The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2023

[Aaaarrrrgggghhhh]

AKA.. the Glad it wasn't as hot as last year thread.

[kanet666]

Don't post here as much as I used to but always like to put feedback where I can. Overall the festival experience was as good as it has been for a number of years for me personally for a number of reasons not including the weather.

The Good:
- Toilets. At least in Midgard where I was camped, the sawdust toilets were regularly stocked with toilet roll, emptied regularly and kept as clean as any festival in my memory. Some minor issues with the urinal shape but would be happy with a similar arrangement next year.
- Cleanliness. People are obnoxious and throw litter everywhere and there's not much you can do about that, but the tireless work by the cleanup crew meant that I only really noticed this when the people had just thrown it down. Great job by everyone involved
- Campsite shenanigans - Some very smart thinking and organisation meant I slept better in Midgard than I ever have before (bar some annoying neighbours on the Friday night). Yeah, some of the charm of the camp is these shenanigans but its nice for it not to travel the entire camp site causing mayhem
- Sound on the main stage - the vast majority of the bands on the main stage that I saw had very clear sound bar the odd exception that I attribute more to the wind than anything. The headliners especially had a fantastic sound for their sets.
- Allergen information availability. My partner has a severe nut allergy and having this information easy to find helps a lot. A bit more variety of safe foods would be nice but it's a lot better than a lot of places we have been.
- Seating and shelter around the arena. Great improvement on last year
- Return of medieval fighting is always a plus!

The Bad:
- Smoking. Cigarettes, Cannabis, E-cigs - it felt at times like even in the open air I could barely breathe for it, and the tents were often worse. Probably not too much can be done about this but it's a personal gripe.
- The food prices. Generally speaking they weren't too bad considering inflation, but some were absurd. £14 at the smoker for a sandwich? Once you add some substance you're approaching £20 per meal at that point which when there are two of you adds up very quickly.
- Chairs. Getting in and out of the main stage area after mid-afternoon was a complete and total nightmare. I get some people need to sit but with the amount of people getting around there needs to be some limitations on where people can set up permanent positions.
- The camp next to ours that had loud music blaring literally all of Friday night with them drunkenly shouting along even whilst we were eating breakfast at 10am the next day. Luckily I think it tired them out!

The Ugly:
- Didn't see the details and hope that it wasn't too bad, but it seemed like there were some major incidents on Saturday night in Midgard.
- Sunday's arena toilets after the rain
- The fudge bus. Setting aside the absurd pricing the amount of flies and wasps on that uncovered pile of sugar was absolutely disgusting and surely can't meet H&S standards. Half of the stand had domes to cover it so why not the rest?
- The flies in general. They must be some of the largest flies I have seen in my life, a minor annoyance outside of the fudge bus but an unwelcome guest.

Overall, a fantastic festival and I look forward to 2024!

[Mabawsaritchie]

The good:
*Getting set up easily in VIP with my friends more easily than last year.
*Rotisserie chicken was excellent as always.
*VIP toilets were very well looked after - big thanks to the cleaning ladies.
*security staff were very pleasant and happy to chat.
*finally getting to see Crowbar.
*the silent disco on Sat night, great fun.

The bad:
*VIP goodie bag, really not worth the bother collecting nowadays.
*Lemmy's bar issues on Friday - no cash float for the tills, staff just standing around, no fruit cider so we asked for normal cider with blackcurrant cordail - still waiting on the cordail!
*chairs in the arena - was beyond ridiculous this year.
*single people bringing 6/8 person tents for their own use. Unless you are Jabba the Hutt there's no need for this. I had a gentle word with two friends sbout doing this.
*food vendors increasing prices as the weekend went on. Stall in VIP (Scrandanavia) had advertised bacon rolls for £3.50 and they magically became £5

The ugly:
*the state of my throat (usual post BOA black lung feeling).

Overall a great time as usual but will be going standard admission, staying at a hotel and driving in each day next year.

