.
People meet here every August.
Families attend together.
Kids experience their first metal bands here.
Bands that once attended as fans eventually find themselves performing on the stages.
That’s Bloodstock.
Not merely an event.
A community.
🍺 FOOD, DRINK AND FESTIVAL SURVIVAL
Of course, Bloodstock isn’t entirely about bands.
There is also the serious business of remaining alive.
Food options continue to be an essential part of the experience, particularly when your body begins demanding something containing actual nutrients after several hours of surviving on caffeine and optimism.
And Bloodstock’s famous selection of real ales remains another beloved part of the weekend.
There were more than 100 real ales available during the festival, alongside alcohol-free, gluten-free and vegan-friendly drink choices.
Very civilised.
Well…
As civilised as drinking ale while somebody nearby is dressed as a medieval executioner can possibly be.
🏆 RIFF REPORT FESTIVAL AWARDS
🔥 Performance Of The Weekend:
Lamb Of God
👑 Legendary Moment:
Judas Priest closing Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary
💥 Most Dangerous Place To Hold A Pint:
Anywhere near Municipal Waste
🦖 Most Wholesome Metal Moment:
Heavysaurus introducing another generation to heavy metal
🚨 Chaos Award:
Body Count
⚔️ Future Headliner Watch:
Bleed From Within
💀 Neck Destroyer Award:
Slaughter To Prevail
🐸 Most Bloodstock Thing At Bloodstock:
A packed tent watching amphibian-themed doom metal before lunch
❤️ Real Stars Of The Weekend:
The Bloodstock community
⭐ THE RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Twenty-five years after Bloodstock began, the festival feels more important than ever.
It celebrates metal’s history without becoming trapped by it.
Judas Priest and Saxon can stand alongside Slaughter To Prevail and Bleed From Within.
Established international acts share the weekend with bands emerging through Metal 2 The Masses.
Kids watching Heavysaurus can walk around the same festival as fans who’ve spent decades following heavy metal.
That is how a scene survives.
You honour the past.
Support the present.
And make damn sure somebody is building the future.
Bloodstock 2026 managed all three.
There were massive headline performances.
There were ridiculous pits.
There were underground discoveries.
There were friendships renewed.
There were probably several camping chairs sacrificed to the festival gods.
And somewhere between the first guitar on Thursday and the final roar on Sunday night, Catton Park once again became Britain’s heavy metal home.
Twenty-five years down.
And Bloodstock doesn’t feel remotely finished.
If anything, the beast seems to be getting bigger.
So here’s to the next twenty-five.
We’ll see you down the front.
Bring earplugs.
Bring sun cream.
Bring a decent tent.
And for the love of Lemmy…
Don’t stand in the bloody circle pit holding two full pints.
🤘🏴 Happy 25th birthday, Bloodstock.
Long live the riffs. Long live the pits. Long live heavy metal.
The Riff Report
