Perhaps not the most obvious venue, but one that hosted the BLUDFEST after party in 2024, an event that YUNGBLUD later confessed having no memory of, putting it down to post-performance adrenaline and a queue of supporters buying him drinks.
In the crowded room, red lights lit up the pub before Radio X’s Sarah Gosling took to the stage, greeting fans, guests and playing the BLUDFEST trailer - her immediate reaction, “I feel like I’m about to go to bloody war”, a sign of the honesty and humour she continued to hold the conversation with.
Aiming to make the music industry more transparent and financially accessible, YUNGBLUD is curating the second year of BLUDFEST, held at Milton Keynes Bowl next month. Describing this iteration as “bigger, better and epic”, he acknowledged the challenges faced last year, promising that changes have been made because “people are listening to [him] a lot more”. 2025 will see the second stage increase from 2,000 to 10,000 capacity, a massive Ferris wheel, and the Make A Friend Tent twice the size.
BLUDFEST is on the 21st June, just a day after the release of his fourth studio album, ‘IDOLS’. On the reaction to this timing, YUNGBLUD shared “everyone thinks I’m mad”, going on to tell the fans in the room, “you’ve got to cram it into your f*cking brains”. He described the album as sonically big; “I wanted to create a movie”, sharing that there was no better way to showcase the album than at Milton Keynes Bowl. It is clear that BLUDFEST is curated by an artist who loves festivals, describing his own experience, he humoursly compared them to Disneyland, “you can pretend to be Pocahontas”, explaining the freedom of existing “in an alternative universe for a day”.
Responding to his quote in the BLUDFEST trailer, “let’s do it all over the world”, YUNGBLUD confirmed that next year the festival will be going worldwide, exclusively hinting at France with a very Northern-accented “Bonjour”. His dreams for BLUDFEST in five years are a world tour with ten friends, rolling the dice for their place in the line-up, confident in these plans, he commented, “I think it’s achievable”.
%20(2).JPG)
He spoke candidly on the power of the community of fans, “You allow me to do these ideas in the name of something better”. Talking about the many smaller artists on the line-up, including Luvcat and Masterpeace, YUNGBLUD said, “we’re such a welcoming community to new artists…we welcome new genres, new ideas, we’re open to it”. Speaking out about putting fans first in his decisions, he commented, “I was so sick of tipping my hat to the way things should be, that wouldn’t serve the people…I only care about me and you.”
His latest single ‘Zombie’ is set to be released this Friday. At the Q&A, YUNGBLUD exclusively announced the music video would be starring one of the “biggest actors in the world”, now confirmed to be Florence Pugh. Discussing the single on TikTok, YUNGBLUD previously shared, “This song really taught me how to feel again”. On Tuesday, he described 'Zombie’ as the "biggest Yungblud anthem”, continuing to suggest it will be his set-closing song “for the rest of time”.
Describing ‘IDOLS’ as an album about “facing yourself”, he candidly shared that he “sold [himself] short” on his 2022 album ‘YUNGBLUD’, not writing it with “imagination at the forefront”. On his upcoming fourth album, he commented, “Is it the album you think I would make? No. But it’s the only one that feels right”.
YUNGBLUD closed the conversation with Sarah Gosling with his thoughts on ‘IDOLS’, part one of a double album; “this one is complete and utter freedom, I hope it provides that to you”.
YUNGBLUD fans can look forward to two years of new music and exciting projects. Tickets for BLUDFEST can be found here.
Maisy Neale
Images: Tom Pallant
