The Good:-MUCH better variety this year. I divided all the bands into four categories: "Must-see," "Kinda-want-to-see," "Meh," and "Avoid Like the Plague." I had a pretty even spread of bands in all categories, (and I'm grown up enough to understand that a huge festival will cater for more than just my tastes

). So it did seem like they got the genre balance right.
-They also seem to have listened to the feedback - the forums were full last year of people clamouring for folk metal and doom and both those subgenres were represented. Well done, Bloodstock

-No rain! Yay!
-Some absolutely fantastic bands. My top 10 favourite performances were from The Mighty Wraith, Martyr de Mona, Triaxis, Delain, Sabaton, Messiah's Kiss, Winter Storm, RedRum, Within Temptation, and Savage Messiah. (Definitely a Messiah theme going on. Shame the dude that dressed up last year as Jesus wasn't anywhere to be seen!)
-The toilets. I got ONE bad one all weekend. Fantastic.
-Showsec
-My first year as a RockSoc member - that was an AWESOME investment. We were able to go sit in the shade and still see the bands (and chat with some lovely folks); the access to Serpent's Lair was appreciated (husband and I are CAMRA members); the backstage tour was really cool (thanks, Lee, you were lovely)! Totally doing RockSoc again.
-Getting to see the people that I only see at Bloodstock.
-Camping with some really lovely folks.
The Bad:-Clashes - I missed "We are the Catalyst" and "Hell's Gazelles" (both of whom I really wanted to see). However, clashes are always going to be inevitable.
-Within Temptation's sound glitch

I was looking forward to hearing that song too, as I've never seen them live before and I don't have the Hydra album so wasn't as familiar with their newer stuff. But, these things happen!
-Despite having put them in my top 10 bands that I listed earlier, I am a little disappointed at WT's HEAVY use of backing track for the male vocals in their duets. It would have been nice if maybe they'd organised for a vocalist from another band who was performing that day to come and guest...or they could even hold a competition - "Video yourself singing the male part to this song and the winner will join us onstage". (Probably a logistical nightmare, was just a thought I had.) Or they could not perform the duets in their live shows. I'm not a 'BACKING TRACKS ARE THE DEVIL" purist but vocals...in a duet...pretty important. The rest of the set was bloody awesome though, so still in my top 10.
-Sound in the Sophie tent on Thursday night. It got better throughout the weekend. My husband was really looking forward to watching Arnocorps but the sound was so fuzzy that we couldn't hear the lyrics, which...is kinda the point. The engineer in the Sophie tent seems to follow the Motorhead school of sound engineering, (turning everything up louder than everything else). Though it did get better throughout the weekend.
-It was so busy that I didn't manage to see all the people who I normally see at Bloodstock

.
The Ugly:Got stung by a wasp. I managed to make it to age 34 without being stung. It hurt a LOT when the beer wore off.
Got drunk-motional and nearly cried at Primo Victoria...and nearly cried at Delain playing "We are the Others" in the Sophie tent.