The biggest underground metal festival in the world, Bloodstock Open Air kicks off today. Headlined by titans of metal like Judas Priest, Nightwish, and Gojira, the festival has grown over the years from a small cottage enterprise to a huge undertaking. One of the lynchpins of the operation is Vicky Hungerford, as one of the four directors of the festival. She is directly responsible for booking the bands on the fest and attracting world-class talent every year. Thus, she helps to shape rock and metal history in the process year in and year out. We chatted with Vicky by phone a few days ago to get her take on BOA 2018, the challenges of planning such a big festival, and much more.
Congrats on another great looking lineup! Every time I think that you can’t top the last years’ lineup, somehow you always do.
Thanks! It’s a labor of love to be fair. I think about it from the beginning of the year when we start thinking about future fests and the what the fans want to see. Fingers crossed, we’ve never let them down yet.
The line up is really deep this year, not just the headliners like Judas Priest, Nightwish, and Gojira.
Absolutely. Nightwish has a bit of history with us. They were one of the first bands we’ve ever had in 2003 when we were an indoor festival. They had never played the UK before and we brought them over to the UK and they sold out the venue. There is a lot of history and love for Nightwish, not just for Nightwish, but for their UK fans. So to have them as the headliner this year, with Floor (Jansen) fronting the band, which is incredible, it seemed like a no-brainer.
How far in advance do you begin planning the next festival? Before the upcoming one begins?
Oh way before. For this round, I am looking at bands now for 2020, as well as 2019. We start about eighteen months ahead of the next event. So we’re already well into the booking process for 2019.
That sounds incredibly difficult.
It is! Obviously, you haven’t had your event yet, and you are not only planning this year but the one after it. You are trying to see with some of these little bands, which one of these little bands in eighteen months could possibly be the next headliner. So there is a lot of work to do when you are looking that far in advance.
I imagine there is a lot of cooperation needed at every level of bands and their ecosystems to be able to forecast some of these things, that lead to a booking.
You have to be able to predict when they are going to be touring, what is their next album cycle like, when they’re going to be in the studio. They have rough ideas, they are literally rough ideas, and you’re trying to pin them down. These are hard tasks. Even with the managers, agents, the record labels, the bands, booking agents; you are making sure they all tied in together.
Bloodstock always does a great job representing diversity and all the different sub-genres under the sun. How do you use the sub-genres as a guide to building the fest?
You gotta have diversity. Not so much certain genres and subcultures. Heavy metal is heavy metal. Metal is metal. We have bands that are “pirate metal”. Really? Alestorm is an example of that. They are just a great metal band to me.
Alestorm is a prime example of where people’s tastes are heading. They are great on their own, and can actually play with any type of metal band and be enjoyed by most fans.
Once you’ve had something a bit heavy or dark, they are really a perfect band to come out on stage after.
The Sophie Stage is such a cultural milestone now, adding more significance to the festival. We don’t often see a music festival highlight something this important to all fans, not just metalheads.
It was a devastating incident where a young girl was killed just for the way she looked, by some brutes, just for protecting her boyfriend. You should be able to look the way you want to look and not be persecuted or attacked for it. We need to respect everybody. We need heavier laws for this. Whatever your scene, you should always feel safe. We’re all here to be there for each other. Sophie’s mum and brother attend every year. They have been to Parliament to try and enact better laws to protect people.
We have a lot of people come to the festival with a lot of mental health issues such as anxiety, stress, and depression, things like that. From that aspect, to bring awareness of this, it’s a hell of a lot more important than what band is on any stage. It is a horrible story, something that people should look into and it’s easy to see why festivals like us are here to protect the scene.
Besides the bands, do you have a favorite entertainment feature?
When you are catering to 20,000 fans that may not want to watch bands every single second. We have the Strongman Contest all three days of the event. They are the UK and European finals. If you want to have a bite to eat and a beer and sit and watch something sporting for a little while in the arena, this is a great choice. You can watch some people lift some very heavy stuff, and it’s great. We have some big guys and women participating, so it’s great! It’s great for everybody.
Do you anticipate another sell out this year?
We sold out the VIP in the first few weeks this year. The weekend we anticipate selling out the weekend. From that perspective it’s great. And the thing is, we’ve sold an extra 5,000 plus tickets this year than we sold last year.
Is there a band you have always wanted to book, but haven’t yet?
I hate to say this, but I don’t think it will happen. I would love to book Manowar. I’ve spoken to Joey (DeMaio) many times, been on the phone many times. I just don’t think we’ll come to an agreement with them. But I would love to book Manowar. They are a great live band.
Well, all the Manowarriors will have to keep their fingers crossed. In the meantime, you could get Ross The Boss! They have a terrific new album and they are playing a lot of the Manowar hits on tour.
Oh we love Ross The Boss! We’ve had him here twice and we would love to have him again.
Thanks for your time. Take care!
Tickets are still available to Bloodstock at www.bloodstock.uk.com
KEITH CHACHKES