Bloodstock announce 17 names for their new bands stage

Ahead of next month’s fest, Bloodstock have added 17 new names (literally) to their 2025 line-up.

With their annual Metal 2 The Masses finals wrapping up, they’ve revealed many of the rising band’s who’ll grace the Timothy Taylor New Blood stage in Catton Park, with even more to come. So, without further ado, get ready for: tealdeer, Rascal and Backseat Juliet on Friday; Symbyote, Adfeilion, Prodigal, Zebulon, Mantis Defeats Jaguar, Mechromorph, Head Dent and Unnatural Order on the Saturday; and Ocean Planet, Rizen, Headcount, Koba, Ruled By Raptors and Bad Earth closing proceedings on Sunday.

Elsewhere, Bloodstock have revealed that forthcoming movie Steel Donkeys is going to commence filming at the festival, using the site for exterior scenes (the interior bits will take place at K.K.’s Steel Mill). From the mind of writer/director Richard Stanley, it’s about ‘three small-time crooks hired to steal a powerful artefact from a mysterious rock star at a massive festival. When their heist goes wrong, they unleash a malignant Afro-Caribbean entity trapped inside the artefact – a demon that parties its way through the festival crowd, threatening to end the world. As the chaos spirals, the teens must rally a ragtag band of heroes to stop the demon and restore cosmic balance.’

“The stars have aligned to conjure this dream into manifestation, a perfect storm of metal, martial arts and cosmic horror, precision calibrated to burn its way into the brains of a whole new generation of metal fans,” explains Richard. “It makes me hugely happy to be back in the UK and to be returning to my cultural roots with this supernaturally charged psychedelic hand grenade, freely inspired by a real-life misadventure from my younger years. Given the current state of the nation, I firmly believe Steel Donkeys is exactly what Britain both needs and deserves…”

Check out the updated Bloodstock 2025 line-up poster below.

Read this next:

• The People Vs. Joe Duplantier: The Gojira frontman on whales, activism and Evil Mario
• “They’ve always been ferocious, but that era was violent!” Bullet For My Valentine’s Matt Tuck on the album that changed his life
• Martial arts, impulsiveness, and doing the unexpected: How Machine Head continue to fight and win