Live Report: Bloodstock Open Air 2011

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Story and photos by Tommy Young

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First Roadburn, now the great outdoors

Back in April, I had my first ever multi-day metal festival experience attending Roadburn Fest, in Tilburg, Netherlands (report here). It was such an amazing time, filled with intense, brooding, dark, and intelligent metal. Indoors – a classy affair, if you will. Fantastic folks. An easy 5 p.m. or so onward each day. I survived just fine. Mission accomplished.

Next up on my bucket list was to attend a multi-day outdoor metal festival. For years, I drooled over festival lineups, spending loads of cash buying live DVDs, drinking beer, and watching them on the couch, imagining myself actually in attendance. For whatever reason, scheduling never worked out, money was tight, or I just couldn’t make it work.

So post-Roadburn, the desire was intensified to get to a festival. I NEEDED to do this. The fests were all so good this year. Hellfest, Wacken, Summer Breeze … how to choose? Well, the choice was made for me (and by beer).

One night, my good friend (who ended up attending with me) and I were at a bar discussing how much we loved Morbid Angel, and despite their mostly-disappointing new album, were upset we had never seen them live. A quick iPhone search let us to Bloodstock 2011.

“Ha! Wouldn’t that be something if we went to this festival! Oh, but our summers are busy. Maybe next year!”

I wouldn’t have it.

At 5 am, I drunkenly hit “Buy Now”, and sent my friend an email with the subject, “Happy Birthday Motherfucker”.

It was on.

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We’re going, what will happen?

PREFACE: In no way am I talking down to the bands or type of metal or fans that attend Bloodstock – not at all. But from an outsider’s perspective, it would be easy to lump one group (Bloodstock) on one side of the fence, and the rest (Roadburn) on the other.

I was in London the week before for work. I bought the Bloodstock Android app. I had the schedule. We were closer to launch.

Our expectations were completely based on what we had read and what we’d seen on videos. Stereotypes abound. We expected the following:

• We were going to be out in Bumfuck, UK. The festival took place in Catton Hall, UK, which as it appears on Google Maps, is a field in the middle of nowhere. A literal pasture (it was covered in old manure).
• Lots and lots of dirty metalheads
• Old metalheads
• LOTS of headbanging and long hair
• Lots of flags
• Lots of beer consumption
• Lots of epic metal
• Plenty of big mosh pits

All of these things held very true.

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Day 1: Anticipation and Exuberance

While the festival had sprawling campgrounds, we opted for a cozy hotel in the suburb of Lichfield. I don’t know if I have it in me anymore to not shower for over 3three days and sleep on the ground. Call me soft, but I don’t care.

After we checked in to our hotel on the first day, we spent time slamming some beers and following the tweets coming out of the festival. The Defiled and Wolf were killing it on the main stage. We were giddy with anticipation. We needed to get there. We hopped into a cab, and were on our way.

En route, our cabbie told us how much the town and surrounding area embraced the festivalgoers, and were glad the festival was nearby. This made us happy. Not outcasts! Approaching the venue, tons of people where walking in from the parking lots, a bunch of heavy metal ants (black t-shirts en masse) on their way to work. It felt good to know we were in the right place.

The cab dumped us off, and here we were, a couple of dudes from Brooklyn out in the middle of Nowhere, UK. We couldn’t have been happier.

As we made our way in, it became apparent that the weekend was going to be memorable. There were endless people and tents. Many folks were costumed. Many folks were already hammerdrunk at noon. Many people were chanting and singing and generally revelling. Lots of people drinking beer from horns! There were a lot of AMAZING patch jackets (more on that later).

Entering the area, we were told, “Welcome to Bloodstock!” as we were given our wristbands. Even the staff were jovial and having a good time. Could this last three days?

We headed straight to the main stage (noise was coming from all directions) and started what would be a recurring theme of “I had no idea these guys were this amazing!”, as Forbidden were crushing it. Immersed in a sea of metal, we were in Hell. With three stages of metal, music was always to be seen.

Day 1 continued with us walking around in a sense of amazement. We watched many incredible bands. We saw and met a lot of crazy yet friendly and down-to-earth people. We drank a lot of ale. We ate a lot of interesting festival food. We lived and breathed metal.

Simply observing the crowd from a distance was such an experience. The migration of folks from stage to stage as bands finished their sets, to overhearing conversations and reviews of sets on the way to/at the port-a-johns – it was all surreal, not to mention the feeling of being stranded in a fantasy world. I became 15 years younger on the spot.

We taxied home with huge grins on our faces. We had done it! And guess what? We would get to do it thrice over!

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Day 2 and 3: Wash, rinse, repeat

Each day went something like this. Not necessarily always in the same order, but the ritual was fairly consistent:

• Wake up, recount night before
• Go to local market, buy a bunch of beers
• Taxi to festival, telling cabbie about the night before
• Walk through camping area, chat up folks, slam beers
• Watch amazing metal
• Ride carnival rides
• Watch amazing metal, take amazing photos
• Dodge bloody and mostly naked dudes (so many naked dudes running around!)
• Make more friends, talk more metal
• Watch amazing metal

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And then there were patch jackets

It was obvious early on in the festival that we were not up to snuff in our dedication to metal. The main accessory we were missing were patch jackets. THERE WERE SO MANY AMAZING JACKETS! On day 2 and 3 in between sets, we spent time roaming the ground seeking out patches to form the foundation of our jackets. We ended up with 13 apiece.

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New (and old) favorite bands

I went in to Bloodstock hoping to have more bands in my iPod arsenal, and I couldn’t have been more satisfied with what I saw. I could spend hours talking about the great bands I witnessed, but I’ll list a few of my favorites now.

Cerebral Bore: death metal from Scotland, led by frontwoman Simone, absolutely crushed the Sophie Lancaster stage on Day 1. While I’d say death metal was a bit of a minority among the bands there, Cerebral Bore got one of the loudest responses of the entire festival.

Byfrost: Norwegian Black ‘n’ Roll I guess I’d have to call them, also tore up and stole the 2nd stage. Very groovy, very heavy.

You’re probably going to laugh at me, but I never knew any of Kreator’s music until this festival. WOW. Had I been missing out for years! They had the best stage setup of any band, brought their A game, and now have a dedicated fan and a spot on my patch jacket.

Napalm Death had an incredible set. They kind of had to considering their hometown of Birmingham was only about an hour away. They were the perfect Sunday matinee to get everyone’s blood flowing for the final day.

I never knew Finntroll was actually an amazing band, particularly live. Boy, was I wrong.

For whatever reason, I also never gave Hammerfall a chance. Maybe I thought they were corny or generic, but it doesn’t matter. They put on a epic show (their music is pretty epic) and yet again were a band that proved me wrong.

Morbid Angel: talk alllll the shit you want about their new album, the fact remains that David Vincent and Trey are gods, and they showed it during their set. There was not a single boo (there were rumblings on the 2nd day of the festival) as they shredded through their hour-long set. This is the band I came to Bloodstock to see, and I was completely satisfied. They crushed the whole set, and David wooed the crowd (even IF he was wearing steel-toed boots).

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In closing

I’ll never forget this first Bloodstock. It took a good amount of time and effort to get there, and it is so gratifying to look back and think about it. It’s one of the best things I have ever done for myself, and I feel like a much more whole person having done it. I cannot wait for 2012.

They’re going to have to cut the wristband off me when I’m put in the morgue – with my patch jacket on.

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