The 25 defining moments of Bloodstock's 25th anniversary

Bloodstock's always a banging weekend. But this year's weekend celebrating all things heavy and loud was a particularly special occasion, marking the festival's silver anniversary. But where 2001’s original Bloodstock welcomed 700 fans to the Derby Assembly Rooms for an indoor party headlined by Saxon, it's swollen to the point where it now routinely registers sell-out crowds of 20,000 down the road at Catton Park.

With returning legends, younger contenders making a play for the top spot, surprise victories, mad pits, complete silliness and a very, very hot sun, it was a year to remember. Here are the 25 highlights from Bloodstock's 25th birthday...

'Where were you in '79 when the dam began to burst?' asks Biff Byford on Saxon's immortal Denim And Leather. On Thursday, as BOA 2026 got underway, he could also have asked where you were in 2001, when he and his band headlined the first ever Bloodstock, back when it was still an indoor affair in Derby. The festival is now older than the song was at that first Bloodstock party, but the central tenet that 'Denim and leather brought us all together' hasn't aged a day. To celebrate, the Barnsley metal legends have brought a set of absolute bangers (Strong Arm Of The Law, 747 (Strangers In The Night), Heavy Metal Thunder), a raging newie that proves they're still tuff as ever (Hell, Fire And Damnation), and the massive eagle lighting rig from 1980. They even bring out fest founder Paul Gregory for a salute. All they needed was a birthday cake... (NR)

When Richmond ragers Lamb Of God arrived on Friday night, they did so with a combustible mix of caustic fury and wild celebration. "I'm pleased to report that I remembered my laminate this year," announced Randy Blythe, recalling the viral oops moment from last time they were here. The added sense of occasion only added to the deadly strike of Parasocial Christ and an absolutely steamrolling Walk With Me In Hell.

Randy was in a particularly good mood. "Bollocks, mate, you sound like a bunch of old ladies," he laughed when crowd cheers didn't meet his standards. "I thought this was a fucking metal festival." When the actual music started, though, he effortlessly showed that he's still one of the deadliest frontmen on the planet.

"Do you wanna wake up tomorrow and say, 'Goddamn, I missed the biggest circle-pit in Bloodstock history?'" With a convincing argument like that, it was only right that things went absolutely spare toward the end. Lamb Of God knew their assignment, and brought a serious party. And stupidly big pits. (NR)

Read the full review: Reign at Bloodstock! What happened when Lamb Of God headlined Friday of BOA 2026

'Stand tall, I’m young and kinda’ proud / I'm still on top as long as the music's loud!' sang Rob Halford on You've Got Another Thing Coming. Even if the first half of that famous lyric might be pushing it a bit nowadays, the latter is truer than it’s ever been. Staggeringly so. As the sun set on a mad weekend, Judas Priest proved the best was saved for last, bookending Bloodstock's coming of age year by by bookending it with the same classic British metal on which it was founded. (SL)

Read the full review: Delivering The Goods! Judas Priest tear down the house for Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary

Bloody hell, Bleed From Within, calm down. Actually, do no such thing. The Scottish metallers' Saturday night sub-headline slot was always going to be a special occasion, but in the event, they took on the job by throwing everything they had at making it the biggest, fieriest, bagpipe-blowing-est show possible, to make for one of the undeniable highlights of the weekend. A flaming platform along the front of the stage and massive pits are cool, but beyond all this, it was Bleed From Within's own personality that left the biggest impression. The End Of All We Know and Violent Nature are just two of their very, very good songs, while singer Scott Kennedy's kilt and Scottish pipers and drummers coming out to round out epic closer In Place Of Your Halo made for something truly stirring all of their own. Future headliners? That's what a lot of people are saying... (NR)

Coming out to the Blood Rave theme from Blade for their first UK festival headliner, Slaughter To Prevail had better be pretty bloody good. Contrary to frontman Alex Terrible's moniker, it turned out they really are. Plenty of Bloodstock attendees have questioned the controversial deathcore crew's qualifications to parachute straight in as headliners on the first go-round, but the sheer shock and awe of a massive, fire-wreathed performance proved there's no other place for them here. With digital flames emanating from behind an on-screen chain-link fence, pyro constantly toasting the band onstage, and a parade of furnace-forged riffs, maybe not every onlooker got blown away on Saturday night, but even the most fervent naysayers found themselves at least lightly singed. (SL)

Read the full review: Far from Terrible! How Slaughter To Prevail triumphed at their Bloodstock headline debut

