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[houston4044]

but the rest of the lineup feels like the filler you'd find on a HRH event, or bands Download couldn't find room for. The niche festivals have caught up and Bloodstock has sleepwalked into being just another festival.

That's pretty much my point, look how many niche festivals there are now and how BOA haven't capitalized on their advantage over many of them; leaving them to look like just another festival. There is demand for a lot of these niches (hence why there are so many of these festivals) yet BOA doesn't try to nip it in the bud by booking a few of the more prominent names.

Wasn't knocking power metal, just that I couldn't find a fest in the same vein as other genres so it did raise the question.

I couldn't disagree more about the Sophie stage, it's what's kept me coming the last few years. I can see what their idea of what the bigger bands they want to book are by looking at the main stage, and I'd rather they just kept on doing what they're doing on the Sophie. Granted it's not looking all that impressive right now, but that's not uncommon at this stage of the year, it's always the late announcements that make it.

What is it about the Sophie stage you like? Not knocking you, it's just you don't mention why.

Also, I see Boomtown have announced some of their line up (the weekend after BOA) and among the heavy bands I see Municipal Waste and Sick of it All (also Skindred) who have been rumored for BOA; chances of them turning up now?

[Black no. 1]

could the lack of bigger special guest and other bands on the main also be because the sophie stage is getting bigger each year ect. alot of the bands throughout the day are bands i would have expected on the main ie exhumed, obvs unleash the archers.. would say memoriam but i know they asked for a sophie slot. hell even green lung in reality would have been a band i would expect to open the friday on the main.

Sophie hasn't expanded at all. It's been the same size for years.

[Black no. 1]

If they really want to get to 20,000+ which I believe they do, they have to improve the Sophie Stage. I've made some good discoveries there, but the bands are nowhere near big enough for a decent size festival Damnation's lower stages always have much bigger bands than Bloodstock and that's a fraction of the capacity.

What I really thing they need to do is have two 'main' stages like a lot of the Euro fests

I agree with this completely. Pretty sure I read that the organisers want to get to 30k eventually, but they will have to overhaul their whole site if they want to do that.

Sophie could easily be made bigger, get rid of that awful weightlifting club for a start. Move the New Blood stage in to the camp site. Get rid of the Jager stage.

[Black no. 1]

The niche festivals have caught up and Bloodstock has sleepwalked into being just another festival.

The problem is BOA just doesn't seem special and hasn't for years. When you consider there are so many rock and metal festivals out there and even the other festivals are now putting on Metal stages like Glastonbury, Boomtown etc Download has its own dedicated Metal stage the whole weekend as well as a punk stage etc BOA has fallen behind and taken their eye off the ball, just so they can target the Download demographic.

If HrH decide to ever put on an outdoor festival ala Hammerfest or any of its incarnations, BOA will be screwed. Same goes for if Arctangent expand even further,they're already getting BOA sized headliners like Opeth, Coheed and Cambria and Meshuggah.

[bloodofthekings]

If HrH decide to ever put on an outdoor festival ala Hammerfest or any of its incarnations, BOA will be screwed.

I don't think Bloodstock have got anything to worry about there - given HRH's business model of making money out of the Royalty/VIP lot as well as standard ticket holders who decide to take the on-site accommodation (not to mention keeping their overheads down by using holiday parks in the off-season) whilst giving the rest of the tickets away practically for free, there's no way HRH could run a big outdoor festival.

Can you imagine a HRH open-air fest? Charging circa £100 a ticket for 2 big name bands, a couple of medium-size bands plus a load of no-name filler? Yeah, can see that going down well...

[houston4044]

Can you imagine a HRH open-air fest? Charging circa £100 a ticket for 2 big name bands, a couple of medium-size bands plus a load of no-name filler? Yeah, can see that going down well...

So Bloodstock 2.0 then

[Black no. 1]

Can you imagine a HRH open-air fest? Charging circa £100 a ticket for 2 big name bands, a couple of medium-size bands plus a load of no-name filler? Yeah, can see that going down well...

Skindred and Saxon have headlined HrH before and Paradise Lost have headlined Hammerfest. 2-3k capacity festivals, currently all 3 are sub-headlining BOA this year. I don't think they would have any problem emulating BOA at all.

I think they would be on BOA's level within 3 years.

Arctangent is a 5k capacity event, but already have headliners similar in size to what BOA have, again it wouldn't take much for them to scale up.

Dam nation could quite easily move outdoors and be on BOA size level within a few years.

