Music Festivals

If you were dreaming of kicking off your festival weekend with a pint in one hand and a riff in the other, Maid of Stone Festival 2025 had other plans. Because instead of headbanging, many punters found themselves head-scratching and rage-posting from car parks, portaloos (or lack thereof), and power-dead pitches. It’s day one, and already things are going well...

A shrine to the superfans, collectors, and beautifully unhinged riff-addicts who’ve made Steelhouse a living, screaming monument to rock 🎶💀Only on The Riff Report, where legends aren’t born — they’re inked, laminated, and occasionally framed in someone’s bog. 🎸 CHAPTER 1: THE TATTOOS OF THE MOUNTAIN TRIBE 💉 Let’s kick off with inked devotion, because Steelhouse fans don’t just wear...

The amps have cooled, the last pint’s been poured, and it’s time to drag your sunburnt, soggy carcass back to reality… 🧳😢Only on The Riff Report, where even farewells are full of riffs and ridiculousness. 🥲 CHAPTER 1: THE MORNING AFTER THE MADNESS It’s Monday morning on the mountain. The stage is silent. The beer tents are barren. The campsite...

When the amps go silent and the real madness begins... 🌙🎶Only on The Riff Report, your trusted source of twilight tales, tent weirdness, and firelit folklore 🤘 🌌 INTRO: WELCOME TO THE NIGHTSHIFT, MUN The headliners are done. The stage lights dim. The merch stall’s locked up, and the last chords of “Long Live Rock ‘n’ Roll” are still echoing...

The beast that is BLOODSTOCK just got heavier, madder, and even more molten with a fresh slab of underground fury dropped onto the Timothy Taylor’s Brewery New Blood Stage – and c’mon butt, this year’s crop is an absolute riot. 🤯 Let’s face it: if you’re not already on the rail at midday watching these monsters in the making, what...

Disasters, drama, and duct tape miracles – only on The Riff Report 🤕🛠️🔥 Steelhouse isn’t just a festival – it’s a Wales-on-hard-mode simulator where the weather’s wild, the gear’s held together with hope, and anything that can go wrong… usually does. But somehow, every catastrophe turns into a legend, retold around the campfire with cider in hand and a tear...

Because you can’t rock on an empty stomach, and you sure as hell can’t mosh while bursting for a wee 💥🍺🚽Welcome to The Riff Report’s no-holds-barred guide to the real essentials of surviving Steelhouse Festival: grub, grog, and the great portaloo lottery. 🥓 CHAPTER 1: BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS – BACON IN A HURRICANE Let’s start with the most important meal...

📍 Upcote Farm, Cheltenham – Saturday, July 12, 2025✍️ The Riff Report | Legs gone, voice gone, spirit flying somewhere above the Forest Stage ☀️ Saturday: The Final Stretch Into the Pit of Glory Saturday at Trees hits different. You’re knackered. You’ve forgotten what your bed feels like. You’ve got glitter in places glitter should never be. But somehow —...

A love letter to the loudest, muddiest, most dedicated maniacs this side of the Valleys 🏕️🤘Only on The Riff Report, where the riffs are heavy and the fans are heavier. 🏔️ WELCOME TO THE MOUNTAIN FAITHFUL Some festivals have fairweather fans. Steelhouse has lifers. They come year after year, in sun, sleet, and sideways sheep, armed with camping chairs, bandanas,...

📍 Upcote Farm, Cheltenham – Friday, July 11, 2025✍️ The Riff Report | Now 47% cider, 53% tinnitus 🏕️ FRIDAY AT TREES: WHERE EMO MEETS ANARCHY IN A FIELD By Friday, you’ve either hit your stride or hit the floor — and 2000trees doesn’t care which one you are. Because Friday doesn’t warm up, it explodes. After Thursday’s chaos (cheers...

By The Riff Report Blog – still deaf, still buzzing, still standing (barely) By the time Sunday rolled around at Maid of Stone, you’d think we’d be done, dusted, and begging for a bath and Berocca. BUT NO. We came for the riffs, we stayed for the chaos — and Sunday delivered the final knockout blow to an already legendary...

🌲 Upcote Farm, Cheltenham – July 10, 2025✍️ The Riff Report Blog | Still hoarse, still happy, still covered in glitter and gravel rash 🎸 Thursday: The Day the Forest Went Feral If Wednesday was the emotional warm-up, Thursday was the flipping cannonball into the riff pool. The Main Stage roared to life, the pits exploded, and the crowd —...

By The Riff Report Blog – screaming into the void since Lemmy turned it up to 11 🤘 After Friday’s inferno of face-melting madness, Saturday at Maid of Stone roared to life like a phoenix made of Marshall stacks and BBQ smoke. If you thought you’d have time to recover — HA! Not a chance, butt. Saturday was full throttle...

Early Entry Mayhem, Forest Tears & Cave Stage Chaos 📍 Upcote Farm, Cheltenham – July 9, 2025✍️ The Riff Report | Covered in glitter and screaming about Graphic Nature since 2pm 🏕️ Welcome to the Cult of Trees Ah, Wednesday at 2000trees — the day the faithful arrive early, pitch their tents wonkily, and begin the four-day pilgrimage into riff-fuelled...

🎸 FRIDAY – OPENING THE GATES OF RIFF HEAVEN The sun dipped, the flames rose, and the weekend kicked off with a bang louder than a cannonball at a Sabaton gig. Friday at Maid of Stone wasn’t just the warm-up — it was a full-blown, pint-sloshing, pit-stomping declaration of war on silence. 💥 HEADLINER: SKINDRED Genre: Ragga Metal / Nu-Metal...