The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

August 11 - 14, Catton Park, Derbyshire
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metaldinosaur
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby metaldinosaur » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:12 pm

Ghost wrote:
metaldinosaur wrote:
Disclaimer: I'm a relatively new dad, so my take on this is probably reflective of that new situation.

I


Congrats. In my opinion don't take your child to Bloodstock. At least not the whole weekend anyway. There's no need to expose a child to all that at a young age. No young child regardless of music genre wants to sit and watch bands all day. There's plenty of children's fests you could take them to. When they get to ten and if they actually like metal then take them but just wait.


Thank you! I love been a dad!

I would still like the option to take him if possible, and I'd rather not have my choice made for my by immatur insecure/egotistical people who can't handle themselves. A few years ago bloodstock did not have this edge to it. It saddens me to see it tbh.

However, the question really is: we're the line? If bloodstock puts age restrictions on the fest then the line us drawn. And so be it.
Last edited by metaldinosaur on Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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metaldinosaur
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby metaldinosaur » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:13 pm

Also, my biggest problem was the fucking food prices!!!
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Jokermunro » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:28 pm

[quote/]Disclaimer: I'm a relatively new dad, so my take on this is probably reflective of that new situation.

I do take your point regarding the festivals nature, and indeed the nature of festivals themselves. And that a parent attending the festival should be the primary manager of their child's wellbeing. Perhaps then the answer is I simply never take my boy to bloodstock?

However, could that right to bring my boy be set equal (or even above - a child's new experience is kinda amazing to see, I'm finding out) to a women's right to push socio-sexual boundaries at a festival (even a fest thats remit is to push boundaries)? It's a tough one. But I know which right feels the most unencumbered with selfishness and ego. Who's experience should be more freely had?[/quote]

Yes mate, congratulations on being a new father :D

I also agree it's a tough call, the line has to be drawn on what you consider acceptable for your child to be exposed to, I'm a grandfather of an 8yr old and a 6 yr old and there's no way I would take them to Bloodstock even if it is marketed as a family festival because I just don't see it being suitable, I'm even wary of Download.
As discussed, the drug situation is getting worse at all the festivals I've been too, but these people are adults (to a degree) and it's their own right to decide what they do as stupid or as sensible as it is, whether it's how they dress or how they act, yes there's a certain amount of societal degree to it and as mentioned a completely naked person is out of order but to compare tits to dicks is ridiculous as they are not the same.
The main problem I feel is kids do not have that luxury to be able to look after themselves and we have to look out for them as is our roles as guardians, losing 30 kids that won't be allowed in won't kill the festival, banning women from dressing how they like will.
An age limit is something to be considered maybe or as currently just left to the parents discretion.
I for one saw NO nipples over the weekend except mens, yet saw a man in a sock and another in a mankini and nothing else, if you're gonna ban anything lets start there :lol:

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Ghost » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:39 pm

metaldinosaur wrote:Thank you! I love been a dad!

I would still like the option to take him if possible, and I'd rather not have my choice made for my by immatur insecure/egotistical people who can't handle themselves. A few years ago bloodstock did not have this edge to it. It saddens me to see it tbh.

However, the question really is: we're the line? If bloodstock puts age restrictions on the fest then the line us drawn. And so be it.


Fair enough. I do think someone made a good point that you'll be taking your child to a place that's surrounded by adult themes, imagery and behaviors. So really a few breasts should be the least of your worries.
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby JPMC » Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:48 pm

metaldinosaur wrote:Disclaimer: I'm a relatively new dad, so my take on this is probably reflective of that new situation.

I do take your point regarding the festivals nature, and indeed the nature of festivals themselves. And that a parent attending the festival should be the primary manager of their child's wellbeing. Perhaps then the answer is I simply never take my boy to bloodstock?

However, could that right to bring my boy be set equal (or even above - a child's new experience is kinda amazing to see, I'm finding out) to a women's right to push socio-sexual boundaries at a festival (even a fest thats remit is to push boundaries)? It's a tough one. But I know which right feels the most unencumbered with selfishness and ego. Who's experience should be more freely had?


Well, I'm a future Dad; myself and my good lady are setting to work on that next year (yeah we have planned it a little). I would not bring a baby to a festival for sure. I would assume I would wait until my kid(s) are walking around and able to appreciate things on some level before I take them. I did see a couple of families camped in VIP and the kids looked like they were having an awesome time! And frankly, I gotta say the crotchety old fart in me says, I'd sooner see some young kids having a great time at a festival rather than some girl who feels she needs to make some sort of big statement by getting her norks out. I would personally value that a lot more.

