The Download Festival is often regarded as the UK’s leading festival in rock. Held at the historic Donington Park Circuit in Leicestershire, the motor sporting landmark has held the annual Download Festival since 2003, and 2013’s event may have the biggest and best line up in recent memory.
Any frequent rock festival-goer will know that Donington Park used to play host to the mammoth touring Monsters of Rock festivals. Bands as huge as AC/DC, Kiss, Metallica and Deep Purple have graced the primeval grounds and have returned several nostalgic years later. The “Ozzfest” festival also came to Donington Park in 2002, where the legendary Black Sabbath headlined with some of the biggest names in rock alongside them. However, Download Festival 2013 is poised to set Donington Park aflame with the best line-up it has seen for years.
Conversely, it can be argued that Download had a dry couple of years from 2007 onwards, as it was believed the magic of the festival had gone in favour of appealing to a wider spectrum of audiences (it is managed by Live Nation after all, this is hardly surprising). Download fans have seen more mainstream headliners such as The Prodigy, The Offspring, Rage Against the Machine and Faith No More over the past few years. Organiser Andy Copping was still throwing some good old classic rock bands for good measure, which kept the older fans happy singing intoxicated to songs of their childhood.
But while we could sit here and argue about what ‘mainstream’ is defined as, the important thing is that Download 2013 appears to be running back to the roots of rock and metal. Furthermore, it seems to be in favour of most people – apart from the odd few who think that the line-up should consist of nothing more than Slayer, Megadeth and Metallica, but that’s another story.
I myself have got my ticket and am beyond excited not just because it offers some of my favourite bands from my childhood but also bands who I have not had the pleasure of seeing yet. It also offers a greater deal of younger bands that are getting their first chance of playing such a big festival, and also for some, who have never played a UK festival before; we all are guaranteed a hell of a show that we will remember for years to come. Here is a list of fifteen bands that anybody attending the festival NEEDS to check out. Seriously, you will NOT be disappointed if you see these bands at all.