{"id":54365,"date":"2025-08-08T11:25:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/54365\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T11:25:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T11:25:14","slug":"bloodstock-metal-festival-pays-tribute-to-ozzy-osbourne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/54365\/","title":{"rendered":"Bloodstock metal festival pays tribute to Ozzy Osbourne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Susie Rack<\/p>\n

BBC News, West Midlands<\/p>\n

Becky Measures & Sian Filcher<\/p>\n

BBC Radio Derby<\/p>\n

\"GettyGetty Images<\/p>\n

About 20,000 attend the festival each year<\/p>\n

The first large-scale gathering of metal fans since the funeral of Ozzy Osbourne is taking place on farmland on the Derbyshire\/Staffordshire border.<\/p>\n

The Bloodstock festival at Catton Hall, Walton-on-Trent, runs from Thursday to Sunday and attracts about 20,000 people each year.<\/p>\n

This year’s four-day event is paying tribute to Ozzy with a 17m (55.7ft) banner by the main stage where fans can leave messages of condolence.<\/p>\n

Festival director Vicky Hungerford said metal fans were all in mourning, adding: “We want people to show respect, leave their messages. It’s hit the metal community incredibly hard.”<\/p>\n

She said a number of tributes to the Birmingham metal legend had been planned over the course of the festival.<\/p>\n

A customised Black Sabbath motorbike<\/a> will be on display, as well as Black Sabbath-themed artwork.<\/p>\n

“Ozzy was one of us, the founding father of heavy metal,” she said. “Without Ozzy, without Lemmy, you wouldn’t have the bands of today.”<\/p>\n

Fans have flocked to write their own messages on the banner in dedication to the Black Sabbath frontman.<\/p>\n

One said: “Thank you Ozzy for helping to create the religion that is heavy metal. We miss you.”<\/p>\n

Adam Gregory, one of the festival directors, told the BBC: “Everyone describes it like being at home. The fans are absolutely lovely, very polite and engaging, and they look forward to this throughout the year. <\/p>\n

“It’s their holiday, for a lot of people.<\/p>\n

“Generally they’re the nicest people you’ll ever meet. It’s just a great place to be around.”<\/p>\n

Speaking about the impact of the death of Osbourne on the festival, Mr Gregory said: “I think a lot of people want to celebrate Ozzy, it’s not about being upset and miserable, it’s about celebrating the legacy of an icon.”<\/p>\n

\"White<\/p>\n

People wrote tributes to Ozzy Osbourne on the dedicated banner by the main stage<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tributes thanked Ozzy Osbourne for helping to create heavy metal<\/p>\n

A bust containing former Motorhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister’s ashes<\/a> and a portrait of the singer is also there for fans to see.<\/p>\n

The Burslem-born singer was “integral” to Bloodstock, the director said. “The ashes and the bust will be there every single year… He’ll always be there, overseeing the festival.”<\/p>\n

The event boasts a total of 120 acts across four stages, with the main stage headlined by Trivium, Machine Head, and Gojira on successive nights.<\/p>\n

Fairground rides, competitive food challenges and organised bin-jousting, where rivals clinging to large wheelie bins lids are hurled toward one another by supporters, will also provide additional light relief.<\/p>\n

\"PAPA Media<\/p>\n

Tens of thousands of people travelled to Birmingham last month to see Ozzy’s funeral cortege<\/p>\n

\"BBC\/KevinBBC\/Kevin Reide<\/p>\n

Lemmy Kilmister, the lead singer of Motorhead who died in 2015, is “integral” to the festival<\/p>\n

Ms Hungerford added environmental initiatives were once again at the heart of the festival, with a cup recycling scheme and music-lovers urged to pick up litter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Susie Rack BBC News, West Midlands Becky Measures & Sian Filcher BBC Radio Derby Getty Images About 20,000…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54366,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-54365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54365\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}