I do wonder if the same people defending it tooth and nail would raise complaints if you decided to change some diapers in the middle of things? But then I suppose you wouldn't be so brazen.

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Jay1993 » Wed Aug 17, 2022 3:56 pm

The Good:

- Getting in the queue at 9:30am and being let in at 10am. Definitely needed to get in and set up as quickly as possible in that heat. It also prevented the queue from getting too long later in the day too.

- The atmosphere. I dunno if it's just me but everybody seemed extra friendly and welcoming this year. Every interaction I had or saw was nothing but positive and everybody was looking out for each other. Loved seeing the pride flags up in the campsites and had some lovely interactions whilst wearing my trans pride flag for pink Sunday. Had some nice chats at the BBQ pit in the mornings too. One guy even gave me a cup of his extra strong coffee!

- Security. Best they've ever been this year. One guy even came over to our camp to check we were all ok and stayed for a chat. The legend supervising the Midgaard shenanigans also deserves a raise! :lol: No issues with taking bottles of water into the arena either.

- Toilets. Cleanest I've ever seen them. Only came across one that was not so great. Always stocked with loo roll and sanitizer too. The increase in compostable toilets was very welcome in the heat too!

- Click and collect beer. Really helpful for those of us travelling by train. Happy to pay £20 for a case of 12 if it means lugging less stuff around. The Overkill pilsner was surprisingly nice! Hope they bring it back for next year.

- Extra seating at the vendors by the arena entrance.

- £5 pints and slushies.

- Managed not to get burnt.

- Unto Others announced for next year!

The Bad:

- Queues for water points in the arena. Had no issues with the ones in the campsites but they could've done with an extra one in the arena. Ended up paying for a few bottles because I just couldn't be assed queuing.

- More shading needed as others have said.

- Noise in Midgaard Saturday night. I've been going since 2013 and I've never known Midgaard to be that loud. Sounded like a riot going on from quiet camp! :lol:

- Life of Agony pulling out. One that I was really looking forward to!

- Organisational issues with set times. My clashfinder said Samael were on at 4:30pm whilst my friends lanyard said 6:30pm. Luckily I went down at 4:30pm just in case and they were on but I know alot of people missed them as a result. Also displaying any changes on the main stage screens would be helpful e.g. Skarlett Riot being bumped up due to LoA pulling out.

The Ugly:

- My emergency dash to the loos Saturday morning after an extra spicy Bunnymans chilli. :lol:

- The blisters on my feet, the random bruises I keep finding and my aching bones! :lol:

- Burning my finger on a cup of tea Monday morning! :lol:

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby DOUGAL » Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:06 pm

The Good:

No rain.

I had some good food from the pie stall, mexican, Panco noodles, yorky stall
Better selection of Ales this year: Oakham, Camerons Roadcrew etc always some nice beer for the whole weekend unlike Download which ran out of Ale on the first day !

Beer price cap; £5 for a 5% Roadcrew was the same price as in my local pub.

The line up was great for me.

The toilets were clean & normally had loo roll.

Less campsite rubbish.

Extra seating around the food stalls.

The main stage sound was the best ever; I went to Lemmy's Bar during LOG & even there it was crystal clear.

Friendly & helpful staff, both stalls, security & organisers.


The Bad:

The unprecedented heat; I had to get up much earlier than I wanted & I bet the foodstalls' takings were well down.

Price of coffee; half the price of a meal is a rip off.

The 2 hr queue to cross the road from the car park on Thurs. This would have been 1 hr but for the (100s of) nasty, arrogant, selfish idiots (I'm not talking about those with wristbands making return trips) walking straight to the front of the queue, with all their stuff. This caused a major bottleneck @ the crossing - security should have sent them packing (back home).

Smoking is illegal in tents & marquees for public use but gets worse here every year; there weren't even any No Smoking notices (a legal requirement) this year. This was really bad for me as a non smoker esp considering the very hot weather.

Despite promises of extra water points there were still just the usual 2 in the whole of the Arena. The water pressure was so low that only 1/2 outlets would work creating very long queues.

The yelling PA from rides louder than Sophie.

Shame that the guys running the CD/LP stall from Germany were absent (Brexit ?) But the LPs would have melted .....