In contrast to a lot of places they play, Castle Rat's fantastical outfits and weaponry almost found them blending in at Bloodstock. Almost. In the past year or so, though, Riley Pinkerton and her gaggle of creatures of the night have gone from charmingly hokey to commanding in their theatricailty. Songs like Dagger Dragger, Wizard and Wolf I have grown into massive, heroic versions of Sabbath at their finest, but one of the biggest takeaways from Castle Rat's Sunday lunchtime service was just how much fun it is to watch a sword fight against their nemesis, The Rat Reaperess, and the moment where a mortally wounded Riley is brought back to life. Castle Rat were brilliant before, but a year on the road has made them into something destined for something great. (NR)

Why do dinosaurs sound so damn good at metal festivals? Because Tyrannosaurus Rocks! Knowingly bad wordplay and inflatable dinosaur costumes were the the order of the day as Finnish ‘kids metal’ phenomenon Heavysaurus opened the Ronnie James Dio stage on Thursday, delighting both the festival’s youngest attendees and anyone else young at heart. Classic cover snippets of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell, Europe’s The Final Countdown and Metallica’s Enter Sandman are always welcome, but even the fearsome fivesome’s ‘original’ cuts Dino Disko, Yeah, Heavysaurus! and the brilliantly-titled Rarr sound good when you’re jostling for space with a pterodactyl, a triceratops and a gang of elated six-year-olds in the pit. (SL)

A giant robot. Crab claws as far as the eye can see. A song about taking the rubbish out (Green Bin Day). Link from Zelda leading thousands of people in co-ordinated actions. Bloodstock regulars Evil Scarecrow may have come here with horsing around high on the agenda, but it also clearly takes a lot of work to raise a laugh on the scale they managed on the Main Stage on Thursday night. Also, the songs are bangers, albeit bangers with very, very daft lyrics. All the more fun to belt out. They even did their own special Bloodstock birthday song. Aww. (NR)

Are Party Cannon serious about breaking four Guinness World Records? With the niche feats being attempted – ‘loudest gang chant’, ‘largest banana-costume circle-pit’, ‘most inflatable crowd surfers’, ‘biggest push-up pit’ – we had our doubts. But after seeing the ‘Guinness adjudicator’ joining them onstage stroking his goatee like a side-character from a 1970s sex-comedy before being fed into an onstage "squelcher" and shot out the other end as confetti-filled entrails, we’re pretty sure the whole thing was legit. Either way, it was one of the weekend's biggest laffs. The Dunfermline slam maniacs have always chased disgustingly colourful ridiculousness, and this might just have been their masterpiece. (SL)

After their main stage closing performance well after midnight at Wacken last week, Bloodstock’s late-afternoon billing for Sepultura could have felt oddly anticlimactic. In the event, there was a fitting poignancy about seeing the Brazilian legends play their final UK show in the warmth of the setting sun. Derrick Greene’s aching vocals on centrepiece power-ballad Beyond The Dream proved as tear-jerking as they are jarring in an otherwise characteristically concussive performance. But for anyone complaining about that, the final run of Refuse/Resist, Arise, Ratamahatta and a cataclysmic Roots Bloody Roots delivered blood and sweat aplenty, too. A grand farewell. (SL)

People have been asking for Body Count at Bloodstock forever. Finally, on Sunday, it happened. “How many people are at their first Body Count show tonight?” grinned Ice-T with mean mischief in his eyes, as a good two-thirds of the crowd cheered. “Fuckin’ virgins!” The 68-year-old hip-hop/heavy metal/onscreen icon might ruffle a few feathers with his tongue-in-cheek odes to old-school masculinity, er, mass murder and “that bitch in the pit”, but as the stars aligned for their arrival here, there was simply so much fun to be had that you’d need to be of a seriously stony disposition not to be having a good time. Ice warmly welcoming then sharply sending away a young fan too stage-shy to sing Talk Shit, Get Shot is peak banter, while the cover of Slayer’s Raining Blood was (obviously) storming. And there’s real sociopolitical feeling in This Is Why We Ride. But nothing can top the mayhem of a lawless Cop Killer. Here’s hoping they make it back this way again while Ice has the appetite. (SL)

Look, it's Municipal Waste at a festival. Fun carnage is non-negotiable. The first time they were here, they set a record for most crowdsurfers (with definitely no number fudging). On Friday they did it all over again, with Download boss Kam Haq keeping the tally. It was just one moment of mayhem that had security working overtime ("Sorry, but you're gonna get your asses kicked," declared Tony Forresta, a man having so much fun he couldn't stop corpsing). Even the young lad handing out water to exiting crowdsurfers looked like he was having the time of his life. Still thrashing mad, still some of the biggest hoots you'll ever have. (NR)

