Meet the team!

[CharlesDexterWard]

This is an excellent addition to the forum and hopefully will be well received and (mostly) constructively used by us all.

[Blake_Porter]

You can slag off whoever you want.... I'm a big fan of straight talking

II'll probably be looking into doing some regular q&a's with various team members.... obviously there are some we will all want to be chatting with at length (who doesn't want to talk about next years bar offerings!) but I suppose I could ask Lee if we could repurpose the Ask the Organisers section and specific questions to specific people could be asked in there.....what do you think?

Brill! I'm just completely miffed as to why Ghost Bath were shoved mid day on the main stage and I WANT ANSWERS

[cheesemason]

Good to see some communication coming back to the forums. Was always here in the earlier days and disappeared as Facebook crept in. Look forward to some of the Q&As

[metaldinosaur]

Cool.
I'm not a mega regular poster but I really like the forum, and it seemed to dwindle a bit after the 'revamp', I hope this is a sign that it will begin to grow again.

[Soze]

This looks like it could be an interesting part of the forum. I don't really know how I can voice my concerns that the festival is moving away, musically, from my tastes without sounding like a tiresome whinger though. Do the organizers really care that I was one of the 4,500 that went in 2007 and that now, when the festival attracts over twice as many, that I'm no longer there? How I always used to look at the Bloodstock line ups with excitement but nowadays I look at them with a shrug of the shoulder? I'm clearly in the minority as the attendance has doubled so why should I expect to be listened to?

I guess I'm just looking for some simple answers - is there realistically any chance of me seeing a Helloween, Gamma Ray, Hammerfall or Blind Guardian at Bloodstock again? If the festival really has abandoned power/old school metal I'd rather they just came out and said so!

[Aaaarrrrgggghhhh]

*mod hat off*

I don't see that as whinging & in all honesty would like some of the same questions answered.

I, like everyone else, am a fan of the festival & would like to see it retain or recapture some of that feeling, whilst still being able to evolve. Some constructive feedback & a bit more open communication, is a step towards that hopefully.

*mod hat on*

[Haldamir319]

This is an excellent idea, I think.

[S'tan]

Ah yes, glad someone mentioned the (in)famous forum whinging! Personally I don't think that whinging is an entirely fair or accurate term as people are perfectly entitled to and should be expressing their opinions on anything which directly affects their own Bloodstock experience - be it a band announcement, commenting on the lineup as a whole, a lack of (or too much of) particular genres, why bands are billed where they are, why haven't we booked so-and-so etc, through general comments about the festival and facilities or more year-round stuff such as website issues and improvements. Where I think the whinging tag comes in is because there's been no feedback or interaction from anyone 'official' to counter and therefore the ongoing conversations and issues raised appear one-sided and repeat themselves over and over, very easy to misinterpret as whinging, especially to the less frequent visitor.

This can also be interpreted as a lack of interest on our end as well. The management do read the forum and have picked up on and acted on many things raised but have never fed-back on the fact so this is where I'll now be stepping in... I'll effectively become the 'face' or the 'front' for the Bloodstock team. I report directly to the festival directors and therefore have license to speak on their behalf, but I can (and will) drag them over here to answer questions themselves when needed. We need to rebuild our relations at grassroots level, no-one here is any bigger or any more important than anyone else - from paying punter to festival director and everything in between, we all have a role to play in Bloodstocks success and we need to reconnect ourselves once again with the core of the festival (on both sides of the fence)

All opinions matter, from seasoned veterans to first-timers and of course from those we've lost along the way. Bloodstock is a very different beast now to those early indoor days but the core values of the festival and it's ethos are still exactly the same as they always have been.....and no Soze, we haven't abandoned power/trad metal! Hopefully as discussions develop on here I'll be able to give you all a better insight into the behind the scenes stuff of why things do and don't happen (and you'll get to see we have the same arguments at team meetings as you guys do!)

tl, dr - a forum is no place for that, get reading!!!

[fluffkitten]

A basic overview of booking policy would probably welcomed by most. It might even promote a bit of understanding.

Oh hell I'm being positive, the world may be ending.

[ScrumpiesVeteran]

A basic overview of booking policy would probably welcomed by most. It might even promote a bit of understanding.

Oh hell I'm being positive, the world may be ending.

I echo this ! (the band booking bit anyway - although the world may indeed be ending) and would be interested to know if the organisers do look at the wishlist section and more importantly, factor it into their considerations.

[Soze]

and no Soze, we haven't abandoned power/trad metal! Hopefully as discussions develop on here I'll be able to give you all a better insight into the behind the scenes stuff of why things do and don't happen (and you'll get to see we have the same arguments at team meetings as you guys do!)

Good to hear! Book some then

I do appreciate that some of the bigger power metal bands probably charge a lot, being that they can draw such a larger crowd on the continent. But stories such as Gloryhammer offering to play for free and being refused were concerning.

I really want to go this year as I desperately want to see Twisted Sister's final UK gig. But there's so very little else I'm interested in it's hard to justify the cost. I've given the last 2 years a miss for the same reason and other long standing regulars I know have given it up too.