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby WorMzy » Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:54 pm

Good:
- Saw some familiar faces, although lack of a forum meet and/or worthwhile bands to watch on the Mainstage (meaning I rarely visited the Rock Soc tent) meant I didn't see everyone I was hoping to
- Good weather (albeit too hot at times)
- Didn't get sunburnt at all
- Came well prepared so I didn't need to waste money on festival food
- Managed to pitch my tent sufficiently far away from any chainsaw snorers, so I actually managed to get some decent sleep :lol:

Bad:
- No mead for sale again. "We have beer and cider though", great, so if I want to drink cat piss or rotting apples, I know where to ask. :rolleyes:
- BGC not doing a Dundee pickup this year ("it's hard to find buses in Dundee"), so my journey down stared at 1am on Thursday, and I didn't arrive until 2:30pm.
- Got the BGC from Edinburgh instead, but the coach ended up going to Glasgow anyway, where there was a direct coach to Bloodstock (ours went to Carlisle after Glasgow) so I may as well have booked the coach from there. Would've saved at least two hours on the return trip alone.
- Already mentioned by others, but this was the worst lineup at a Bloodstock, ever. Unless there was a really good band I wanted to watch (far and few between...), there was very little incentive to leave the shaded areas of the campsite. Headliners were overrated, surprise band was meh, decent bands started late and finished early. *shrug*
- Next years lineup already looks like a trainwreck. Genuinely wondering if there's any point continuing attending Bloodstock any more, or if I should find a new festival to call home.

Ugly:
- Queuing to get in for 90+ minutes. I predicted it'd be bad, what with the move to e-tickets, but in that heat with no cover for so long? It's getting dangerous. Considering there was no actual bag check (dunno if they gave up doing checks after a certain point), I have no idea why it took so long to get in.
- Only the same two water points in the arena. I had access to the campsites (not that the Midgard taps near me had any pressure), so I made tactical retreats when the heat got too much. Day ticket holders either queued for ages (in the sun) or paid extortionate amounts to rehydrate. Again, dangerous.
- The state of the bins after the jousting. What happened to the bin containers from last year that prevented this happening? Apparently security weren't interested in stopping it, and Bloodstock have stopped trying to prevent it, so maybe we just need to learn to live with idiots trying to break their necks at 2am...
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Noodle » Wed Aug 17, 2022 11:10 pm

The Good:

Bloodstock being very much Bloodstock. I began transitioning from male to female this year. No one cared. No one batted an eyelid or gave me a second look. I wore my girly clothes every day and never once felt uncomfortable. The only people to make any comment whatsoever were those who know me and giving me positive comments. In the wild, it was as if I was just a normal person - exactly how it should be.

Security and marshals. Always friendly. They were still under the same heat conditions as we were but still up for having a chat and a smile.

Loos. Didn't find an unusable one all weekend.

The Bad:
The payment network deciding that my debit card was more worthless than the contents of the nearest portaloo, meaning that when I tried to buy some food from the arena on Sunday, I couldn't even get as far as entering my pin - flat out declined. Went to the ATM, tried to check balance... NOPE declined. Grumpy trundle back to campervan 2 field, missing Killing Joke to get some food. Missed Belphegor as I couldn't be arsed to get back to the arena and miss out on hoovering up cut price beer after. Checked my card at my local ATM. Everything absolutely fine.

The sheer distance Campervan 2 is to the arena. If you thought the walk from the car park to the main entrance was long, we could have shown you how good you had it. We even had the sideways slopes that would have been... "fun" if it had rained. Whilst it was nice to have near silence in the evening, you were certainly ready for that night's sleep by the time you'd reached home. Perhaps extending the shuttle bus to us lot past the contractor's camp would be excellent.

The one time I needed a taxi on Friday, it was the work of a miracle that I managed to get a signal to get through to one of the two recommended companies. None in sight.

The Ugly:

The state of some people's sunburn. Some of the glows easily rivalled that of the giant burning sphere in the sky
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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby SymphonicX » Thu Aug 18, 2022 7:34 am

The Good:
The people, absolutely fantastic. Love chatting to those who come here - very rarely anyone I don't get along with fantastically.
Got here at 10am on the Thursday, almost straight in to set up the tent. Sublime.
Security were friendly and fair and can't be praised enough.
Machine Head were a nice treat, didn't particularly have trouble in the tent - but stood near the bar with restricted view to get a bit of space.
Water pressure in Valhalla was fantastic during off-peak times. Thankfully missed the hour they apparently turned off the water to fill the coffee place.
Sleep Token, Sylvain in the New Blood stage, Sorcerer, particularly stood out.

