Sonisphere Festival – Knebworth 2009

This weekend I had the pleasure of shooting one of the UK’s biggest and best rock festivals… Sonisphere. It’s the first year of the festival so many readers may not be familiar with the name but the site of the festival is Knebworth House which has played host to legendary concerts by Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Queen and..errr… Robbie Williams.

This weekend saw more legendary bands perform over two days and, although the weather on Saturday put a real dampener on things, I had a great weekend with friends and fellow photographers.

I decided to arrive a little late on the Saturday but still managed to shoot a few bands, beginning with one of the most entertaining bands around, Airbourne..

They were followed, on the main stage, by Heaven & Hell featuring the godfathers of heavy metal Ronnie James Dio and Tony Iommi.

Coheed & Cambria missed their ferry and arrived late, leading to them missing their main stage set and playing later in a packed tent.

Stage 2 was headlined by Bullet For My Valentine.

And Saturday was rounded off with the biggest selling artists of the decade (no, really!), Linkin Park.

While they were on I popped back to the tent to catch some punk rock chaos care of the highly attractive Fucked Up (sorry Mom, that’s what they’re called!).

My favourite thing about this photo is the random guy in the crowd with the gas mask!

And I even stayed to catch a little of the last ever gig by Thunder.

After a nice, comfy night in a local B&B, followed by a full English breakfast, Sunday began in the sunshine with the legendary Killing Joke.

A blast from my school days – Saxon.

Lamb. Of. God.

And the mighty Mastodon.

Machine Head.

Robb had a message for Limp Bizkit..

And Fred Durst replied..

Limp Bizkit were awful but at least they made an effort…

My personal highlight of the weekend – Alice In Chains.

The view from the crowd.

Slipknot & Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor played an acoustic set in the Bohemia Tent on Sunday afternoon which saw the tent so packed that security stopped letting people in.

Sunday evening saw the last ever UK gig by one of my favourite bands…. Nine Inch Nails.

I have to say it wasn’t one of their best sets but a poor NIN set is still far better than most bands’ best gigs.

I was surprised how good Avenged Sevenfold were and they were great to photograph too.

The festival was closed by the biggest metal band of all time… METALLICA

That’s legendary rock photographer Ross Halfin shooting in the background.

Sonisphere was a great festival and I look forward to Sonisphere 2010. Thanks to Louise from Terrorizer for helping to sort the photo passes for me. You rock!