Featured image: Abbi Draper

After an electrifying start to the weekend, with temperatures slowly climbing, many lather themselves in suncream, shed their band shirts and rise from their tents to trek towards the arena. Saturday has big things incoming for the humans of Bloodstock 2026.

Some pace themselves for the day and hide from the early morning sun in the Serpent’s Lair tent, amusing themselves with a re-run of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, while the bar swaps pints for morning energy drinks. 

Just mere meters away, London’s Inhuman Nature swap beanbags for brutalism, unleashing shredding solos, crossover metal and heavy breakdowns. “Are you ready?” cries Frontman Christopher Barling, using his hands to instruct the crowd to open the pit at barely 11am, they wilfully oblige. Penned as the ‘Brutalism Boot Boys’, the band brings a thrashing atmosphere, full of gang callouts,combining old-school metal fury with classic hardcore.

A follow-up set from Russian-born symphonic operatic metal group Imperial Age draws in the masses to sing along with them. Now based in Northampton, the band fled their native country after political opposition made them targets.

With lyrics filled with themes of occultism, ancient civilisations and paganism, the band bring a magical atmosphere to the Hallowed Grounds. With a 10-stringed guitar shredding away at complex riffs making it look like child’s play, the band utilise their magical incantations to enchant and enamour the crowd with songs like ‘Legend of the free’, before their set is cut short.

As the crowd becomes accustomed to and comfortable within the pits, beer and liquor flow freely, and the atmosphere grows increasingly rowdy, but no less friendly. With a day filled mainly with the heavier sub genres of metal, fans prepare to reach the pinnacle of the weekend.

With the infamous talk-box riff of the 80s blaring from the sound system, the crowd begin to rise from their various seating arrangements across the field, chanting along to Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin on a Prayer’ ahead of one of the weekend’s most anticipated acts. The abrupt cut-off is replaced with an eerie repetition of bagpipes, symbolising the band’s patriotic arrival. 

Bleed from Within burst onto the stage with tenacity, showing no fear or intimidation. After touring with their forefathers Slipknot, and fresh off the back of a European tour, their long-awaited rise to Bloodstock’s main stage just shows how far the band has risen since their formation more than 20 years ago.

Vocalist Scott Kennedy instructs the crowd with little hesitation: “All right Bloodstock, you know what to do.’ With a swift parting motion of his hands, the crowd erupts into commotion and chaos. “Bloodstock, we ain’t slowing down just yet,” Kennedy tells the crowd with part seriousness and reassurance. 

With ‘Stand down’ having the crowd belting “out for war” the Glaswegians have the crowd beckoning to their every command. With whiplash moments as they went from playing their softest to their heaviest song. With the band cautioned with a warning regarding crowd encouragement of pits, Frontman Kennedy Makes direct eye contact with security as he instructs the crowd to for 3 sizeable circle pits, reminding the organisers that he hasn’t explicitly told the crowd what to do, as if he had found an obvious loophole in the safety guidelines.

As the sun diminishes over the Hallowed Grounds, barking echoes across the field, as if summoning the hounds of hell. Bloodstock does exactly that. 

The metallic masked hellhounds of Slaughter to Prevail crawl on to the Ronnie Dio stage. Frontman Alex Terrible bursts onto the stage and leaps onto the platform, erupting into  a screaming fit of rage. Clad in his mask and a pair of Adidas joggers, Terrible screams “BLOODSTOCK”into his microphone. 

The deathcore five all don their infamous masks, resembling something akin to demonic bloodhounds. With grindcore-style screaming and aggressive, downtuned, chugging riffs, the crowd becomes feral. The band, known for their violent sets featuring the occasional bare-knuckled fight within the crowd, keep the security working overtime. 

Crowd-surfing to the front, the audience are dragged over the barrier towards the masked axe-players, showing no dismay at being pulled out of the pit. Songs like ‘Demonlisher’ cause a ruckus throughout the field. 

As the echo of the double bass drum sounds across the field, Terrible asks the crowd, “Are you with me?” before breaking the circle-pit question rule, commanding them like the tyrant of Bloodstock. In response,the crowd creates the largest circle pit of the weekend. Terrible nods his head like a proud father watching over his metalhead children.

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