If you want ’BLUD, you got it! YUNGBLUD returns to Milton Keynes Bowl with a load of his mates for the second edition of his summer mega-fest.
This summer, rock fans will have eaten well. From Sabbath to Slayer, Download to Deftones, just pick a weekend and you’re spoilt for choice. Sometimes even singular days become a battle of temptation, with Linkin Park and Iron Maiden playing – and both selling out – London stadium gigs on the same day.
There’s so many good shows! And it's a strain on the wallet. Enter the beautifully flamboyant Bludfest. Now in its second year, the mega-gig at Milton Keynes Bowl was created by YUNGBLUD as both a way to bring live music to people, rather than having the artist and the fan so separated, and to let that happen without breaking the bank.
“This festival needs to represent a new generation and a new idea,” he tells us backstage. “I was tired of having to tip my hat to the right promoters, the right radio stations, the right people… It just feels five steps removed from an artist singing music to people, and that’s what a festival should be.”
With the festival gates heralding a smorgasbord of vaudevillian chaos – much like YUNGBLUD himself – and boasting pretty much anything and everything you can think of, Bludfest is a kaleidoscope of creativity. Amusements? Why think so small – let’s put on a circus, ringleaders cajoling passersby into tests of strength, stamina and coordination. Pictures? How about a full-blown exhibition, with thousands of fans queueing for the behind-the-scenes peek at everything going on, gawking at the framed records and music video props on display. You can even get tattoos, both the permanent kind and War-Child-supporting temporary ones.
As with last year, Bludfest 2025 serves as a haven of acceptance, inclusivity, and visual and audio abundance to anyone and everyone that considers themselves as part of the family… except this time, it’s “twice as big”.
Speaking of the YUNGBLUD family, let’s have a look at the new additions.
From the moment they materialise onstage, emerging from smoke to a round of applause, you just know that Nxdia’s going to be good. With silver tassels trailing behind them as they sway across the stage, their blend of alt.pop vocals and rocky music are a delight to the quickly growing crowd. Whether it’s from being buffeted by the seething Jennifer’s Body, laughing at the warning preface – “I speak English and Arabic in my songs: if you don’t understand any sections, I promise it’s not you!” – or cheering at the J.K. Rowling call-out before Boo, Nevermind, Nxdia perfectly encapsulate the widespread, communal love that Bludfest has on tap.
A wave of melody breaking over the buzzing crowd is the only indication that Cork-based indie-rockers Cliffords have arrived. But as the ethereal haze of Shattered Glass washes over the swaying hands – broken only by Iona Lynch’s rage filled shouts – and the roared crescendo of Feels Like A Man erupts from the stage, vitriolic yet vulnerable, you couldn’t really ask for much else. Though, as Gavin Dawkins swaps out his bass for the woefully underused trumpet, and Locon O’Toole’s Palestine flag flutters in the gentle (and much appreciated) breeze, it still feels like the band have more to give. Even if it is a bit early in the day for the liberal use of strobe lighting, it's still a blinder of a set.
It’s only been three days since Denzel Curry demolished London’s O2 Academy Brixton, and the wall of screams that erupt from the crowd as he appears is apparently enough to awaken a technical gremlin. It’s another few minutes before opener ACT A DAMN FOOL finally blasts out, but you know what they say about those who wait. As Denzel races through the audience, delivering a blood-pumping, heart-pounding masterclass of crowd engagement, the only thing you could wish for is people to be a little more feral. There should be a maelstrom of leaping bodies for HIT THE FLOOR, or a frenzied ferocity for Threatz, that just isn’t there. Still, Denzel happily takes it in stride, with slower numbers like Walkin helping to soothe the sweltering crowd before the bedlam-injecting HOT ONE helps bring proceedings to a close.
blackbear’s first show in almost three years is as scattered and emotional as you’d expect. With the entire set being streamed live, the total audience is likely a hell of a lot bigger than even the thousands crammed around the Main Stage. But even this doesn’t seem to matter. Instead, Bludfest serves as just the perfect setting to let loose and have the time of your life, as blackbear quickly shows.
It’s barely a song into the set before he races to the end of the walkway during I Miss The Old U, his toy-wrapped mic stand a fitting joust as he hoists it aloft, face cracked into a slightly manic grin. “I’ve been through some shit,” he confesses to his slightly-more-solemn audience. “But I’m still standing!” And they are his audience. There isn’t a song that isn’t met by cheers of excitement, lines not roared back in joy, not least the medley of Avril Lavigne, All Time Low and machine gun kelly features that he tears through in the latter half. Add the crowd-enrapturing idfc or hot girl bummer, as well as the tentative promise to have a new album out by Valentine’s Day, and you’ve got an easy highlight on your hands.
