BLOODSTOCKers! The big 25th Anniversary celebrations are here, and there’s no shortage of ways to get involved – whether you’re pedaling, gaming, or just feeling lucky. You can even join in if you’re not at BLOODSTOCK!

Heavy Metal Truants: The “Ed To Ed” Challenge

While the HMT crew makes their epic ride to Catton Park starting today (follow them here), you can get in on the action without breaking a sweat on the road. If you’re at BLOODSTOCK, head to the HMT tent in the main arena and hop on a static bike to see how fast you can generate enough real electricity to boil water – kids are racing to 5ml, adults to 10ml (a hand crank is available for differently-abled participants).

It’s a £5 donation to the charity to take part, and every participant walks away with a cool HMT sticker. The fastest of each pair of challengers snags an HMT pin badge, hourly leaderboard champs earn 5 raffle entries (worth £20), and whoever posts the fastest time of the entire weekend bags a massive 50 free entries (worth £100)! Multiple attempts are welcome and records can be broken throughout the weekend, but no additional participation prizes we’re afraid… one each!

The HMT Charity Raffle 

Fancy walking away with something truly special? This awesome raffle is stacked, including:

• 2x Marshall Willen Cream Bluetooth Speakers
• 1x Signed Dixxon T-shirt
• 1x Killers Eddie Diorama
• 1x Dave Murray 50th Anniversary Fender Guitar, signed by Iron Maiden themselves
• 1x Pair of The Wristbands Of Destiny (2 VIP Weekend Tickets to Bloodstock for the next 10 years!)

Want to see that Dave Murray guitar in the flesh before you (hopefully) win it? It’s on display in the RAM Gallery all weekend.

Tickets: £5 for 1, £20 for 5, £35 for 10, £65 for 25, £100 for 50. 

There are 2 ways in which you can buy your stake throughout the weekend (excluding the HMT trail): 

• Online at HMT at BLOODSTOCK OPEN AIR! – GiveWheel (website will be live from Wednesday 5th August – Sunday 9th August – you do not have to be at BLOODSTOCK to enter the raffle!).
• In-person at the HMT Tent from one of the HMT volunteers.

Winners are drawn live at 19:00 on Sunday 9th August (and texted/emailed) – if you’re on-site, come collect at the HMT Tent; otherwise, they’ll follow up with you the following week to arrange delivery.

Scan Computers x BattleRigs: A Beast of a Machine 

It’s no secret that those behind the scenes at Bloodstock are fans of all things gaming, from the highly popular gaming arena to the gaming characters fancy dress themes, which means there’s a very likely chance you are too. To celebrate both BLOODSTOCK‘s 25th and Scan’s 40th year in tech, Scan Computers and BattleRigs have built one seriously brutal, one-off custom gaming PC – designed exclusively for BLOODSTOCK and then one lucky winner. Under the hood:

• AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D 8 Core AM5 CPU/Processor
• Gigabyte AMD B850 AORUS ELITE Wi-Fi 7 ATX Motherboard
• CORSAIR Vengeance RGB Grey 32GB 6000MHz Dual Profile DDR5 Memory Kit
• Kioxia Exceria PLUS G4 1TB M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe 3D BiCS SSD/Solid State Drive
• Gigabyte AORUS AMD Radeon RX 9070 XT ELITE Graphics Card
• be quiet! Pure Power 13 M 1000W 80PLUS Gold Fully Modular ATX 3.1 PSU / Power Supply
• be quiet! Light Loop RGB All-In-One 360mm Intel/AMD CPU Water Cooler, Black
• be quiet! Pure Base 501 DX Tempered Glass Window Black RGB Mid Tower PC 

Sam Hibbert, Head of Pro Gaming at Scan, says: “Having just celebrated our own 40th anniversary, we’re thrilled to support Bloodstock Festival in its 25th year. Music has always been closely connected to gaming, so we’re excited to be giving Bloodstock attendees the opportunity to experience the awesome design and breathtaking performance of our 3XS Systems gaming PCs during the festival.”

Enter online via the Bloodstock Giveaway or in person at the Gaming Arena all weekend.

The Gaming Arena 

If the escapism of being in a field full of your best friends, musical heroes, and strangers dressed as Jesus in a banana costume wasn’t enough, the gaming tent has you covered even further. Scan will be bringing the best in PC gaming to Bloodstock, with 6 gaming PCs (specs below) powered by AMD and KIOXIA, each running with 4K 43-inch iiyama monitors. Festival goers will be able to get hands-on with the latest AAA titles as well as fan favourites each day throughout the weekend.

Gaming PCs at the fest:

• Scan 3XS ARC RX – CPU : 7800X3D / GPU : AMD 9070 GRE | SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Scan 3XS Edge – CPU : 9800X3D / GPU : AMD 9070 GRE | SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Scan 3XS Lignum – CPU : 9850X3D / GPU : AMD 9070 GRE | SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Scan 3XS Vengeance RX (M3Amb) – CPU : AMD 9850X3D / GPU : 9070 XT : SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Scan 3XS Vengeance Air – CPU : 9850X3D / GPU : 9070 XT : SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Scan 3XS Helios RX – CPU : 9950X3D / GPU : 9070 XT : SSD Storage: Kioxia 1TB G4 Exceria
• Monitors : iiyama 4K 43inch GMaster RED EAGLE 
• ASUS & Corsair peripherals

Scan specialises in gaming PCs, pro audio, pro video, AI and robotics – if you want to visit and get your full geek on, their store near Bolton (just off the M61) also houses Bolton’s largest pro audio and instrument showroom.