[slayerslays]

The capacity of Download is 110,000 this year and they are charging £243 for 3 days camping +£5.50 postage. Bloodstock maximum attendance has been 18,000. I went to Sonsiphere when it was 60,000 people - it reminded me of some post-apocalyptic refugee camp. You have to be off your face all the time to 'enjoy' those big festivals with all kinds of music. BOA is just right- and with careful planning I manage to get to see bands I like all day every day....

[slayerslays]

BTW- the New Blood Stage has excellent bands on- last year Blind Divide were one of the best bands of the whole time. Those bands practice their guts out to make their mark. The Sophie stage and the New Blood is where I spend most of my time, you can hear the main stage as you cross over the field.
The only thing that spoils the New Blood and the Sophie stage are the selfish feckers smoking fags as we have an asthmatic person in our group

[bloodofthekings]

Can you imagine a HRH open-air fest? Charging circa £100 a ticket for 2 big name bands, a couple of medium-size bands plus a load of no-name filler? Yeah, can see that going down well...

Skindred and Saxon have headlined HrH before and Paradise Lost have headlined Hammerfest. 2-3k capacity festivals, currently all 3 are sub-headlining BOA this year. I don't think they would have any problem emulating BOA at all.

I think they would be on BOA's level within 3 years.

You clearly didn't read my post. HRH only have a handful of bigger names on their lineup but then backfill the undercard with filler that few people have actually heard of. And they get their venues/sites for a song as they're using holiday parks that would be closed otherwise. Hence why they can practically give their tickets away because people still feel they're getting value for money.

That hardly translates to moving outdoor and trying to capture 10k - 15k people. They'd have to book a much stronger lineup and use a site that they wouldn't be getting for such a low cost, thus having to charge customers much more and not giving your tickets away. With their current lineups, there's no way HRH are even close to that

[houston4044]

I don't think they would have any problem emulating BOA at all.

I think they would be on BOA's level within 3 years.

At which point they'll share the same problems and you'll be back to square one

A lot of the niche festivals can't grow much bigger due to genre limitations anyway, you'd end up with a DL/Sonisphere situation where the few bands who are headline size would alternate between BOA and the competitor.

The capacity of Download is 110,000 this year and they are charging £243 for 3 days camping +£5.50 postage. Bloodstock maximum attendance has been 18,000. I went to Sonsiphere when it was 60,000 people - it reminded me of some post-apocalyptic refugee camp. You have to be off your face all the time to 'enjoy' those big festivals with all kinds of music. BOA is just right- and with careful planning I manage to get to see bands I like all day every day....

What was wrong with Sonisphere? Thought that place had the best of both worlds, DL sized bands with a BOA camping arrangement

[Black no. 1]

That hardly translates to moving outdoor and trying to capture 10k - 15k people. They'd have to book a much stronger lineup and use a site that they wouldn't be getting for such a low cost, thus having to charge customers much more and not giving your tickets away. With their current lineups, there's no way HRH are even close to that

BOA has gotten away with it for years, so there's no reason why other festivals couldn't. I know that a few years ago HRH were looking at outdoor venues in the UK and abroad.

My point was their lineups aren't that far away from BOA when you consider they are already booking their sub-headliners and offering those special bands that BOA don't even book anymore.

There are other festivals in the market place too like Amplified. A dozen or so classic rock festivals like Stonedeaf/d, Steelhouse, and others. All providing better lineups.

[Black no. 1]

The capacity of Download is 110,000 this year and they are charging £243 for 3 days camping +£5.50 postage. Bloodstock maximum attendance has been 18,000. I went to Sonsiphere when it was 60,000 people - it reminded me of some post-apocalyptic refugee camp. You have to be off your face all the time to 'enjoy' those big festivals with all kinds of music. BOA is just right- and with careful planning I manage to get to see bands I like all day every day....

Fairly sure you get 5 days of camping at Download.

I enjoyed the Sonisphere experience when I went, didn't think the campsites were bad at all.

As for an Apocalyptic refugee camp, nothing will erase the memory of a woman at BOA pulling down her pants, lifting her leg up over the mens urinal, only to piss all over herself.

[slayerslays]

you can get 5 nights, for £250 but the bands proper don't start for 2 days

[Black no. 1]

you can get 5 nights, for £250 but the bands proper don't start for 2 days

Fairly certain they have bands on the Thursday, could be wrong, but I haven't been for a while, but they also have shite loads of entertainment on the pre-days. Then when it kicks off properly, they have about 6 or 7 stages.