Bloodstock_Open_Air

Bloodstock Open Air
Bloodstock Open Air
	Main stage
Genre	Heavy metal, extreme metal, hard rock
Dates	2nd weekend in August
Location(s)	Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, England, UK
Years active	2005–present
Founded by	Paul Raymond Gregory, Vince Brotheridge
Capacity	20,000
Website	www.bloodstock.uk.com

Bloodstock Open Air

Annual British heavy metal festival

Bloodstock Open Air is a British heavy metal festival held annually at Catton Hall in Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, since 2005.

Quick Facts Genre, Dates ...

Originally held indoors for one day with two stages, the festival started in 2001 at the Derby Assembly Rooms and expanded over the years. It became an outdoor event in 2005. By 2019, it had five stages and a capacity of 15,000 now in 2023 it welcomes 20,000 metal heads ^[1]

History

Originally on one stage only, the festival expanded to incorporate a second stage in 2006. Known simply as The Unsigned Stage, it was designed to provide a platform for the next generation of metal talent to reach a wider audience. In 2010 it was renamed The New Blood Stage.

2007 saw further expansion with the addition of a third stage, originally called The Lava Stage, which in 2009 became the Sophie Lancaster Stage. In 2010 the capacity of this stage was increased and it became the festival's second stage.

Bloodstock Open Air was conceived as an extension of the original Bloodstock indoor festival which ran from 2001 until 2006 at Derby Assembly Rooms. After an amicable parting in 2006 with his business partner Vince Brotheridge, in 2006 Paul Gregory brought his daughters Vicky Hungerford, Rachael Greenfield and son Adam Gregory on board as directors.

In 2010, Heaven & Hell was scheduled to headline Bloodstock Open Air, but pulled out due to the death of singer Ronnie James Dio. The main stage at the festival was subsequently renamed as the "Ronnie James Dio stage" in tribute to him.

The 2020 festival was planned to be a celebration of "20 years of Bloodstock" however the festival was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ticket holders were given the option either to have a refund on their ticket or to roll it over to the 2021 festival which saw three stages expanded to include an extra day.

Bloodstock has hosted numerous metal bands from the following countries/dependencies: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Egypt, England, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, India, Indonesia, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Scotland (including Shetland Islands), Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Ukraine, USA, Wales, and Guernsey.

^[2]

Bloodstock UK Metalfest

Bloodstock originally began as an indoor festival held in Derby Assembly Rooms which ran for six years, 2001 to 2006. In order to associate the festival roots with Derby, where founder Paul Gregory lives, the festival's mascot/logo was based on the tale of The Derby Ram; a beast so large that, when a butcher finally slaughtered it, he drowned in the Ram's blood. A competition was run to name the beast and 'S-tan' was selected, he has appeared on almost all Bloodstock artwork since only missing from the first three BOA festivals when the S-tan snake featured instead.