THE HOT TOPIC
MANORFEST IS GO!
As the UK festival scene springs back to life in 2022, a new open-air event is on a mission to bring metal to the masses
WORDS: MATT MILLS
DESPITE THE PANDEMIC, the UK metal festival landscape is the most colourful it’s ever been. Download remains the tentpole, of course, booking everyone from Kiss to Heriot for a 110,000-capacity three-day blow-out. Then there’s Bloodstock, the extreme metal hub, while ArcTanGent tailors to more progressive tastes and Damnation brings the best of the underground up north. It’s a stacked and increasingly competitive market, yet it’s one that Wayne Jackson is convinced his classic metal-centric festival, ManorFest, can thrive in.
“There’s nothing out there quite like ManorFest,” says Wayne. “There’s not a festival out there, especially in the UK, that’s more designed towards the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. That’s the difference between us and Bloodstock and certainly Download.”