Last time Urne were plying their trade in this part of the world, they seemed to be consumed by the emotions around stunning second album A Feast On Misery. In this instance, they were on much more playful form, with frontman Joe Nally trolling fans with a suggestion that Mastodon singer and recent collaborator Troy Sanders is waiting backstage for Harken The Waves, and smiling knowingly at the punter handing out balloon swords down the front. Brilliantly, none of this could undercut the excellence of bangers like The Spirit, Alive and Serpent & Spirit, which continue to blend the magic of legends like Metallica and Gojira into one of the most compellingly singular sounds in modern heavy music. (SL)

Sanguisugabogg mainman Devin Swank is looking seriously fucking swole these days. Wide-eyed and possessed of a tangible bloodlust, you wonder whether he’s been working out to be able to bring songs like Face Ripped Off, Felony Abuse Of A Corpse and A Lesson In Savagery to gory life. He certainly nailed them sonically on Saturday evening, bludgeoning all the way through to Dragged By A truck and Dead As Shit to prove his band of notorious online shitposters are just as proficient at brutalist munch as brain-melting memes. (SL)

Every year, Bloodstock gives stage space to picks from the British metal scene. This year's highlights included a Main Stage turn from London thrash oiks Inhuman Nature, kicking up the dust at the frightful time of 10:45 in the morning on Saturday. At a similar hour, sludge mainstays Gurt brought the riffs and the daftness, bashing out a cover of 2 Unlimited's No Limit (actually quite good), while East Anglia volume scientists Acid Throne simply bulldozed out their sonic tar at a silly volume. And for something a bit more psych-tinged for when you need something more vibey, Alunah were on hand with their dreamy '70s heaviness.

For those looking for something harsher, Northern black metallers Blood Countess were a treat, backing up the excitement around them from the underground in the wake of their excellent Imperatrix Sanguinis album from earlier this year. Meanwhile, fusing muscular musicality with a sense of diabolic celebration, Iranian five-some Trivax revelled in the wild-eyed joy this stuff can engender, with frontman Shayan on top of the crowd looking like a man completely possessed.

Celestial Sanctuary, meanwhile, announced themselves as the UK's great death metal hopes. Even more than they already were, like. To a huge crowd, their Sophie Stage turn felt like a band about to do something amazing. Their new album is being readied. On this showing, what happens next for them will be immense. (NR)

Moshing was at a minimum during daylight hours on Saturday, as the blazing sun and high temperatures took their toll on a crowd already sorely nursing bangovers. Even this was no problem for Irish folk-punks The Scratch, mind. Rather than just bolting on a string section and playing some heavy jigs, the Dublin crew remake heavy music from the ground up, with the beat of Daniel Lang’s cajón at the heart of a setup that feels equal-parts trad session and metal show. The cover of Motörhead’s Ace Of Spades was always going to be killer, but it’s staggering how they managed to ramp things further and further with Pull Like A Dog, Cheeky Bastard and Latchico. Twangily superb. (SL)

Obvious as it may seem, having a great selection of drinks to choose from at your festival helps lubricate the party machine. It’s easier said than done, though, with even Germany’s mighty Wacken offering the sole beer choice of Anheuser-Busch Bud (Budweiser) in its main arena bars rather than Teutonic suds this year. There was no such messing around at Bloodstock, with everything from mango cider to freshly-made espresso martinis on offer. And with the average pint coming in at about £6.50, they’re close enough to the same price-point as many UK pubs in 2026. It’s an under-publicised aspect of Bloodstock’s painstaking curation, but one that makes a massive difference. Down the hatch! Lovely! (SL)

On the one hand, Testament are such a safe Sunday afternoon booking at Bloodstock that it’s hard to get all that excited about them. On the other, they’re fucking Testament. Starting as they mean to go on with an all-guns-blazing Into The Pit, Chuck Billy, Alex Skolnick and the lads may not look like the youngsters they once were, but the fire still burns through all-time thrash anthems Practice What you Preach and Sons Of Omission. Newer cuts Henchmen Ride and More Than Meets The Eye from 2008’s underrated The Formation Of Damnation hit the target, but Over The Wall was the roof-raiser, with a massive crowd shaking off four days of booze and obliterating heat to give that classic the violent reception it deserves. (SL)

