Sonisphere 2010. I can't wait.

Last year was something a bit different for me. I went to a music festival with a very good friend of mine whom I knew back at school... Now, this was my very first music event. I'd never been to a concert, let alone a full on festival, so obviously I was quite wary/nervous/whathaveyou.


Sonisphere was the name of this festival. It offered a great line up, quality over quantity and not as many clashes. The stages operated in a 'flip flop' system... Now I'm not going to attempt to start a Sonisphere vs Download argument, but from what I heard this is something the latter had been missing for some time. Plus with the solid line up... Wait, what was the line up? Hold on, let me think.

...

Okay, so the main stage line up from what I remember was as follows:

Saturday:
Linkin Park
Heaven And Hell
Coheed And Cambria
Anthrax
Taking Back Sunday
Bullet For My Valentine
Airbourne
The Used
Skindred

Sunday:
Metallica
Nine Inch Nails
Limp Bizkit
Machine Head
Lamb Of God
Killing Joke
Avenged Sevenfold
Alice In Chains
Feeder
Mastodon

The line up as you can see was pretty decent over the two days, and I know I missed some bands. I know Alien Ant Farm and Soil were in there somewhere, I just can't remember which days.
In the festival, I saw many bands I'd wanted to see for a while, especially Metallica, Machine Head, Linkin Park, Heaven And Hell (Dio and the key members of Black Sabbath), Limp Bizkit, Alice In Chains... It was absolutely awesome. My only complaint was that I didn't get to see Avenged Sevenfold, which sadly was The Rev's last show before he died. RIP.

Certainly, going to this festival made me want more. After going to this festival I went off to London to see Muse play at the London O2 in November, which was great in its own right. But I want another festival. I want to have a full festival experience, since last year we stayed in my friend's campervan which, admittedly, is absolute luxury compared to camping it out in a muddy field... And the camping is exactly what I'll be doing this year, having already bought tickets for Sonisphere 2010.

End of July is when it starts, and I'm really looking forward to it. The line up for this year currently is as follows:

Iron Maiden
Rammstein
Pendulum
Alice Cooper
Placebo
Motley Crue
Alice In Chains
Iggy And The Stooges
Slayer
Skunk Anansie
The Cult
Papa Roach
Apocalyptica
Anthrax
Bring Me The Horizon
Europe
Madina Lake
Dir En Grey
Soulfly
Fear Factory
Lacuna Coil
Family Force 5
Sabaton
CKY
Turisas
Delain

---Bohemia---

Bigelf
Evile
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Fightstar
Heaven's Basement
Karnivool
Katatonia
Municipal Waste
Polar Bear Club
Renegades
Rise To Remain
Rollins (Spoken Word)
Sick Of It All
Terrorvision
Therapy?
The Union

---Comedy---
Andrew O'Neill
Sean Hughes
Tim Minchin
Jarred Christmas

---Bowtime Bar ---
And So I Watch You From Afar
All Forgotten
The Bendal Interlude
Bow And Arrow
Bury Tomorrow
Chickenhawk
Deaf Havana
Failsafe
Firebug
The Ghost Of A Thousand
InMe
Inner City Dwellers
Kellermensch
Me Vs Hero
Rinoa
Tek One
While She Sleeps
The WorldOnFire


I've never heard of these bands but I will definately be seeing a lot of them, having listened to their stuff after their announcement. Of course, the bands I'm looking forward to seeing the most are Iron Maiden and Rammstein. It's going to be so good... I will be keeping this blog updated with stuff before and after I've been. Watch this space...