EMP at Bloodstock 2016
Metal Festivals don’t get much better than Bloodstock, with 2016’s offering being what we consider to be the heaviest and most brutal yet!
If you headed to Derbyshire last weekend you can pretty much be assured that you got to experience what most in the metal community, consider to be THE “go to” festival, not only for the range of International acts – but also for the atmosphere.
First things first! Earlier in the year we held a competition to win VIP tickets and Octopod accommodation for Bloodstock. Congrats to the winners!
As you can imagine we were pretty busy during Bloodstock! In-between meeting our hordes of fans, customers & well-wishers, but we managed to explore the fest and its stages… Hopefully we can remember some of it!
Thursday.
Thursday started insanely early for us with a military-precision effort of van loading!
After arriving and meeting up with our street team 4 DJ’s of the Apocalypse we began setting up.
We managed to nip over and see Phil Campbell open the Lemmy Bar, but had to head back to finish setting up the tent!
I can smell burgers!
Friday
We opened up nice and early to be ready for the crowds being let in at 11:00, except they were let in at 10:00. After a bit of a panic we managed to get our stall in order and began selling merch to the eager crowds of Bloodstock. We were joined by our street team the 4 DJ’s of the Apocalypse, who helped promote our booth and handed out loads of Freebies.
Due to the popularity of our stall we didn’t get much chance to pop out and watch a lot of bands, but I did manage to see a couple of songs by XII Boar and Corrosion of Conformity, both sounded great. Wishing we could see more we made sure we closed in time for Twisted Sister. They are currently on their retirement tour and it was great to finally catch them. Twisted Sister were really entertaining and played a kick ass set which ended with a massive sing along to “We’re Not Going to Take It”.
After Twisted Sister we headed over to the Sophie Lancaster Stage to watch the awesome Pyrohex team and the 4 DJ’s of the Apocalypse.
Saturday
We got there a bit earlier so we could tidy up the stall, do a quick stock check and be ready for when the gates opened.
Gojira popped into our tent around 16:00 and signed the Guitar for our Competition, which you can enter HERE. They hung out for a while and we gave them some merch and freebies. We even had Stephen Hill and Beez from That's Not Metal Podcast drop by to do some filming and talk about the Gojira Competition!
We didn’t want to miss Gojira so we closed up earlier than normal and managed to get onto the side stage where we watched the first half of the set standing next to the drummer from Mastodon. Little bit excited about that. Gojira were awesome and we headed down the front to watch the rest of their set. After they finished we headed to the bar waiting for Mastodon to start.
Mastodon came on stage and we were in full part spirit. Banged our heads til our necks hurt. After Mastodon we headed back to the Sophie Lancaster Stage to watch Pyrohex and the 4 DJ’s of the Apocalypse again. Only this time we were invited to party with them afterwards… which we did… until 04:00
Sunday
After only 2 ½ hours sleep we were back at work nursing some Kraken Rum influenced hangovers. After a cheese toastie, a bottle of lemonade and an ice lolly, I begin to feel human again. It was another busy day and we had a great time meeting customers and handing out freebies. Unfortunately we didn’t get chance to catch any bands as we had to packed up ready to load the van after the festival closed. Managed to catch the last show of the weekend from 4 DJ’s of the Apocalypse.
It's all... go go go at the EMP Booth @bloodstockopenair 2016 #empukcrew #bloodstockA photo posted by EMP UK Crew (@empukcrew) on
We repacked the Van at 03:00 in the morning and is it my imagination or do we have more stuff? Or have we packed it wrong? We’re too tired to figure it out and managed to squeeze everything back on. Had a brilliant but busy time at Bloodstock and I can’t wait to do it again next year!
Rock On!
The EMP Crew!