Yungblud - aka 27-year-old Doncaster-born Dominic Harrison - is a divisive presence in modern alternative music. His cult of devoted fans deify him as the next saviour of rock, while other dismiss him as an industry plant. He's the kind of musician that the gatekeepers are proud to claim they've never heard of, but who needs their approval anyway when the guy can launch, curate and headline his very own festival?
Enter the inaugural Bludfest, taking over Milton Keynes National Bowl for the day, with a bill largely showcasing emerging pop punk solo artists from the UK and US, some with friends in high places: Landon Barker, is Blink-182 man Travis Barker's son, and Jesse Jo Stark, fashion heiress/goddaughter of Cher, also happens to be Yungblud's partner. Which is all well and good, if you actually get to see them, because physically entering Bludfest is a painful, two-hour ordeal that had me grappling for information from stressed-out stewards, standing in unmoving lines and trying to explain to security that my sertraline was not an illicit substance.