The Bad:
No bar in valhalla? wtf? A coffee place? There was coffee literally next door. They tried to charge someone £2 for a cup of hot water so he could fill his pot noodle. The place next door did it for 50p! AND this coffee place apparently turned off the water for an hour, in blistering heat.
The heat was obviously a massive drag at points. No shade anywhere except the entrance to the arena. Arena shade was stupid and pointless. Apart from the small strip of shade at the entrance there was nowhere to get away from it, and I very nearly lost all of Sunday because I couldn't take it anymore.
Further to this...loads of people left on Sunday morning. People at Lemmy's were constantly mentioning how they were going to bail in the AM. Streams of people leaving due to the heat, no shade and very little in the way to mitigate this from the organisers.
The lineup - mostly just the same band with a different name. Can we have a bit more variety next year please? Get Tesseract back, at very least. So many people I chatted with said they only turned up for the atmosphere.
Can you get the "MC" on the rides to shut the fuck up for five minutes? No one wants to hear his shit. It's louder than the sophie stage ffs.

the ugly
HEAT HEAT HEAT.
The food prices and general quality. The kebab from the Wrap Shack was singlehandedly the worst thing I've ever eaten. Absolutely abysmal, anemic meat that was undercooked. What's the point in a portion size that roughly equals the weight of my head if it's absolutely vile?
Paper cups that roughly equaled about 440ml. Not a pint. Higher prices than last year.
Also...ffs paper cups...I get they were recyclable (I assume so any way) but last year I could come away with a couple of hard plastic ones that I still use every day at home. The fob off of getting people to collect them for you may have worked but goddamn that was a real let down.
This might be a bit obscure but I swear to god there are like 5 of the same bloody food company in this festival. First year I noticed they were called Easy Cheesy or something. This year there was one called Happy Burger in Valhalla and the rest I believe where called Burgers and Chips. Same menu, same food, same prices. Absolutely god fucking awful food. Please can you vary it up for the love of god.

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby lee1234 » Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:46 pm

The Good:
No Wargasm (UK)

The bands I saw, with Killing Joke being the standout – was a bit apprehensive about finally seeing them due to set lists I had saw but turned out a decent mix with Jaz looking like he enjoyed himself.

The Bad:
The state of my Trangia after using Fire Dragon fuel blocks to cook with – clean burning my arse.

The eventual line up – I get bands pulling out but this year’s line-up was the weakest I have seen in a long time. Concerningly judging from the announcements so far, next year’s is looking to be worse. King810 again wtf – the booing that went on for the announcement speaks volumes.

Neither the flag or the CD stores returning :( The overall lack of diversity in the types of stores this year was very noticeable.

No programs with the lanyards this year.

The Ugly
The issue with mobile data interference being allowed to continue – 4G data only working from 05:00 to around 07:00 throughout the event and yet magically on Monday it was fine throughout the time I was still on site – not as if the organisers put line-up changes up via Twitter or anything…..

The way that the ‘secret band‘/Machine Head was handled. I get why they were put on the Sophie stage but the organisation of it was an utter debacle with people trying to force their way into the already packed area and then lifting up the side of the tarp to climb under it when they finally realised that they could not get in via the normal opening.
I think it was just down to good luck that no one was seriously injured during the performance. I can only assume that no one considered putting some security by the entrance for the tent to keep an eye on the situation for this despite it being hyped up in the run up to it and it being leaked that morning by putting the t-shirts up in the merch area.

The lack of additional water points in the arena and the excuse for the shaded areas.

Food prices – utterly scandalous and in need of looking into.

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby lee1234 » Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:56 pm

JPMC wrote:
metaldinosaur wrote:Disclaimer: I'm a relatively new dad, so my take on this is probably reflective of that new situation.

I do take your point regarding the festivals nature, and indeed the nature of festivals themselves. And that a parent attending the festival should be the primary manager of their child's wellbeing. Perhaps then the answer is I simply never take my boy to bloodstock?

However, could that right to bring my boy be set equal (or even above - a child's new experience is kinda amazing to see, I'm finding out) to a women's right to push socio-sexual boundaries at a festival (even a fest thats remit is to push boundaries)? It's a tough one. But I know which right feels the most unencumbered with selfishness and ego. Who's experience should be more freely had?