Co-headlining a festival named after someone else must be a little daunting, but rocky Australian synth-poppers Chase Atlantic don’t give off the vibe of musicians unnerved. Instead, there seems to be a hunger roiling up on the stage, as if the group who happily filled The O2 a month prior still have things left to prove.
Emerging through the smoke to predictably thunderous screams, with Mitchel Cave bounding across the stage as if to leap into the quickly formed hordes of fans, they're the epitome of polished as they dominate Bludfest. “I know it’s hot… you guys are fucking troopers,” grins Mitchel, between pillars of steam and eruptions of flame, the trio somehow still the definition of cool despite the very literal heat surrounding them.
Older numbers like The Walls and Into It go happily hand-in-hand with newer stuff like RICOCHET and the darkly furnished OHMAMI, as well as the live debut of the unreleased Face Down. Mitchel twirls across the stage before sinking to his knees before the final duo of Swim and Friends take us home. Then, with one final roar of approval from the crowd, Chase Atlantic breathing in the last satisfying mouthfuls of their biggest UK show to date, there’s nothing left to do but wait.
“These are the forever moments,” they declare. “I want you to take this in.” No worries on that front: no-one seems to want to miss a single moment.
Finally, as the clock strikes nine, the man of the hour arrives. Running out onstage and diving straight into the nine-minute, Steinman-esque epic Hello Heaven, Hello, the libertine leather jacket and slicked-back hair reflect a man distinctly self-assured in what he’s delivering, comfortable and surrounded by a very real family of personal friends and adoring fans alike.
“I book it, so it’s all my friends. It’s like a big, wild, dysfunctional family,” Dom Harrison told K! earlier in the day. You can see that in the effortless way he and his extensive backing band – complete with both a brass and string section – effortlessly own, not just the stage, but the rammed Milton Keynes Bowl in general. More than anything, he just looks content.
“I’m weirdly calm,” he shrugged when asked about the set in the afternoon. “We did what we set out to do, I made the album I wanted to make. No compromise, no bullshit, just a fully fledged idea of depth. So, [I feel] weirdly calm, and ready to put on a fucking kick-ass rock show.”
With Bludfest being the first show since the release of Idols the day before, the setlist is up in the air from the get-go. Anything can happen, and indeed does. From the stage debut of The Greatest Parade joining the likes of Lovesick Lullaby and Monday Murder as new live favourites, to the unearthed, last-played-in-2019 classic of Tin Pan Boy, and the genuine “what the fuck?” moment of a cover White Wedding with Billy Idol, the set is packed full of surprises that feel as emotional as they do triumphant.
The classics get a lot of love, of course, with parents and Lowlife receiving a particularly vehement reaction from the tens of thousands screaming along. As does War Child, deservedly getting a shout-out mid-set for its work helping children in conflict zones, with an emotional YUNGBLUD urging the crowd to take a photo of the number for later.
The live debut of the beautiful string-section-and-piano-led Change sees the rolling hills light up like a tranquil, starry night sky. But, as YUNGBLUD prances, prowls, swans and struts across the stage, an ecstatic peacock one moment, a caged beast the next, never stopping bar the moments of tear-jerking awe that crosses his face, you can’t help but be caught up in it all. He did this. We did this.
It’s the poignant duo of Ghosts and Zombie – book-ending the sing-along anthem of I Think I’m OKAY – that cements the tear-jerking nature of the day, though, as Dom and his Black Heart Club croon the heartbreaking lyrics across the rammed Milton Keynes fields, backlit by the explosions of a blissfully indulgent amount of fireworks.
There has to be some amount of ego to name a festival after yourself. But then, there has to be a certain amount of ego to become a musician in the first place. There’s also glimpse of vulnerability in his eyes, behind the engrossingly addictive bravado and frankly unhinged levels of showmanship that makes YUNGBLUD such an exhilarating act live. Tonight, there's also pride. Not the arrogant kind, but just pride in what everyone present has achieved over the day, pride in the people that make Bludfest such a bluddy good day. But, if along the way there happens to be a hint of personal pride in a job well done? If anyone deserves it, it’s YUNGBLUD.
YUNGBLUD's album Idols is out now via Locomotion
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