Bloodstock Festival 2024 – Saturday. Following on from Architects on Saturday night, Korpiklaani from Finland showed how to headline a stage. Moving over to a packed Sophie Lancaster tent, the BOA faithful were treated to seventy-five minutes of pure folk Metal mayhem.
Bloodstock Festival 2024
Catton Park, Derbyshire – Saturday 10 August 2024
Korpiklaani
Saturday night needed a party and Korpiklaani were exactly what was required. Their high-energy set was blisteringly fast from start to finish, and the circle pits were full of, well, jigging.
For those unversed with Korpiklaani, they are definitely not your typical Heavy Metal band. Utilising fiddles and accordions, the Finish folk element is a very strong part of their sound and synergy. Expect to dance more than mosh at a Korpiklaani show. This was madcap and manic and the perfect party.
The other key factor is that lyrically, they are multi-lingual, with songs sung in both English and their native Finnish, yet this does not detract from the enjoyment that this band bring. Tonight is all about kinship and the language differential was no barrier to a good time.
This was about embracing the positivity and feel-good factor that Korpiklaani brought to the stage, and the good times feelings were completely infectious. By the end of this set, everyone was entirely contagious.
The set itself was drawn from their extensive catalogue, starting with the only track, Kotomaa, from the latest album, Rankarumpu.
As well as the traditional elements that come over from Korpiklaani’s music, there is also a very clear number of drinking-related songs. But then if you are going to have a party with the Fins, then perhaps a few beers would not go amiss. That was certainly the case on Saturday night with the audience particularly well-oiled and the band reaching out to dedicate songs to the bar staff. Certainly, Wooden Pints seem to be a reasonable starting point. 
If there is one other critical component of a Korpiklaani show, it is audience participation, and with A Man With A Plan they continued the drinking theme with a simple chorus line of “Hey hey hey!” The entire Sophie tent was drawn into the mayhem, singing their heads off and leaping like loons. Following that with the madcap Happy Little Boozer, you realise very quickly that there is a very definite pattern developing here.
With a manic cover of Boney M’s Gotta Go Home, Olli Vänskä on fiddle opened up to show his dexterity on his instrument and with Sami Perttula on accordion whose fingers seemed to be a blur keeping up with the mad violinistthey created the absolute perfect musical antidote to the Death and Black Metal from earlier in the day.
You know that you’ve had a great time when the time flies, and this Saturday night, this was so much the case with the fifteen songs disappearing in no time at all.
Encoring with more drinking songs, the bonkers Beer Beer and Vodka were exactly what the Metal doctor ordered. With beer aplenty flying over the heads of the dancing hordes, midnight struck, and the band were gone.
That however did not stop the party continuing as it spread out into the camp sites for and a long and enjoyable night. A not-so-early morning followed. Utterly superb.
Bloodstock 2024 will be held over the long weekend of 8-11 August 2024. MetalTalk’s Paul Hutchings, Adrian Stonley, Paul Monkhouse and Keith Conlin will be reporting from Catton Park.
Take Part: Are you at Bloodstock this year? Who are you looking forward to seeing? Want to get in touch and tell us how it’s going? Email MetalTalk Editor Steve Ritchie to tell us how it’s going for you. Bloodstock@MetalTalk.net
#boa24. For more information, visit bloodstock.uk.com. You can view a map of Bloodstock at bloodstock.uk.com/bloodstock_map.jpg
MetalTalk Bloodstock 2024 coverage is at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2024.
You can read all the MetalTalk Bloodstock 2023 coverage at https://www.metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2023.
You can read all the MetalTalk Bloodstock 2022 coverage at metaltalk.net/tag/bloodstock-2022.
Weekend early bird tickets (Thu-Sun) for Bloodstock 2025 are available to purchase at the box office on-site for £175. Child weekend early bird’s are £45 (ages 4 -11). Mini moshers under age four can come for free.
Wednesday early access is also available for those who want to max out their Bloodstock experience – an early bird adult Wed-Sun ticket costs £200. There is no additional cost for children under 4, or aged 4-11, to arrive with a parent on Wednesday.
Bloodstock 2025 tickets can be purchased online from the official Bloodstock website.