Thirteen months on from playing an integral role at Back To The Beginning, with tens of thousands of miles hard touring in the interim, emotions were high as Zakk Wylde returned to a big stage in the English Midlands to pay tribute to his old mentor Ozzy Osbourne again. A show-stealing cover of their 1991 collaboration No More Tears was the obvious highlight on Sunday afternoon, but a tangible sense of loss and longing bled through Funeral Bell, Name In Blood and A Love Unreal that elevated Black Label Society's performance to another level. Particularly when photos of Ozzy flashed onscreen for Suicide Messiah and Stillborn, evoking huge cheers. An extra shout-out is due to Zakk’s battle-hardened Black Label bandmates John DeServio (bass), Dario Lorina (guitar) and Jeff Fabb (drums) who round out one of the tightest performances all weekend. The Double-O would be proud. (SL)

Anyone hoping that Biohazard legends Evan Seinfeld and Billy Graziadei might have stopped putting the rest of Bloodstock’s beer-bellied masses to shame and let themselves go in the time since their last visit to the festival were sorely disappointed on Friday afternoon. But for everyone else, it’s a musclebound delight. Pumped up, with hardcore history on their side, and shouting out fellow New York legends Life Of Agony, they remained gloriously uncompromising, while their a cover of Bad Religion’s We’re Only Gonna Die drove the already feral mosh joyously over the top. (SL)

After more than a decade wearing a groove in the roads between London and Download, everyone's favourite bicycle gang, Heavy Metal Truants, pointed their handlebars Bloodstock-ward for the first time in 2026. The route may have changed, but they still clocked up almost 200 miles on two wheels (each, not everyone on one bike, obviously), and as ever their tired little legs helped raise loads of money for the excellent charities Nordoff & Robbins, Childline, Teenage Cancer Trust and Save The Children. Then, entirely for their own benefit, they got on it and watched Lamb Of God. They're having a well-deserved sit down now, but you can still make a donation to the cause. (NR)

Following the death of singer Warrel Dane in 2017, it looked like nevermore for Seattle metal giants Nevermore. But, 15 years since their last gigs, in April they returned to the stage with new singer Berzan Önen, a man who not only has the pipes for the jobs, but who arrived for the band's Bloodstock show looking like he'd won the lottery. As one of the band's first shows back, it's a hell of a scoop for Bloodstock, and the band's UK comeback was the sort of return you normally find in The Bible. (NR)

A quarter-to-11 on a Friday morning, with an oppressive sun already high in the sky, isn’t an ideal time for any band to try and make an impact. Australian maniacs Battlesnake stormed the Main Stage with the fervour of zealots worshipping the glare anyway. Songs called I Killed Satan, I Am The Vomit and Mud Apocalypse (on its ironically dusty live debut) make it pretty clear they’re operating with tongues firmly in cheek, even before you notice the branded Y-fronts under their bejewelled vestments, but their Judas Priest-indebted songcraft is absolutely on point. A closing race through AC/DC’s Let There Be Rock, with one guitarist riffing away while being pushed roughly around the stage atop a flight case proved just the sweaty cherry on top. (SL)

“Grab him by the balls!” came the cry of one small woman, drunkenly loving every moment Bloodstock's now-legendary bin-based gladiatorial combat. In earlier years, the campsites would hear the rumble of wheels at four in the morning, as roaming mobs of troublemakers hijacked the event’s dumpsters, ramming them into each other at high speed while the drunkest-of-the-drunk would ride on top and wrestle to the ground. Regulating that chaos in a well-padded arena near the festival entrance, with medics on hand, hasn't diluted the sheer feral joy of the ‘bin jousting’ spectacle, and while not every participant seems charged with total mania these days, seeing two shirtless men roll each other off the back of a refuse container in the middle of the night as peers bay for blood still, weirdly, rules. (SL)

On paper, booking French synthwave innovator Carpenter Brut on Sunday night should be the perfect close to Bloodstock 2026. So it proved. Not only is his meld of thumping synths, crunching live instruments and OTT video production the perfect soundtrack to throw shapes into the wee hours; his positioning at the intersection between the worlds of ‘real’ metal and cutting-edge electro is emblematic of Bloodstock’s evolution as an event.

True, plenty of exhausted fans chose bed, but for those with enough left in the tank for one last dance, it was God-tier stuff, with the Sophie Lancaster stage’s excellent PA pushed to its limits by Roller Mobster and Le Perv as the man himself perched behind his glowing geometric emblem flanked by instrumentalists and lurid images flashing onscreen.

An exhausting end to the biggest, boldest Bloodstock yet, then. But we're already getting ready to party with Mercyful Fate, Motionless In White, Electric Callboy, Green Lung and loads more in 2027. Now, to bed! (SL)

Read this next:

• Lamb Of God: “Things are demoralisingly stupid. We need to develop community and figure out how to survive”
• Yorkshire Tea, onstage rambles and Dream Machines: Life on the road with Judas Priest’s Rob Halford
• 10 reasons why you need Castle Rat in your life