One of the guiding hands behind the scenes of the UK’s largest independent metal festival. Bloodstock Director, Adam Greggory has been a key player in the award winning festivals rise to the top over the last two decades. Helping to keep the event running smoothly since its inception in 2001. Making him an ideal person to give us the scoop on next years mammoth anniversay line-up!
So, first of all thanks for taking the time to speak to us today. We know you’ve always got a lot of plates spinning.
All good, yeah one or two!
With the first day over with, how’s Bloodstock going for you so far?
Yeah, so far so good. It’s a busy weekend for us obviously. We’ve been here for about a week already so for me I’m just starting to get towards the end of my shift as it were, which is good. The crowds been great you know. It’s a capacity crowd this year as we’ve all seen. The announcement for next year went down great last night so yeah, couldn’t be better, couldn’t be happier.
Any standout performances for you so far this year?
I saw a bit of Paleface Swiss, which I thought was fantastic, they were were brilliant and I saw four tracks last night from Trivium before I got a call on the radio and Matt was on fire, the band were on fire they were absolutely loving it.
Yeah that was a real standout set from them for us too.
Yeah it really was and I think having the guests that they had as well made it something really special and that worked really well.
The announcement for next year seemed to go down really well yesterday too. A great line-up for your anniversary.
Yeah absolutely. There’s always going to be sort of an air of controversy when you announce some bands but that’s part and parcel of music you know. You can’t please everybody all the time but overall I think the announcement went down really well.
Yeah, you’ve got Judas Priest back again, it’s always fun to see them. Lamb of God returning and of course, Slaughter to Prevail stepping up for the first time in one of the top slots.
I think Slaughter to Prevail will do really well. They’re going to be doing a few shows across Europe next year and it’s sort of their time to get onto the stage and do something special.
That goes on to our next question nicely. We were just going to ask, how important do you think it is to push new bands into that slot and to keep elevating new talent into that headliner position?
I think it’s critical yeah. If we look over the last few years at all the bands that have kind of said, that’s it we’re done and we aren’t going to be touring anymore. It’s important that where we sit within the festival world that we promote these new bands to headliners and get them ready for the Downloads and Wackens and events like that. So we’re doing our part and they’re deserving of those slots.
You’ve definitely helped elevate alot of bands we’ve seen here over the years. Parkway Drive, Sabaton, bands like that who’ve all stepped up a notch to take on the main stage here and it’s really pushed them further into bigger stadium tours afterwards.
We’ve definitely seen that too, we had Sleep Token just a few years ago, we’ve had Parkway, Ghost and Gojira over the last twenty years gone by and all these bands have been stepping up and going beyond since as well, which is great.
Yeah, like you mentioned. With some of the old guard starting to hang it up now, the scene really needs that push forwards that you’re giving some of those bands.
It needs that injection of new talent. You know, the talent’s there it just needs that pedestal to shine and showcase who they are.
Totally. We see you’re picking up the baton from Download and working with the Heavy Metal Truants next year too?
Yeah, that’s fantastic you know. We’re really excited about that. That baton has been passed over from Download to us now and we’ll do what can do to generate the buzz and the hype around that and make it as special as it can be and turning twenty five years old next year as we will be. It’s a great opportunity to do something cool.
As well as going into your twenty fifth year next year, you’re also branching out a little with the Bloodstock Winter Gathering in December too.
Winter Gathering yeah, you know that’s sort of a throwback to the indoor originally when we had that at Assembly Rooms. It’s a one day show with a few great bands and we’re trying to make it as close to the old days of Bloodstock as we can do. We’ll see how that goes, it’s selling really well. There’s not alot of tickets left and it’s a great end to the year and a good way to celebrate Christmas too.
Is that something you’ll look into more, branching out into smaller day festivals throughout the year?
Maybe yeah. For now let’s just do this one. We’re very big believers in doing what we do and getting it right before we expand into something else. So fingers crossed, we’ll sort of see how that goes in December and if it goes well, then we’ll look at where we can go from there.
Fantastic. Going back briefly to the anniversary line-up are there any standout bands for you, any hot tips as it were?
You know, again, I do love Slaughter to Prevail. I’m a big fan of Judas Priest, I sort of know some of the band and some of the management and they’re great people. There’s a couple of bands coming in the next announcement that I’m also super excited about but I can’t say that just yet you know, I don’t want to let anything slip though, so I’m going to stop there!
Absolutely, it’s all good! Moving on, the whole team here’s been quite heavily involved in organising and supporting the recent Lemmy tributes in Stoke and the new statue in Burslem. How does it feel to be a part of that and help represent rock history in that way?
It’s something that nobody wants to be part of. For the fact that we want the likes of Lemmy, we want the likes of Ozzy to kind of live forever don’t we. That doesn’t happen though unfortunately, so to be able to be a part of something that’s creating that level of legacy. I think is something super special. We know it’s heartfelt for everybody, not just for us at our level but all the fans at the festival and everyone that’s connected to metal and I think anybody that’s attended the memorials and tributes across the globe, we’re all part of that journey.
Definitely, we’re all part of that family together and they will all live forever through us as fans. The Ozzy tributes you guys have done this weekend have all been absolutely beautiful too.
Yeah we didn’t want to do that to where it became bandwagon jumping or anything else like that. We wanted to do something subtle, heartfelt and allow the fans to express who they are and mean something.
Following on from that, you’ve got the rock and metal history museum set up here every year, you’re obviously trying to preserve that history. Do you feel like that’s gained a new level of importance since Ozzy’s passing? Because it seems to have highlighted it for the public.
I think it has you know. We had Trivium in their last night and we’re trying to create some legacy with that. We’ve got the festival artwork going back all the way down to 2001. It’s important that that’s preserved because that’s for the future generations to sort of look back and see where the roots of metal came from. I think doing the things we have with the Ozzy tribute and the Lemmy tribute with the boss and everything else. I think it’s important that it’s preserved for future generations and as long as we’re all here we’ll keep doing it.
Definitely. Well, amazing work. That covers everything from us. Thanks again for your time and we hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Early bird tickets for Bloodstock’s 25th anniversary weekend in 2026 are selling fast but limited numbers are available now. If you can’t wait until then for your next Bloodstock experience. There’s also still a handful of tickets left for this years Winter Gathering event too. Which is set to take place on December 6th at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton.
For more information on Bloodstock you can head over to the festivals official website. Or, if you want to keep an eye out for the next batch of bands to join the roster for 2026, you can give them a follow via social media.
