BLOODSTOCK FESTIVALS 2005: Headliners Announced

The organizers of the U.K.'s Bloodstock festival have announced that Bloodstock 2005 will comprise two separate festivals. The brand new outdoor show Bloodstock Open Air (B-O-A) will take place on June 24-25 at Catton Hall, in the Midlands, with the annual Bloodstock 2005 U.K. Metalfest taking place indoors at the Assembly Rooms in Derby on September 2-3.

With the indoor festival now having reached capacity within the current location, the next logical step was to find an additional location, and the decision to go outdoors was an easy choice to make as the U.K. does not have an outdoor Euro-style metal festival along the lines of Wacken, Bang Your Head and Summer Breeze (Germany),Gods of Metal (Italy),Sweden Rock (Sweden),Graspop (Belgium),Dynamo (Netherlands) and so many more. The current choice of venue, Catton Hall, offers a fantastic location within a rural setting, centrally located within the U.K. for all areas to reach easily, and yes, camping will be provided. The venue's initial capacity is for up to 8,000 with further growth at the site to accommodate 20,000 within a few more years.

"Bloodstock is a European metal festival," said Vince Brotheridge, who along with renowned artist Paul Raymond Gregory, make up AMUST4MUSIC, the organizers of Bloodstock. "It has taken five years to get to this stage, and I think you will see from the combined line-up of the two shows this year, about 40 bands, that we have a world-class festival for the U.K. to now shout out about! And we continue to bring to the U.K. the big European bands playing to big U.K. audiences. We were the first to bring to the U.K. NIGHTWISH, PRIMAL FEAR, BLIND GUARDIAN, MASTERPLAN and SONATA ARCTICA, and with HAMMERFALL and WITHIN TEMPTATION making their second ever U.K. appearances this year, Bloodstock is getting bigger and better!"

Taking the stage at the Bloodstock Open Air in June will be some of the best bands to have appeared at the previous indoor festivals, CHILDREN OF BODOM, EDGUY, EVERGREY, MASTERPLAN, PANIC CELL, FOURWAYKILL and HUMANITY, who will be joined by SEBASTIAN BACH (ex-SKID ROW) headlining his first-ever U.K. festival on the Friday night (June 24),and MOSTLY AUTUMN both making their Bloodstock debut. MOSTLY AUTUMN are in essence the U.K.'s foremost "epic rock" band regularly compared to PINK FLOYD, and have built an amazing following over the past few years. They will offer a welcome classic rock feel to the proceedings. Several more bands will be added to the B-O-A within the next few weeks.

The traditional Bloodstock Metalfest in September will play host to 25 bands in 2005, many of them making their debut U.K. appearance. HAMMERFALL, STORMWARRIOR, BOB CATLEY, CONQUEST OF STEEL and WARCHILD will head up a night of Battle Metal on the Friday, with WITHIN TEMPTATION, AFTER FOREVER, IRON SAVIOR, CATHEDRAL, RISE TO ADDICTION, and SEASON'S END scheduled for the Saturday, with more surprise bands being announced soon.

Full details of the two events can be found at www.bloodstock.uk.com. Tickets are now on sale for both shows.