Bloodstock Open Air Festival, the Grand Finale

DO NOT MISS the BareFoot FotoBlog sets by Moonshayde: Click here to see photos of Holy Moses; Click here for Doro; Click here for Ishmael; Click here for Korpiklaani; Click here for GWAR; Click here for Gojira; Click here for Bloodbath; Click here for Cannibal Corpse; Click here for Twisted Sister

Coffee and Monster Energy Juice didn’t do much to wake us, however, before heading to join the other bleary eyed people in the arena for Holy Moses. Most seemed to have stayed in their tents sleeping off the previous night’s excesses. Sabina Classen did her best to wake the rest of the sleepy undeads with her guttural ‘singing’ and some heavy metal.

It was left to metal queen Doro to really get some eyes opened. Playing a set smattered with Warlock tunes Doro gave us a classic rock set in old-school 80s style, her presence onstage pleasing many of the older chaps in the audience!

The mud was drying up fast when we went over to the New Blood stage to see what was happening there and found another female fronted band: Ishmael. Ishmael sounded just like a hangover should feel – doom laden and reverberating in every bone. Many in the audience were simply sitting in recovery mode and letting the bass go through them.

Escaping from the wall of sound into the sunshine it was time to head back towards the Dio stage for some Finnish folk metal from Korpiklaani. Starting off with “Vodka” they got everyone into a party mood and soon had many dancing – first time I’d seen a “folky jig mosh.” Even the security in the photo pit were having a little dance. Korpiklaani’s set of infectious drinking songs and onstage antics were perfect for a sunny afternoon and brought smiles to many faces. Our personal favorite was the barefoot bass player. We like him!

After the photographers were warned that they would be shooting GWAR at their own risk and that they should protect themselves and their gear from all manner of fluids including nuclear waste - all the photographers (except one who opted for simply taking his shirt off) and security were provided with waterproof ponchos, sound and stage equipment was hastily covered with plastic, and we were given the monstrous show that is GWAR. Decapitated policemen, un-‘PC’ pope with swastikas on him, male ‘members’ spurting green fluids (to put it politely!), limbs being hacked off and blood spurting everywhere, drenching the crowd, Gwar is definitely a spectacle with some solid punk/thrash metal to keep it all going. Not for the squeamish!!

French band Gojira followed on the Dio stage, without the spectacle and show they produced some technical,‘head down and get on with it’ heavy metal which got the youngsters going in the mosh pit.

After a quick photoshoot with Oderus Urungus (Dave Brockie) of Gwar while he was being interviewed and a much needed snack break it was back to business with Bloodbath, the death metal ‘supergroup’ from Sweden made up of Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, Anders Nyström and Jonas Renkse of Katatonia) and Dan Swanö of Edge Of Sanity. Playing their first UK gig and only their 8th ever gig Bloodbath gathered a large crowd of headbangers for a selection of rather epic thrash metal.

We had some fun playing Frisbee with the guys from Korpiklaani by the press tent before it was time for Cannibal Corpse to carry on the death/thrash metal headbanging. A bit of a challenge for all photographers was to actually photograph a band member’s face as they tend to play like Cousin It. Brutally loud Cannibal Corpse soon had the mosh pits and head banging going with many a crowd surfer flying over the barrier.

A word here about the wonderful job done by the guys and girls of Show Sec Security for doing an excellent job with good humor throughout the entire festival.

Twisted Sister brought the festival to a close in style, many staying up after Twisted Sister had finished to carry on drinking, enjoying the amusements and rides or in the heavy metal disco into the early hours. Tiredness and an oncoming cold sent me to the tent for some sleep before packing up the camping gear the following morning - and then calling out the recovery service as the car wouldn’t start. Bloodstock didn’t want me to leave. Not to worry… we will be back next year!

Band of the Day: Korpiklaani
Band of the Festival: Twisted Sister!!!!

DanG says:

This is the end of our five-part series on Bloodstock Open Air;
we hope you enjoyed it.
In case you missed any, click the links below to go to the story:
Day One, Part One
Day One, Part Two
Day Two, Part One
Day Two, Part Two

We have 32 sets of Photos by Moonshayde from the Bloodstock photopit

Click a band name to go directly to their photoset,
or just hit the arrow at top right in the BareFoot FotoBlog and enjoy them all!

2010 Bloodstock Scenes
Amorphis
Black Spiders
Bloodbath
Cannibal Corpse
Cathedral
Children Of Bodom
Devin Townsend Project
Doro
Edguy
Ensiferum
Fear Factory
Gojira
Gorgoroth
Gwar
Hanging Doll
Holy Moses
Ishmael
Korpiklaani
Lithurgy
Meshuggah
Mordecai
Obituary
Onslaught
Opeth
Point Blank Fury
Rage
Ross The Boss
Senturia
Sonata Arctica
Steelwing
Twisted Sister