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Nightwish at Bloodstock 2008

Bloodstock Open Air Heavy Metal Festival is back for its fifth year of bringing the greatest and most diverse established and unsigned metal bands to the UK.

Catton Hall in the peaceful village of Walton-On-Trent, Derbyshire, will play host to the three day festival from 14th – 16th August 2009.

One of the organisers Rachael Gregory says: "We’re really excited about this year’s festival; we’re expecting our highest attendance this year with 10,000 festival goers per day over the 3 days. 

Hundreds of metal fans are expected

"We’ve got loads of entertainment planned through to the early hours with 3 stages and over 80 bands, fairground rides, a huge array of traders from around the world, comedy acts, our infamous late night rock and metal karaoke and loads more."

Over 80 bands including headliners Carcass, Arch Enemy, Blind Guardian, Cradle of Filth, Apocalyptica, Katatonia, Insomnium, Municipal Waste and Saxon are expected to play, as well as unsigned bands Alternative Carpark, Bisonhammer, Hunted, Inner Eden and Nightmare World.

The unsigned stage gives metal bands from the Midlands and the rest of the UK a chance to play in front of a huge audience of true metal fans.

The third stage has been renamed the Sophie Lancaster Stage in memory of a young girl who was brutally attacked in 2007 because of the way she dressed.

Crowd favourites, Beholder are donating all of the proceeds from their new single “Never Take Us Down” to the Sophie Lancaster Foundation which aims to stamp out prejudice, hatred and ignorance against others.

Soilwork perform at Bloodstock 2008

The Festival was first established in 2001, starting out as an indoor festival for metal music lovers with just 700 people turning up to the event.

By 2005, the indoor festival sold out as thousands of people had started to flock to Bloodstock, so the organisers, Paul Gregory and Vince Brotheridge needed to find a bigger venue.

The perfect solution to this was to make Bloodstock an open air festival, so more metal lovers could join in on the experience.

2008 was highly successful, with over 8,500 people coming together to celebrate their love for heavy metal.

Weekend tickets cost £99.95 for adults and £44.95 for children including camping and day tickets cost £49.95. VIP tickets are also available.