Download Festival

Why should I go?
Satan’s black heart has given you no choice.

Any interesting titbits of information?
During The First World War, Donington Park was used as a PoW camp.

Picking up where the Monsters of Rock festival left off in the 1980s and early 1990s, Download is the UK’s largest and most intimidating specialist festivals. Every year nearly 80,000 metal fans swarm to Donington Park for three days of Spinal Tap-esque amps-to-11 heavy rocking.

Despite a reputation for unforeseen accidents, be it headliners pulling out, rock stars contracting rare blood diseases (Korn frontman Jonathan Davis in 2006) and on-site fires and riots, the Download organisers have made huge efforts to give the weekend a friendly face. So, this year, carbon-offsetting is high on the agenda: festivalgoers are asked to donate 50p on top of their ticket costs to cover the estimated carbon emissions of their journeys to and from the site.

Combining, aptly, old-school monsters of rock with the biggest contemporary names in nu-, death- and black- metal, it isn’t a weekend for the fainthearted or the speculative. Instead, Download taps the apparently infinite seam of heavy rock fans from the UK and beyond. Smaller stages often make forays into more alternative territory, with techno and even rap getting a look in. They even let Peaches play a set once. Biggest draw this year is undoubtedly The Prodigy.

Ticket price: Arena only: £135; with camping: £160; with campervan: £200.

Accommodation: Camping, caravans/campervans. RIP Park Farm tickets available for an upgraded camping experience.

Site opening: Camping areas are open noon, Wednesday 10th June to noon, Monday 15th June.

Capacity: 75,000

Stages: TBA.

Travel: Shuttle buses run from East Midlands and Derby train stations. Download is also teaming up with Big Green Coaches to provide coach travel from around the UK.