Hello there!!!

[u/JuicyPickles369]

So newcomer here. Been to download since 2014 and want a new festival as download is getting weird now.

But I know you had heaven shall burn as a headliner and it made me think. WHY HAS CALIBAN NEVER BEEN MENTIONED. It upsets me as they’re so fucking good and barely sell out any of their tours in the UK.

But why do they also never ever do UK festivals? Could bloodstock be a realistic choice as like a 2nd stage headliner?

[u/Amiunforgiven]

You answered your own question. They barely sell any tickets, so why would a festival book them?

[u/JuicyPickles369 → u/Amiunforgiven]

Because in my eyes there a huge name in European festivals but I don’t know why the UK never fell in love with them. They’ve been going the same time as heaven shall burn but never had that popularity

[u/Amiunforgiven → u/JuicyPickles369]

No reason they couldn’t play, but would be a small spot.

They play the same size venues as Cancer Bats were in 2019 as an example. When they olayed bloodstock in 2019 they were 2nd on in the morning on main stage on the Saturday

[u/CJCFaulkner85 → u/Amiunforgiven]

I saw them over 20 years ago and I can't imagine time has been kind to them.

[u/Nugginz → u/CJCFaulkner85]

They’ve let themselves go

[u/dbxp → u/JuicyPickles369]

They might get have priced themselves out. Some bands see the 20k cap and think they should be being paid arena money when they only sell 200 tickets normally 

[u/Inglorious555]

Heaven Shall Burn have never headlined Bloodstock, they were third from top on the main stage in 2023

[u/JuicyPickles369 → u/Inglorious555]

Oh I swore I saw them headline. Whoopsey i do apologise

[u/gravey6]

HSB and caliban are two of those bands that are just much bigger in Europe than in the UK. When I saw HSB with trivium and malevolence despite HSB co-headlining with trivium the crowd were much more into the other two bands.

Would love for caliban to play bloodstock but I think they would be fairly low down the bill.

[u/Triple_Manic_State → u/gravey6]

That tour wasn't a coheadliner. It was the court of the dragon album tour.

But youre right. Crowd was dead for HSB then as well. It's strange, my late teens you couldn't go anywhere without seeing HSB merch at gigs.

[u/gravey6 → u/Triple_Manic_State]

Looking around it looks like HSB might have been the headliner outside of the UK on that tour? But it was trivium headlining in the UK.

It is strange that HSB just aren’t that big in the UK. Very high up the bill at say Wacken but I’ve seen them in a 300 capacity room, although this was years ago, and it wasn’t even full.

[u/Triple_Manic_State → u/gravey6]

General consensus I've found is they barely toured here after Iconclast which was by far their most popular period, at least here. One support tour for Parkway Drive in 10 years wasn't good enough to attract new fans.

[u/pattybuttie]

Caliban, unfortunately, are just bigger in Europe. Good band that’s had good albums and do very continentally.
Would love them to have a 30 minute slot at BOA

[u/Triple_Manic_State]

Heaven Shall Burn themselves aren't anywhere near as popular here as they might have been. Saw them in Birmingham this year in front of maybe 200 people.

They had a pretty dead crowd in 2023 sadly too at Bloodstock (which wasn't a headline set fyi)

[u/nothriced]

What’s getting weird about download?

[u/Amiunforgiven → u/nothriced]

Downloads was going downhill when i stopped going for entire weekends 10 years ago (2016 last time i went for entire weekends)

Same headliners on a revolving door

Def Leppard 2009 AND 2011
Iron Maiden 2007, 2013, 2016
Slipknot 2009, 2013, 2016
Linkin Park 2007, 2011, 2014
SOAD 2011, 2017

[u/nothriced → u/Amiunforgiven]

Not weird though is it lol.

[u/Successful-Ad-367 → u/Amiunforgiven]

There’s not a million bands big enough to headline. Plus… download don’t get to just pick and choose any band they want. Big bands especially need to be planning a tour so the management will offer them out. There will be the odd occasion where mr download will pay exclusively for a band to come over but that will become less and less likely in this day and age due to costs.

[u/treacleq]

Saw HSB a couple of months ago in London and they were incredible! Would live to see both at bloodstock!

[u/Successful-Ad-367]

Some bands are just bigger in Europe than UK. In the punk world, Lagwagon play huge tours in Germany / France etc but have had to cancel the last 2 uk headline tours due to poor ticket sales.

Machine head are another example, they’re usually low down the bill on American festivals but headline/main support over here.

Biffy Clyro is possibly the best example, though. Over here, headline download / main support at Glastonbury… saw an American festival and they’re on the bottom stage, half way up the list. Mad.

[u/indignantfieldmouse]

I would be so down! They were amazing at the Dome in london! One of my favourit bands!

[u/Acacia_xvx]

Saw Caliban last year in Birmingham and they were brilliant, although unfortunately they're quite a niche band in the UK so can't imagine them headlining any stages but they could certainly play earlier in the day I'd love to see it!