A brilliant little festival

This three day event celebrated its 11th birthday with over 10,000 guests coming to the party and more than 100 bands gracing its stages.

As always with BOA there was a great atmosphere. This truly is a festival for the fans, by the fans. And there really is a feeling of togetherness. And despite many people’s pre-conceptions this really is a festival for all ages.

This year saw some of the big names from the metal and rock world and acts from all over the world descend on Bloodstock’s hallowed grounds.

Notably the headliners, W.A.S.P, Immortal and Motorhead all graced the Ronnie James Dio stage, named after the late, great, rock icon.

W.A.S.P followed a long line of ‘old school’ headlining rock bands that BOA loves to get on stage. And although lead singer Blackie Lawless looked a little tired, the band still played a good set with a selection of songs from their 28 year career. The only thing missing was the shock factor – something the band and their shows have became notorious for.

Saturday saw one of black metal’s finest bands, Immortal, take to the stage providing fans with plenty of heavy riffs from a large catalogue of songs from their eight albums. Rumours are that Immortal took a big pay cut just to play the festival and the crowd wasn’t disappointed.

Motorhead was the band to bring the weekend to a close.

Unfortunately they seemed to have sound problems early on, played a short set and then didn’t play an encore.

Admittedly though the band’s most famous song, Ace of Spades, ripped through the night air and had everyone singing along to one of the biggest rock songs of all time.

Despite the short final set the festival as a whole was another successful one, leaving the fans wanting more, and counting down the days until the 2012 instalment of this brilliant little festival.

For more photos log on to our website for a slideshow of the weekend.

Jake Oakley