With some surprise headliners, there’s been a real buzz and vibrancy surrounding this year’s Download Festival. That’s thanks in no small part to chief booking agent Kam Huq who has added a freshness to this year’s bill that finds the best new blood rubbing shoulders with heritage acts. On what promises to be Download’s most diverse bill, there’s everything from pop to punk to thrash and death metal to tempt you. As part of the Download Press Event, we sat down with Kam to get his take on proceedings.

Being of a certain age, I can remember when both heavy metal fans and bands came from a narrow demographic. Bearing that in mind, how easy has it been to assemble a diverse bill?

It can be tough. I’m of that age, too, and we try to cater to a younger audience as well as people my age and older. I’ve got my ear to the ground and it is an exercise trying to appeal to everybody, but we want to appeal to every demographic, right across the spectrum. We try to be as diverse as possible, so we’ve got everything from pop to metal and everywhere in between. It’s not just a metal festival, so we try to book a wide variety of bands.

The choice for this year’s headliners has raised a few eyebrows. Did it feel like a risk at all?

Compared to Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot who headlined last year, it definitely felt like a bit of a risk. It’s a different line-up for Download this year, but ticket sales have been amazing. Queens Of The Stone Age are an incredible band with an amazing legacy, Fall Out Boy are amazing, they did a huge tour last year playing O2 venues and arenas. They’re not like the headliners we’d usually have but we wanted to elevate bands and create new headliners essentially. I think that overall the line-up this year is incredible, it’s got great depth and the undercard is huge as well, we’ve got lots of heavy hitters.

What has the public’s reaction been towards these headliners?

I think it was a bit divisive at first but now people have seen the full line-up and how it has played out, and seeing the complete line-up beneath the headliners, it makes sense to everybody now. I think everybody is really excited about it this year.

I think for most people a festival is only 50% about the music, it’s also about the atmosphere and everything going on in the periphery.

That’s the same for me. I’ve been going to Download for over 20 years, and seeing how the community has developed over the years to what it has become now…it’s incredible to see.

Download is quite rightly viewed as the UK’s number one rock and metal festival. How do you aim on keeping it at the top spot?

You’ve got to keep having the bands, fresh headliners, fresh line-ups with the biggest undercards, and keep investing in grass roots for tomorrow’s headliners.

Despite a few teething troubles, I thought the four day Download worked very well. Is that something you’d try again?

Maybe for another anniversary. But I’ve got to be honest with you, it was an endurance test last year!

How do you envision the state of rock and metal in 5 or 10 years time? Do you think you’ll have suitable headliners?

I think possible future headliners are bands like Sleep Token, Ghost, Gojira, Bad Omens and bands of that ilk.

What do you think is the future of the festival? Can you foresee a time when it will cease, or do you think it will keep on going?

I think I speak for all of us when I say we want the festival to keep going and to keep being as successful as it has been.

Earlier the panel mentioned tweaks to the festival’s layout. What will be the main thing that people notice?

This year the campsites have been reconfigured a bit, we’ve added the mini-moshers family campsite, and District X is bigger this year than it ever has been.

Although you work for the festival, do you ever have time to get amongst the crowd and check the bands out?

I’m a massive music lover and I book between 70-80% of the bands, so I try to catch as many of the bands as I can, and some of my favourite bands are at the festival this year. Personally, I want to see Black Dahlia Murder, Biohazard, Fear Factory, Bad Omens, Pantera, Machine Head, so I want to catch as many bands as humanly possible.

Are there any bands you’d like to book who you haven’t captured yet?

There’s a couple of bucket list bands; Nine Inch Nails are one who have never played the festival before. We have a few on our radar, and hopefully we’ll get them in the next couple of years.

Do you think they’ll ever be a radical overhaul of the festival into something completely different?

No, I don’t think so. We’ve got the core down, but it’s evolving, and it always will evolve. If you compare the festival to what it was in 2003 to what it is now, there’s an evolution. But I don’t think it’ll radically change; Download will always be Download, but I think they’ll always be parts that will evolve. We’re going to keep elevating bands and building up fresh headliners, but we don’t want to be like Monsters Of Rock where it stagnates, we want to move with the times.

When Download finishes, how soon do you get back to work?

We’re already planning 2025! We’re always at least a year ahead, and in some cases we’re looking at 2026.

You did a great job with the Download Pilot during the pandemic, but do you think the festival has returned to the heights of pre-Covid?

I think it has. If you look at last year’s festival, it sold out. I think that live music is in really rude health, people have a hunger to go and see bands. Obviously, the pandemic was really tough for everybody, but now we’ve come out of it we’re going all guns blazing, everybody is ready to go out in the fields and see live music.

Finally, if I could make a Download dream come true for you and book any one band, who’d it be?

Van Halen!

A variety of ticket options are available here