Win even more prizes!

It really wouldn’t be a birthday party without even more prizes! Music to our ears, Scan are also offering up a serious haul for guitarists worth more than £2k!

• Legator Ghost Super Shred 7-String Guitar
• IK Multimedia TONEX Pedal
• IK Multimedia TONEX Royal 45 Legends signature collection
• A year’s worth of Ernie Ball strings (24 sets)
• Ernie Ball Fret wrap
• Ernie Ball Jacquard strap (winner’s choice of design)
• Ernie Bal strap blocks (winner’s choice of colour)
• Ernie Ball Mute Noodles
• Ernie Ball Everlast or Prodigy Picks
• Ernie Ball guitar hanger
• Ernie Ball tool kit
• Ernie Ball instrument care polish kit
• Ernie Ball ProTune USB-C rechargeable clip-on tuner
• Ernie Ball Classic Eagle T-shirt

To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is sign up to Scan’s Pro Audio mailing list. Head here for more info. The competition closes at 12.00pm Monday 10th August. Please note, UK entrants-only.

Stage Times

Stage times for this weekend’s shenanigans are now live on the official Bloodstock app. The map and stage times will be viewable without internet or strong signal, so make sure you have that downloaded before you arrive!

Bloodstock 2027

We’re already looking ahead to BLOODSTOCK 2027! Mark your calendar now and start planning for August 5th – 8th, 2027. If you want to be first to know 27 bands playing next year’s event, don’t miss Friday evening’s announcement at the Ronnie James Dio stage immediately after MUNICIPAL WASTE!

As for TICKETS FOR 2027… Early bird standard weekend tickets will be available at the main entrance box office throughout the festival, priced £210.00 with no booking fee. Once they’re gone (and there’s a high chance these will sell out on site), the price rises to £235 plus booking fee, with general on-sale kicking off on Monday 10th August at 9am – so grabbing your early bird at the festival could save you a cool £34 per ticket. VIP and Campervan tickets will go on sale on Wednesday 12th August at 9am. See the website for details of all ticket types and packages available.

BLOODSTOCK’s 25th anniversary is going to be truly unforgettable.

BLOODSTOCK 2026 is delighted to present RJD headliners LAMB OF GOD, SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL, JUDAS PRIEST, and SAXON. Sophie Lancaster stage headliners will be CRYPTOPSY (None So Vile 30-year anniversary set), WEDNESDAY 13, LEPROUS, and CARPENTER BRUT. You’ll also be able to see BODY COUNT, SEPULTURA, MUNICIPAL WASTE, DEATH ANGEL, TESTAMENT, NORTHLANE, BLEED FROM WITHIN, VENDED, ORBIT CULTURE, THE SCRATCH, IMPERIAL AGE, LIFE OF AGONY, OF MICE & MEN, BIOHAZARD, 200 STAB WOUNDS, THE HELL, BLACK SPIDERS, SHINING, NEVERMORE, EVIL SCARECROW, HEAVYSAURUS, SKYND, PARTY CANNON, BATTLESNAKE, INHUMAN NATURE, KITTIE, CASTLE RAT, GRAPHIC NATURE, BOOTYARD BANDITS, EXCREMENTORY GRINDFUCKERS, HIDDEN INTENT, SELLSWORD, NECKBREAKKER, SEETHING AKIRA, HAMMER, STAMPIN GROUND, URNE, CELESTIAL SANCTUARY, THROWN INTO EXILE, VIKING SKULL, BOUND IN FEAR, IMPERIUM, FROGLORD, MUSHROOMHEAD, DREAM STATE, TRIVAX, MANTIS DEFEATS JAGUAR, BLOOD COUNTESS, GURT, OUTERGODS, FLAYED DISCIPLE, NOISEPICKER, ACID THRONE, ALUNAH, VOID BELOW, TEMPLES ON MARS, CONCRETE AGE, THRASHERWOLF, IMPERIAL DEMONIC, CHAINED SAINT, IMBRIUM, OVERPOWER, UNTAMED SILENCE, CHANGE PERSONA, AFTER SMOKE CLEARS, SOULRIDE, VANITAS, GOAT MAJOR, CANCEL THE TRANSMISSION, TEMPEST SAINT, TROLLMOTHER, DOSED, STITCHED, WREX, FOLLOWING THE SIGNS, THE CARTOON CARTEL, AETHORIA and more. See the full lineup at the official website.

For the most up to date festival information, visit the official website at bloodstock.uk.com.

BLOODSTOCK 2026 takes place at Catton Park, Derbyshire on 6th – 9th August, 2026.