[Bizza]

Good:
Weather the first 2 days
The Japanese dumpling stall!
Brothers Of Metal, Trollfest, Triptykon, Abbath
The general BOA atmosphere, met so many friendly awesome people over the weekend!
The new bigger Jager tent, huge improvement on previous years.
Covered seating areas around the site

Bad:
Thursday/carry all the heavy shit day being the hottest day of the weekend
Pissing rain on Monday morning which made the carpark path a chore
The cocktail bar - poor selection of drinks and why was it set up facing the new blood tent and not the mainstage? - get the JD bar back next year
Lack of merch - Didn't see any Abbath of Brothers Of Metal shirts and most of the BOA shirts were sold out by early on Saturday

Ugly:
The poor soul who died in Midgard
Pickpockets - 2 people in my camp had their phones taken
My own lack of fitness taking the edge off the whole weekend

[Metal_luke]

Good: plenty of bands sets. Sound quality was spot on majority of bands.
The atmosphere was fantastic. Silent disco was absolutely mint! Having bars in each tent was fantastic. Loved the seating areas around the site. Bunnychow food stand absolutely spot on!

Bad: lack of merchandise. By Saturday majority of BOA merch had sold out. Come on guys, you know you've got 20k people, surely you know you need more if you've sold out in previous years. I walked past early on Sunday, merch stand looked empty. Could've sold hell of a lot more.

Food prices are high with any festival but £13 average meal...come on.
Amount of bloody chairs on Sunday! Made it really hard walking around. People using chairs beyond the sound desk...no bloody need.

Lastly sorry to poor guy who sadly lost his life at the festival. Such a sad sight to see.

[metaldinosaur]

Context- 15 year-ish attender; It was my first time as a fully solo guy in years. And I went for a hotel all weekend.

The Good:-
Helloween (who I really wanted to see) being replaced with the right type of band (One that kicked ass)
The bands where all enjoyable and a few were amazing.
The good weather holding out, in what has been a shit summer.
Generally good vibes, as usual.
Festival feeling like home and been able to just chill between bands.
New bigger toilets in the camp.
Taxi area(s) feeling a bit better organised.
Cold Guinness been available!
Bars/vendors taking cash and card.


The Bad:
Not finding the Guinness till the last day - needed better signage!
Food prices (though not too much more than last year) are still too high for me really. (I maxed out on Wetherspoons breakfast calories before I went in! ...And took snacks)
The officially endorsed New Street cabs trying to charge more than advertised (£28 was asked for to burton station - £17-£25 was what the bloodstock website said). They have never done that before, but they did it twice. Dodgy.
I missed the big record tent again. I hope it or something like it makes a return one day.
This line up did feel a bit predictable - but that is a veterans complaint. We don't seem to get many unusual bands anymore, its all agency/label/promoter packages agreements now.

The Ugly:
My waistline after all those Spoons Breakfasts and beer!
Even more festival bros this year - not really ugly, or even bad (I'm sure most are decent people) but they bring a different vibe, definitely.
Missing my 2yo lad - I know people bring kids, but it just doesn't feel like the right time yet.

[metaldinosaur]

Oh no, someone died!? that's awful. What happened?

[Aaaarrrrgggghhhh]

Tragically yes.. Still awaiting further details. Thoughts and condolences go to his family and friends.

Police were called by staff at Bloodstock festival at about 20:55 BST on Saturday to reports the man had been taken ill at the campsite.

Ambulance crews also went to the scene in Catton Park but the man - in his 20s - died shortly afterwards.

A Derbyshire Police spokeswoman says the death is not believed to be suspicious, adding a file is being prepared for the coroner.

A spokesperson for Bloodstock festival added: "We were all devastated to learn of someone's passing at Bloodstock this year.

"We send out sincerest condolences to all the family and friends affected by this tragic death. This individual was one of our own, a Bloodstocker, so this has hit us all hard."

[Jay1993]

The Good:

- Toilets. Immaculate all weekend both in the campsites and arena. Always stocked with loo roll too. Big up the toilet team for doing an excellent job!

- Weather. Aside from getting drenched during Knocked Loose, it stayed pretty overcast and warm all weekend. Better than last year's heatwave!

- Improved shade and seating. Every year I've struggled to find somewhere to sit whilst eating but this year I had no problems. Looks like the organisers seriously took on board people's complaints about lack of shade too.

- Food and beer variety. I usually cook breakfast at camp and buy two meals in the arena each day. The variety of veggie/vegan stalls meant I had something different for every meal. Unfortunately my friend who is gluten intolerant found there wasn't much to eat so hopefully the organisers can consider this more for next year. Great selection of ales as usual!