I love Slayer and Anthrax but have seen them umpteen times, other than that it's only Cronos and his two mates and Symphony X I'm bothered about. Amidst tons of stuff I really can't stand (Stuck Mojo, Unearth, Gojira, Corrosion of Conformity, Evil Scarecrow etc.).

Hopefully there's something to tempt me yet!!

[Tet]

and no Soze, we haven't abandoned power/trad metal!

The thing is, that's demonstrably false. Whether the festival sees itself as having abandoned power metal or not, the reality is that it has done so in terms of bands that have been booked. Of the 279 bands that have played the two main stages in the last 5 years, only around 5% have been power metal, and that's being generous with my definitions. I'm not suggesting that the festival should be 50% power metal or anything ludicrous like that. But current gig popularity for power metal bands would suggest that the percentage should be somewhat higher than it is. The market is clearly there, and Bloodstock is clearly not catering to it (despite the repeated claims that it caters to all metal subgenres). Have Bloodstock abandoned power metal? Not entirely. But they've made a token effort at best of late, and it's losing long time supporters of the festival because of it. For example, I went to Avantasia last night and met up with perhaps 10 people that I met through Bloodstock. Of those, I think only 2 of us have been to the festival in the last few years.

Now from what I've heard, many of the big name European power metal bands have been pricing themselves out of contention. So maybe we won't see Blind Guardian, Helloween or Gamma Ray any time soon. But we're not seeing the mid-level bands or smaller bands being booked either, and I know they're not too expensive. Yet we get plenty of what someone here described as "beard metal" bands to fill up the lineup. Every year.

[cheesemason]

and no Soze, we haven't abandoned power/trad metal!

The thing is, that's demonstrably false. Whether the festival sees itself as having abandoned power metal or not, the reality is that it has done so in terms of bands that have been booked. Of the 279 bands that have played the two main stages in the last 5 years, only around 5% have been power metal, and that's being generous with my definitions. I'm not suggesting that the festival should be 50% power metal or anything ludicrous like that. But current gig popularity for power metal bands would suggest that the percentage should be somewhat higher than it is. The market is clearly there, and Bloodstock is clearly not catering to it (despite the repeated claims that it caters to all metal subgenres). Have Bloodstock abandoned power metal? Not entirely. But they've made a token effort at best of late, and it's losing long time supporters of the festival because of it. For example, I went to Avantasia last night and met up with perhaps 10 people that I met through Bloodstock. Of those, I think only 2 of us have been to the festival in the last few years.

Now from what I've heard, many of the big name European power metal bands have been pricing themselves out of contention. So maybe we won't see Blind Guardian, Helloween or Gamma Ray any time soon. But we're not seeing the mid-level bands or smaller bands being booked either, and I know they're not too expensive. Yet we get plenty of what someone here described as "beard metal" bands to fill up the lineup. Every year.

It's difficult tho because you mention Avantasia there. They got a really high up slot the other year, with a longer set time than that slot normally gets and it was possibly the smallest crowd of the festival.

I agree that there could be more power metal and from a personal point of view would love to see Helloween back (esp if they ever play shows with Kiske) but as you suggest yourself, most power metal bands that people have heard of demand money for a top three slot, but would only probably get the crowd of a bottom three slot. So the smaller bands would probably struggle to play anything after he bottom three slots, which I'm not sure would appease many people

[Warlock]

I completely agree with Soze and Tet. Now I'm not even a fan of power metal but there's a real lack of it. It is big sub genre of metal and should be represented at this festival, especially considering this kind of stuff is what the festival was built up on. I'd be gutted if there was a big lack of thrash and death metal. People say power metal is not so popular over here, but are all the stoner and beard metal bands really that much more popular?
The thing that annoys me more though is the amount of repeats we get when so many great bands have never played. Almost all of the bands have played before, and some very regularly, like Rotting Christ when there are loads of other black or death metal bands, or Anthrax as much as I love them, why not Sacred Reich? Gojira again? Evil Scarecrow, really? Lot's of it just doesn't seem very exciting, and a know a few people not going being they've either seen all the bands or there's nothing there exciting for them.
I can't complain too much though because I always have a great time and there's still plenty I want to see, just nice to have someone official to voice concerns too

[Haldamir319]

Continuing the Power/Folk Metal discussion, I'm sure none of us are suggesting that BOA becomes a one or two genre festival - it has to grow (to a certain size at least), and this is done by appealing to a mass target audience. That in mind, it shouldn't be that difficult to balance the bill out across the four stages they now have, and refrain from alienating some of the more loyal crowds from over the years.

Maybe part of the issue is that different staff members book the different stages? Power Metal wise, we have DragonForce and Symphony X on the RJD this year. While some of us would love a fistful of other PM acts on the mainstage over the weekend, I think we can accept that the festival caters to many varied tastes. However, I don't think it is unreasonable to expect a few slots across Friday/Saturday on the lower stages to be given to bands that at least loosely fit the genre description.

The New Blood stage is a tricky one, with how it is mainly populated by M2M winners. While I find a few bands on their each year worthwhile, it is definitely skewed towards the tastes of the booker.