Bloodstock 2021 Countdown : 30 Bands not to Miss : 1. YOU!

Let's be honest the most important thing about Bloodstock isn’t the bands, it's the people. It's that diverse community of oddballs and eccentrics that comes together every twelve months to converge on a field in Derbyshire. I see the people I camp with once a year but I consider them some of my closest and most treasured friends. Essentially bloodstock is a whole year of friendship condensed into four (this year five) madcap days.

The people make the festival, the people you sit around the campsite drinking and chatting with, the people you meet in bar and food queues and the people you know by sight but have never spoken to. Bloodstock is a glorious multi coloured parade of different vibrant characters that I have my own respectful pet names for. There is the various Lemmy's complete with military helmets, there is sideburn man, there is vamp girl, there is the Robert plant twins. It is these people and many many more that make Bloodstock what it is. Those people that you casually smile at or say to hello to because you have been bumping into them whilst wandering at the site since 2009. This year each and everyone will be greeted with a big big hug (and believe me I ain't a hugger).

This year, much more than any year, take a look around and savour the people around you. Talk to them, interact with them, get drunk with them. Everyone has a story, everyone has climbed a mountain and fought adversity to be here. The term family is thrown around but for Bloodstock it is true we are a family, dysfunctional and with a massive alcohol problem, but we are family.

So the act that comes top of the list for us at ROCKFLESH Towers is you. You are the beating heart of the festival, you are the people we stand shoulder to shoulder with enjoying the sheer adulation of live music, you are the people we share these memories with, you are the people that create the experience, you are the people who read what we write. You are the reason we bother doing what we do at ROCKFLESH. More than any other band we are looking forward to seeing you.