- Bands. Some excellent sets over the weekend. Standouts were Triptykon doing early Celtic Frost, seeing Candlemass for the first time, Gatecreeper smashing it, and Megadeth sounding better than ever.

- Campsite vibes. Good to see some familiar faces camped near us alongside some friendly newbies in Ragnarok. The addition of an extra water point was handy too! Addition of the inflatable games in Midgaard as a distraction to bin jousting also meant I slept better than usual.

- 2024 Announcement. Was only expecting a couple of bands but we got 14! Great mix of classic BOA bands, new talent and wildcards. Hellripper, Green Lung, and Clutch being particular standouts!

The Bad:

- Lack of communication with schedule changes. Sacred Reich and Gatecreeper swapped sets but no announcement was made leaving a lot of people confused. I'm not sure why they don't use the screens to display any schedule changes in between bands.

- Lack of signage on quiet camp. Whilst we had no issues, others encountered alot of noise in Ragnarok due to their being no signs to say it was the designated quiet camp. Noticed an increase in drugged up people wandering through Ragnarok this year though so there must have been some overspill from the party camps.

- Increased drug presence. In relation to the last point, there seemed to be alot more people off their heads this year. One guy even pulled a rock out of his pocket in front of me during Candlemass.

The Ugly:

- The guy sticking his bare arse out of his tent near the exit on Monday morning. Just why?

- Kids in Ragnarok rummaging through rubbish bags for discarded food/drink on Monday morning. They even started going through our neighbours tent while they were packing away and parents didn't say a word.

- The cold I've come home with.

[florencethemachine]

The Good:
General atmosphere is largely the same and it is still (for the most part) an incredibly chill and friendly festival.

Quality of the food stalls seems to slowly be getting better each year. The return of bunnychow and the rotisserie chicken stalls were lifesavers for a man with a voracious appetite. Prices are what they are, at least we don't have to fuck about with an RFID bracelet.

The bands. For me personally, this Bloodstock had some of the strongest main stage and Sophie sets I have ever seen. Incredibly consistent throughout the entire weekend and I felt like I really got my money's worth.

The bad:

Helloween pulling out was a major blow. Not a slight against the festival though as they handled the situation and replacement very well and even avoided booking Skindred.

The fudge bus. I just don't get it. Like someone else said it was a H&S nightmare but furthermore who the fuck is craving fudge at a festival? (Keep your minds out the gutter)

Sophie late night entertainment. Maybe I didn't hang around long enough but I feel like this could be such a great opportunity to be a bit more imaginative with the DJ sets while still playing some classics to appease everyone. Apparently there was an extreme metal DJ set in New Blood but it clashed with one of the Sophie Headliners.

Aerobics class. Just why??? I mean there were enough people there so it was technically a success. I just would not want to partake in something which will make me sweat more when most of the attendees smell like Dino Cazares' jock strap.

The Ugly:

The poor guy who died in Midgard. I know a few people who were camping nearby and everyone was traumatised for the rest of the festival. Condolences to his friends and family. I know it is a common occurence at a lot of other festivals but it hits hard when it is a smaller more family oriented one like bloodstock.

Although it is still largely a chill festival. I experienced a fair amount of aggro. I had to help break up a fight in the Decapitated pit because someone on the perimeter got an accidental shove during the circle pit. Turned into a full screaming match.

Secondly, I was in the new blood stage and decided to lean on the railing at the back just to stretch out my back. In doing so, accidentally kicked over someone's cup that was about a third full and was just placed on the floor next to the dozen other discarded cups.

After apologising, the guy told me it was a full pint and DEMANDED I buy him a new one. I tried to be nice to begin with but his insistence and getting up in my face got my back up very quickly. It was a stupid place to leave your drink and if you had been less of a twat I might have considered buying you one. Once again, not a mark against the festival but fuck that guy.

[ChrisGeo]

The good:

People being friendly, chatting to people who in any other area of life, would see you as a total nutter, and run a mile from you. People checking on me in the Sophie stage after Biohazard. Vegan food, although pricey was still very yummy.

The bad:

Drunk/drugged up people, saw one bloke totally unconscious by the dodgems, hoping he's ok now. The bloke dying in Midgard, RIP. Only one disabled toilet in the entire arena, and being used by able bodied people.

The ugly:

Only me looking in the mirror after a few pints.