On 21st July, tens of thousands of Yungblud fans, collectively known as the ‘Black Hearts Club’, gathered from all over the world at Milton Keynes Bowl to experience the second ever BLUDFEST. With promises to be “bigger and better” than last year’s iteration, it definitely did not disappoint.
In addition to over a dozen artists performing across the day, the arena hosted a scaled-down version of Camden, with the village having its very own Hawley Arms pub, along with a tattoo studio, a Gibson guitar shop, and a preview store of Yungblud’s own clothing brand, ‘B.R.A.T’. Beyond the main arena, the ‘Yungblud Village’ offered even more to do; an exhibition all about the artist himself, a fairground named ‘The Donny Fair’, alongside a skating ramp, and a ‘Production Futures’ stand, providing attendees with a behind-the-scenes look at how the festival came to be. Last but certainly not least, the ‘Make a Friend Tent’ provided attendees with activities such as making friendship bracelets, embroidering patches, and taking photos together in a booth, all with the aim of enhancing an already very strong and supportive community.
The day got fully underway on the main stage with Elín Hall, an Icelandic artist known for her unique way of storytelling through mixing reality with fantasy. Her set welcomed the crowd to the festival with a dreamy and spacey soundscape, assisted by her band, coming from Sweden and the UK. Hall explained that her “whole shtick” is about being ‘sad and delusional‘, writing songs ‘about being a terrible lover‘, all whilst successfully making us fall in love with her other-worldly vocals.
Shortly after, Nxdia stormed the stage, amping up the crowd with their infectious energy and pure joy to be performing, as they exclaimed “hello, hi, this is so cute what the hell”. The Egyptian-Sudanese singer-songwriter went on to explain that their vibe is “super edgy and cool”, adding that their bilingual English and Arabic lyrics might confuse some. Despite this, they made sure to make people feel included in their set, asking to play “a little game” with the crowd, in which we booed various people who have done us wrong in past-doings, consequently leading into their track ‘Boo, Nevermind’. This participation and interaction was continued throughout their performance whilst they played ‘Feel Anything’, described by themselves to be “a manic-depressive episode in about two minutes”. Concluding their set with ‘She Likes a Boy’, Nxdia questioned “if this is how some of you are finding out I’m gay […] your gaydar was off”, providing some humour to an otherwise heartbreaking song subject.
Nobody in the audience left after this as Luvcat was next to grace the main stage; described to be ‘the singer bringing back mystery and smoky romance to music’, she possessed a perplexing allure. With an unconventional upbringing in a Parisian circus, it comes to no surprise that her lyrics are drawn from a range of fascinating experiences in her love life. Performing tracks such as ‘Alchemy’, a tale of how she was “whisked off to Paris by handsome stranger”, ending up “in the back of a police car”, and ‘He’s My Man’, explained to be a “murder ballad all about a bored housewife poisoning her husband”, Luvcat’s theatrical flair and enchanting vocals truly had the audience spellbound.
It was then over to stage two, where Karma! cover star Nieve Ella was confronted with the hottest part of the day, facing directly into the beaming sun. Serious props go to both her and her band for delivering immaculate vibes and nonstop liveliness throughout the set. It was clear that Nieve genuinely believed in BLUDFEST as she declared “this is an amazing festival, you guys are in for a treat”, later adding that she has “a lot to thank for the Yungblud team” as they have helped her out on her journey since she was 18 years old. Her set included indie-pop-rock tracks ‘Sweet Nothings’, ‘Car Park’, and ‘Ganni Top (She Gets What She Needs)’ which all saw the crowd jumping and reciting the lyrics, completely matching the upbeat energy radiating from the stage.
Following, Peach PRC gave us one hell of a performance, and who, despite being an “Aussie girl” that “should be able to handle” the heat, was “struggling” to deal with it being so warm. After singing electro-pop tracks ‘Perfect for You’, ‘Blondes’ and ‘Secret’, backed by two dancers dressed in pink tassels and spangles, she treated the crowd to an unreleased song, asking them to “party hard” in return as they obviously did not know the words yet. Mid-way through her set she left the stage saying she was “going off to do something else fun”, revealed after an eerie short video clip to be a performative pole dancing piece which was undoubtedly entertaining.
Closing the second stage was Rachel Chinouriri, who unbeknownst to me had never headlined a stage at a festival before. Her hip-swaying, head-bopping songs, written as learnings from her “late teens to early 20’s”, involve past trauma and explores how she has come to learn self-acceptance. Rachel successfully got the whole crowd moving with a 2-step dance to the beat of ‘It Is What It Is’, and left us with the lasting message that “love is the one thing that has no currency”, as presented beautifully in her song ‘So My Darling’. Her deeply relatable lyrics and catchy melodies accompanied by the sheer amount of crowd interactions, returning hand hearts and waves, makes it understandable why she has such a dedicated fan-base.
To finish off the day the crowds flocked back over to the main stage, in anticipation for what was to come of Yungblud‘s set. As the jumbotrons on either side of the stage finish reeling off ‘Hello’ in many different languages, out walked the man himself, head to toe in black leather. When he opened his performance with nine-minute long ‘Hello Heaven, Hello’ the fans eagerly sang the lyrics, word-for-word, as if they had waited their whole life for this moment to come. His set saw a number of other new songs off of his album ‘Idols’, released a day before the festival, namely ‘Lovesick Lullaby’, ‘The Greatest Parade’, and ‘Change’, in which he was accompanied by his band as well as a full orchestra. Alongside these, we got to hear a number of fan favourites including ‘Cotton Candy’, ‘Parents’, and ‘Fleabag’, where a fan called Thomas got to play the guitar on stage.
It was beyond question how much with fans simply showing up at BLUDFEST meant to Yungblud, as he declared “holy shit, I have missed you […] my fucking family”, later on adding that this new era has “been the biggest change” in his life but with that, the Black Hearts Club has been his “heartbeat”, his “spirit”, and his “fucking soul”, “no matter what” has come and what may come. Towards the end of his performance, Yungblud explained that the festival will always have an “icon slot”, proceeding to welcome Billy Idol so that they could perform the iconic ‘White Wedding’ together. Finishing off the song shouting “what the fuck!”, it was obvious how much Billy meant to him as someone he could aspire to be, and we can only hope that Yungblud is aware that he is in turn that ‘idol’ for a lot of his generation and more.
Before we knew it, we had reached the encore, which included ‘Loner’, with some serious pyrotechnics felt from the edge of the bowl, alongside ‘Ghosts’ and ‘I Think I’m Okay’. Finishing off an incredible day, Yungblud sung his heart out with ‘Zombie’, an emotionally charged track said to be a love letter to nurses, whilst opening up to the crowd, saying “you give me something to belong to”. With this, the lyric “you know that I can’t live without you” felt heavily directed towards the community that he has cultivated over the years, who will in a blink attend any future BLUDFEST.
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