Festival Reviews

The last day of Download is usually the best, and the worst. Best – for obvious reasons. Like a great meal, the best is saved until last. We have a star studded finale to what was a great weekend and will go down as one of the biggest Downloads ever. The worst? Simply for the reason that the festival is ...

Attending Stone Free Festival for the second year in a row, after the successful lineup of 2016, which saw Alice Cooper closing the night in style while delivering his amazing carnival of rock ‘n roll. The venue stays the same, every year this festival takes over the whole O2 complex for the weekend with the bonus of not having to deal with ...

Friday was somewhat full of surprises: an unlikely headliner, astonishing highlights, and satisfying breakthroughs. Saturday looks like the typical ‘classic rock’ day. Where some may argue the ‘classic’ flavour of rock n roll is making a comeback (hence the strange ‘NWOBCR’ label) where as others (including myself) would contend it never….ever…went away. Also – as a lot of the bands ...

Over for another year. This week is like the ‘boxing day’ of Download: everything’s done, everyone’s recovering, and another year to go. Fifteen years since Download was launched, is it still exciting as it was back in 2003? Will it go down in history like it’s spiritual predecessor Monsters Of Rock? Or will it be like that Christmas you got ...

It’s Thursday 7th December and I´m in the heart of Patagonia. It´s early in the morning and time to start a full extreme metal weekend. The first step is to get a plane from Comodoro (Patagonia) to Buenos Aires, then get a connection to Brazil. There’re already some people wearing black leather, they’re Mortuorial Eclipse, a symphonic blackened-death metal band. They ...

Since the inaugural Bloodstock in 2001, there has been a sense of community  among fans of the Midlands festivals. In a way – it’s similar to it’s biggest adversary Download, with the difference being: this is one big METAL family. There are bands here who wouldn’t go down the same way they would at Donington Park. Which most see as ...

FRIDAY After the syrupy Graham Bonnet Band (who got things going early at around 4pm Friday with a great set of recognisable toons — what a fab start!) we careened with sufficient buzziness straight into a sizzling set from the unbelievably-wunderbar! American rockers Last in Line (the original line-up of Dio) with the terrifically cool Viv and Vinnie who brought shouts of joy ...

2000Trees is, without doubt, a community. To use the cliché, like-minded music fans assemble in the Cotswolds countryside every year to see their favourite underground artists and discover some new bands to add to their Spotify playlists and vinyl collections. In the usual festival circles, there was some debate regarding this year’s headline choices – but however you felt about ...

After a five hour car journey with two pit stops and sweltering heat we finally made it to UK Tech Fest at Newark Showground. Being my first time at the festival I had absolutely no idea what to expect, I had heard a ton of great reviews, but was wondering if they were over exaggerated by fans of the festival. ...

Another fantastic and historical year of Download Festival has sadly been and gone. It’s a bit like the rock and metal Christmas in a way. Think of this week as being a 7-day boxing day. For once we had very minimal rain (not great for goths and gingers like me!) but bringing an extra sheen to the weekend – plus ...