Well, I'm a future Dad; myself and my good lady are setting to work on that next year (yeah we have planned it a little). I would not bring a baby to a festival for sure. I would assume I would wait until my kid(s) are walking around and able to appreciate things on some level before I take them. I did see a couple of families camped in VIP and the kids looked like they were having an awesome time! And frankly, I gotta say the crotchety old fart in me says, I'd sooner see some young kids having a great time at a festival rather than some girl who feels she needs to make some sort of big statement by getting her norks out. I would personally value that a lot more.

I do wonder if the same people defending it tooth and nail would raise complaints if you decided to change some diapers in the middle of things? But then I suppose you wouldn't be so brazen.


Across the board the way that people have decided to dress at festivals is getting a bit silly, with each year more people trying to out do what was considered poor taste the previous year.

Ultimately there is a clear litmus test for how you dress - if you wouldn't dress like that in a general public place then don't dress like it at a festival.

The worse case is someone takes offense and reports you to the police - if this happens best case you get a telling off from them, worse case you end up in court.

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Jay1993 » Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:01 pm

Noodle wrote:The Good:
Bloodstock being very much Bloodstock. I began transitioning from male to female this year. No one cared. No one batted an eyelid or gave me a second look. I wore my girly clothes every day and never once felt uncomfortable. The only people to make any comment whatsoever were those who know me and giving me positive comments. In the wild, it was as if I was just a normal person - exactly how it should be.


Wishing you all the best with your transition. It was so nice seeing people feel comfortable enough to be themselves this weekend. Well done Bloodstock for being excellent as ever. :)

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby lee1234 » Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:12 pm

lee1234 wrote:The Good:
No Wargasm (UK)

The bands I saw, with Killing Joke being the standout – was a bit apprehensive about finally seeing them due to set lists I had saw but turned out a decent mix with Jaz looking like he enjoyed himself.

The Bad:
The state of my Trangia after using Fire Dragon fuel blocks to cook with – clean burning my arse.

The eventual line up – I get bands pulling out but this year’s line-up was the weakest I have seen in a long time. Concerningly judging from the announcements so far, next year’s is looking to be worse. King810 again wtf – the booing that went on for the announcement speaks volumes.

Neither the flag or the CD stores returning :( The overall lack of diversity in the types of stores this year was very noticeable.

No programs with the lanyards this year.

The Ugly
The issue with mobile data interference being allowed to continue – 4G data only working from 05:00 to around 07:00 throughout the event and yet magically on Monday it was fine throughout the time I was still on site – not as if the organisers put line-up changes up via Twitter or anything…..

The way that the ‘secret band‘/Machine Head was handled. I get why they were put on the Sophie stage but the organisation of it was an utter debacle with people trying to force their way into the already packed area and then lifting up the side of the tarp to climb under it when they finally realised that they could not get in via the normal opening.
I think it was just down to good luck that no one was seriously injured during the performance. I can only assume that no one considered putting some security by the entrance for the tent to keep an eye on the situation for this despite it being hyped up in the run up to it and it being leaked that morning by putting the t-shirts up in the merch area.

The lack of additional water points in the arena and the excuse for the shaded areas.

Food prices – utterly scandalous and in need of looking into.


Forgot to add cup goblins - besides the obvious health and safety aspects, people rummaging through bins looking for cups is not a good look for the festival.

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Re: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly BOA 2022

Postby Jokermunro » Thu Aug 18, 2022 1:15 pm

lee1234 wrote:
JPMC wrote:
metaldinosaur wrote:
Across the board the way that people have decided to dress at festivals is getting a bit silly, with each year more people trying to out do what was considered poor taste the previous year.

Ultimately there is a clear litmus test for how you dress - if you wouldn't dress like that in a general public place then don't dress like it at a festival.

The worse case is someone takes offense and reports you to the police - if this happens best case you get a telling off from them, worse case you end up in court.


This confuses me because you wouldn't call the police on people in bathing suits at a beach so why would you have an issue at an enclosed festival?
It's a place EXACTLY to be who you want and wear what you want without fear of ridicule or attack, the exact reason the Sophie Lancaster foundation support the fest and everyone had a go at Vicky no?
It's on private land for one so I'm not sure the Police would do anything bar "cover up you"