Music Festival History

🤘 Introduction Some festivals are built on massive budgets. Others are built on passion. SOS Festival proudly belongs to the second category. Since its launch in 2008, SOS Festival has become one of Britain’s most respected independent rock and metal festivals. Entirely volunteer-run and fiercely independent, the festival has earned a reputation for championing underground and emerging bands while welcoming...

🤘 Introduction Some festivals are built around huge crowds. Others are built around unforgettable experiences. Call of the Wild Festival proudly belongs to the second category. Since bursting onto the UK rock scene in 2022, Call of the Wild has quickly established itself as one of Britain’s friendliest and most exciting boutique rock festivals. Combining melodic rock, hard rock, AOR,...

🤘 Introduction Some festivals celebrate tradition. Others exist to push music into the future. RADAR Festival proudly belongs to the second category. Since launching in 2021, RADAR Festival has become one of Britain’s most exciting and forward-thinking rock and metal events. Built around progressive metal, djent, math rock, post-rock, alternative metal, metalcore and cutting-edge heavy music, it has carved out...

🤘 Introduction Some festivals celebrate rock. Others celebrate metal. Then there’s Damnation Festival—a festival built for those who like their riffs heavier, their blast beats faster and their breakdowns capable of shaking the foundations of an arena. Since its launch in 2005, Damnation Festival has become one of the UK’s most respected heavy metal events. From death metal and black...

🤘 Introduction Some festivals have been around for decades. Others arrive quietly and quickly become one of the most talked-about weekends on the British rock calendar. Maid of Stone Festival belongs firmly in the second category. Held in the stunning surroundings of Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent, Maid of Stone has rapidly built a reputation as one of Britain’s friendliest rock...

🤘 Introduction When most festivals are still months away and winter refuses to loosen its grip, Planet Rock Presents Winter’s End brings the rock community together for one unforgettable weekend. Held every January, Winter’s End has become one of Britain’s most loved indoor rock festivals, offering fans the chance to shake off the winter blues with four days of live...

For a few glorious summers, one festival appeared ready to change the entire European rock and metal landscape. Its name was hemisphere. Rather than existing as one fixed event in one country, hemisphere was designed as a travelling festival series. Major bands would move between different European locations, joined by local artists and specially selected support acts at each stop....

There are festivals that include heavy metal. Then there is Bloodstock Open Air. Held every August at Catton Park in Derbyshire, Bloodstock has developed into one of the most important independent metal festivals in Europe. It is a gathering where thrash, death metal, black metal, doom, power metal, folk metal, metalcore and almost every other gloriously noisy corner of the...

Before Download Festival brought multiple stages, five-day camping and tens of thousands of black-clad maniacs to Donington Park, there was Monsters of Rock. One stage. One day. A handful of the biggest hard-rock and heavy-metal bands on the planet. No clashes. No gentle warm-up weekend. No wandering between distant arenas while desperately trying to follow a timetable. The formula was...

Every June, tens of thousands of rock and metal fans descend upon Donington Park for one of the loudest, muddiest and most gloriously chaotic weekends in the British festival calendar. For the Download faithful, it is far more than three days of bands. It is the walk from the car park carrying approximately twice your own body weight. It is...

There are festivals you attend once. Then there are festivals that become part of your yearly calendar, your friendship group, your summer routine and, eventually, your identity. For thousands of rock fans, Steelhouse Festival is firmly in that second category. Held at Hafod-y-Dafal Farm, near Aberbeeg and Ebbw Vale, Steelhouse has grown from an ambitious local project into one of...