It was a winner of the "Best Small Festival" award at the 2007 UK Festival Awards,[1] and a winner of the "Most Unique Arena" Award at the 2015 Association Of Independent Festivals (AIF) Congress.[2]
The festival was primarily pop, folk, indie, rock, and dance orientated and is attended by families as well as younger music fans.
It was announced in 2018 that Blissfields would take a year off, however it did not return, with 2017 being the final instalment of the festival.
History
The first Blissfields event was in 2001 when Paul and Mel Bliss invited a few bands to play at Bradley Farm, near Alresford. Starting with just approximately 70 attendees, Blissfields was held again in subsequent years, slowly increasing in size. In 2005, with increased health and safety concerns and licence demands, there was a charge to camp.
2007
In 2007, the festival won the "Best Small Festival" award at the UK Festival Awards .
Scouting for Girls headlined and a second stage called the Stage Bus was added. Restrictions at Bradley Farm meant that no more than 1,000 people could attend.
2008
Blissfields was to move to the Matterley Bowl near Winchester in 2008, resulting in an increase in the capacity of the festival to 4,000. On 2 June it was announced that the festival would be cancelled. There were going to be four stages, with The Wonder Stuff, The Whip and Roni Size/Reprazent headlining the Punch Bowl, the open air main stage, between 4 and 6 July.
Mumford and Sons performed as then backing band to Laura Marling for the last time following years of performing live together. The ticket capacity that year was 1,250.
The festival appeared at part of Summer Daze, a television program made for the Channel 4 network, being shown on E4, 4Music and Channel 4 itself during its T4 programming. It was also listed in The Sunday Times "top 50 music festivals" for that year.
The event was attended by 2,500 ticket buyers, with a total capacity of 4,000 people, and was listed by The Guardian as a "top 50 boutique music festival", and The Telegraph in their "top 100 festivals" for that year.
2014
The theme in 2014 was "Walk On The Wild Side" with many attendees wearing animal print during the weekend. The event also partnered with Born Free Foundation, with founder Virginia McKenna giving a speech at the event on the main stage.
Live acts included 2manydjs the live side project of producers Soulwax, Sleigh Bells, Wolf Alice, Snakehips, tUne-yArDs, Years & Years, Laurel, Dub Pistols, Hercules And Love Affair, Spector, Bipolar Sunshine, Chloe Howl, Dan Croll, Luke Sital-Singh, Nick Mulvey, Gentleman's Dub Club, Melt Yourself Down, Monki, Gypsy Disco, Ry X, Famy, Subgiant, Cosmo Sheldrake, Flyte, Gypsy Disco, TCTS, Chris T-T, Electric Swing Circus, Beans on Toast, Kyan, Johnny Flynn, Kidnap Kid, and Thumpers.
The event was included in The Guardian, Telegraph, The Mirror, Big Issue, Notion and NME's festival print coverage.
The Angel Gardens family area, in 2015 given a political angle with workshops on how to form protests, was ranked second on The Guardian's "Summer Checklist" article, below seeing Kanye West at Glastonbury.
The Hidden Hedge area of Blissfields won the "Most Unique Arena" award at the 2015 Association Of Independent Festivals Congress and Awards.
2016
The 2016 theme was "House Party". Under the theme, the festival built a two-story open-fronted house in the centre of the festival.
Blissfields was included in MTV's "Best Of The Fests" coverage, was ranked second on The Guardian's list of "Bang For Your Buck" where the ticket price was divided by the quantity of live acts and on-site activities, also featuring in the newspaper's "Top 10 Family Festivals" list, The Independent's "Top 20 Boutique Festivals", Radio Times "Top 10 Festivals", and was included in The Standard's "Top 5 Essential Festivals".
2017
It was announced in December 2016 that the theme for 2017 would be "The Bizarre", using imagery and wording from popular culture including Stranger Things and Twin Peaks.
The festival took place on 6-8 July at the Vicarage Farm site in Hampshire.[needs update]
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