12. Flogging Molly - Ronnie James Dio Stage - Sunday, August 11th 2024

Now Celtic punk mainstays, Flogging Molly may well seem a little bit of a left of centre choice. But that's before you realise that lead vocalist and founder Dave King used to ply his trade in Fastway, what Fast Eddie did next after Lemmy kicked him out of Motorhead. So that tenuous connection definitely makes them Bloodstock material. Imagine if The Pogues had a dirty grubby one night stand with the aforementioned Motorhead, this is what the offspring would sound like. For all our incessant gatekeeping, we do like a bit of jiggery-pokery at Bloodstock (Ferocious Dog went down a storm) and Flogging Molly give us that vitriolic adrenaline shot most of us will desperately need come late Sunday afternoon.

So raise a glass of the black stuff and prepare yourself to swing your partner (or even an unsuspecting stranger) around like you just don't care. This will be the moment we put aside all our genre biases and fake affiliations and bond over the fact that good music is good music no matter what it is or who makes it. It will be an exuberant feelgood spectacular that proves that Irish folk is as punk as anything.