The Big Story-Out For Blood

How do you celebrate your 20th anniversary as a festival? If you’re BLOODSTOCK, you announce two legendary bands – BEHEMOTH and JUDAS PRIEST – to headline, of course. Brace yourselves…

- Kiran Acharya

Bloodstock has become an essential event in heavy music’s summertime calendar, welcoming up to 18,000 people to Derbyshire each August. The festival has grown from a single-day indoor assembly in 2001 into a three-day extravaganza, and next year’s 20th anniversary promises to be the biggest yet.

Behemoth and Judas Priest have just been confirmed as headliners, alongside Devin Townsend, joining recently announced acts Philip H. Anselmo & The Illegals (doing A Vulgar Display Of Pantera set), Paradise Lost (performing Draconian Times in full), Diamond Head, and Life of Agony on the line-up. As the festival has grown, so too have the bands that perform there, with both Behemoth and Priest returning to headline for the second time. The festival extended the honour following Priest’s unforgettable Friday night set in 2018, and Behemoth’s first appearance as headliners back in 2012.

“Bloodstock was actually one of the very first well-established festivals that would give us credit and put us on as a headliner,” enthuses Behemoth’s Nergal. “We felt very honoured, and that night was amazing.” Next year marks a special milestone for Judas Priest, too, who will be celebrating a landmark 50th year as a band. With that in mind, then, Nergal and Priest’s Richie Faulkner prepare themselves for a big year…

How excited are you to headline Bloodstock next year, guys?

NERGAL, BEHEMOTH (VOCALS/ GUITAR): “The UK has always been very generous to Behemoth, and now Bloodstock is in a different place from the Bloodstock I knew from a few years back. It’s a bigger festival, and Behemoth’s position is growing. It feels like we truly earned that. It feels amazing. Absolutely.”