The Wildhearts set for Bloodstock Open Air

The Wildhearts (Image credit: Graphite Records)

Bloodstock organisers have confirmed today that following Code Orange’s summer tour cancellation, The Wildhearts (opens in new tab) will take their place at next month’s festival.

Bloodstock will take place at Catton Park, Derbyshire, UK, on August 8-11, with SabatonScorpions and Parkway Drive headlining this year, while artists including Anthrax, Soulfly, Dimmu Borgir, Children Of Bodom, Tesseract, Dee Snider and Cradle Of Filth will also play.

The Wildhearts will play on the Ronnie James Dio main stage on the Saturday, with frontman Ginger saying: “I am over the fucking moon to be playing Bloodstock. I’ve been waiting for this for years. I always said that the first time I attended Bloodstock, I want to be on the bill. What a way to lose your cherry!”

Organizers also report that Shvpes have had to cancel their planned appearance. They’ll be replaced by Lotus Eater, while Pemphigoid, Black Falcon, Crimson Tusk and Jackal's Backbone have all been announced today.

Metal 2 The Masses has been another success this year, with the next batch of artists from the competition also announced.

Death By Ki, Gaia, Xero, Midnight Prophecy, Grief Ritual, Voltunas, Empire Warning, Voidlurker, Stormcast, Fractions and Leadrobot will all play on the New Blood Stage over the weekend.

Visit the Bloodstock website to find out more about this year’s festival.

(Image credit: Bloodstock Open Air)
Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers and magazines as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. After initially joining our news desk in the summer of 2014, he moved to the e-commerce team full-time in 2020. He maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott grew up listening to rock and prog, cutting his teeth on bands such as Marillion and Magnum before his focus shifted to alternative and post-punk in the late 80s. His favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Ned's Atomic Dustbin and Drab Majesty, but he also still has a deep love of Rush.