Top Ten Rock and Metal Festivals 2010: UK

Rock Lifestyle loves live music, and festivals are what we do best! If you want to find us this summer, follow your ears and head towards the wailing guitars, crashing drums and brutal vocals.

This is our list of the very best rock and metal festivals the UK has to offer this summer. Warm beer, sweaty bodies, dodgy sunburn and massive bands are sure to make this a year to remember.

If you’re going to go to even just one festival this year, make it one of these.

P.S. Don’t worry America, we haven’t forgotten about you! Keep your eyes peeled for the next in our series.

Reading/Leeds Festival

This rock festival seems like it’s been around forever (well, since the ‘70s anyway!), but Reading and Leeds have slowly been slipping in to the ‘pop-music-over-rock-music’ trap for some time now.

This year’s festival however is far and away the heaviest in a long while, with Blink-182 making their come back, Limp Bizkit supporting their latest record and bands like A Day To Remember, NOFX and Lostprophets further bolstering a far more ‘rock’ line-up.

For all those of you who are used to spending at least two days of your festival in the darkness of the ‘Lock Up’ tent be prepared to spend a lot more time at the main stage this year!

The festival will take place between the 27^th to the 29^th August.

Click here to grab Reading Festival Tickets and here for Leeds Festival Tickets.

Download Festival

Hollywood Undead get the crowd going at Download

The definitive UK metal festival for a good while now, Download is still pulling in crowds and getting great bands up on stage. This year will see the reunited Rage Against The Machine taking to the mainstage as headliners, as well as Aerosmith, AC/DC, Bullet For My Valentine and 30 Seconds to Mars all showing up too.

With so many bands present, if you like rock and metal you’re undoubtedly going to find something to keep you amused at any given moment!

Download Festival will take place at Donnington Park between the 11^th and 13^th June. For tickets, click here.

Sonisphere Festival

Sonisphere

The up and coming new pretender on the UK (and European) metal festival scene, Sonisphere has been taking customers away from Download Festival for quite some time now with good reason!

With at least six stages over three days and over 140 bands, including headliners Rammstein and Iron Maiden, this is most certainly an essential summer road trip.

Sonisphere will hit Knebworth between 30^th July and 1^st August.

Click here to grab Sonisphere Festival Tickets.

Bloodstock Open Air 2010

Apocalyptica play Bloodstock

This year will mark the tenth Bloodstock Open Air, famed for its very heavy metal line-ups.

Taking place between 13^th to 15^th August up in Walton-on-Trent, Derbyshire, this year has Meshuggah, Children of Bodom and Twisted Sister as the mainstage headliners.

Click here to grab Bloodstock Open Air 2010 Tickets.

Slam Dunk Festival

If pop-punk is your thing, this is the festival for you.

Capdown will be reforming for a one-off reunion which is something not to be missed. On top of that, bands from both the UK and the States will be rocking the life out of Leeds, London, Bournemouth and Liverpool.

Over here at Rock Lifestyle we’ve been ranting and raving about it all year long and with over seven stages packed with great bands for less than the cost of a few decent albums, this is almost certainly the ‘best value’ pick of our list.

Slam Dunk Festival 2010 will be taking place between the 28^th and 31^st May.

Click here to get tickets.

2000Trees Festival

Music + Countryside = 2000Trees Festival

Now we’re not going to lie, but when we first heard about the 2000Trees Festival we were a little sceptical about putting it in our list. Being a ‘green’, ‘ethical’ festival is all well and good, but when you use it as one of your main selling points, aren’t you somewhat slipping away from the focus, which should be the music?

Well, we shouldn’t have worried! 2000Trees have pulled it off; a guilt free festival with a more than adequately awesome line-up. With the recently interviewed Frank Turner (check it out here if you haven’t already) headlining and bands like Sonic Boom Six, The Xcerts, Future of the Left and The Subways also on the bill, this looks like it will be something special.

2000Trees Festival will take place between the 16^th and 17^th July near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.

Offset festival

Small but perfectly formed - Offset Festival

Formed back in 2008 as a reaction to overpriced festivals, Offset is a small event held at the Hainault Forest Country Park on the 4^th and 5^th September. It may have lots of artists you’ve never heard of, but we’re sure you’ll come away with a long list of new favourite bands.

Click here if you fancy seeing something rather different all for around £65.

High Voltage Festival

ELP will headline this year's High Voltage Festival

If you’re much more in to your classic and prog rock rather than all this modern nonsense, then this is the festival for you. Headliners this year include ZZ Top, Foreigner and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, but have no fear however if you’re more in to the new guys; Down, Opeth and Clutch amongst others will be blasting out their songs on the Hammer Stage.

Click here to grab some tickets to High Voltage Festival which takes place on the 24^th and 25^th July in London’s Victoria Park.

Hevy Festival

If you live anywhere south-east of London, love rock and metal but can’t be bothered to travel hundreds and hundreds of miles to see a festival, Hevy is for you!

Taking place at the Port Lympne Wild Animal Park, Kent between the 6^th and 8^th August, Hevy Festival is to the bottom right of the UK what Download Festival is to the middle.

Headliners include Gallows, Glassjaw and Sepultura with the weekend being nicely rounded off by extreme sports displays and what the organisers are saying will be ‘exhilarating thrill rides’ (essentially they’ve gone to town on the fun fair!).

Click here for your tickets.

Also Consider: Glastonbury Festival 2010

Glasto used to be essential rock and roll fare, but these days it’s turned in to a bit of a pop-fest to say the least.

We’ve popped it in the list for a few reasons… Firstly, it’s got an enormous number of artists showing up, so there has to be something suitable, and secondly it has so much significance as a festival that surely you have to go at least once.

With acts like Muse, Alabama 3 and Billy Bragg all playing, it’s worth a trip, even if it is a much more pop focussed festival than it used to be.

Click here if you want tickets info for Glastonbury Festival 2010 which is taking place in Shepton Mallet, Somerset between the 23^rd and 27^th June.

It’s quite a drive to some of these festivals!

Why not check out our featured list…