As part of Download Festival’s Press Event a panel was assembled from key personnel to give an insight to the inner working of the UK’s biggest and brightest rock and metal knees-up. Chaired by Kerrang! radio’s Sophie K, this session explained why this was going to be the most diverse Download, and one with plenty of freshness. The Midlands Rocks was there to get the low down.

Sophie K: The incredible journey Download has taken over the past 21 years. What legacy do you think the festival has created over the years?

Andy Copping: We started the festival in 2003, and it came off the back of Monsters Of Rock which had been held at Donington Park from 1980 through to 1996. The year before the first Download there was an Ozzfest and from that came the idea that we should bring the festival back to Donington, but make it a bit different; a camping event over two days. The first year was two days over two stages and the festival has evolved over the years, now we’re three days, multi-staged with a huge amount of activity going on in and around the main arena, and here we are 21 years later, which is an incredible achievement. When we started I wanted to ensure that we did as many Downloads as there was Monsters Of Rock and we surpassed that a few years ago, and to see people come, year in, year out, I think that’s the legacy; we’re still here and we’re still relevant. People treat Download as their holiday; they take a week off work and the minute the festival finishes they look at the dates for next year. And we’re very lucky to be in that position.

Sophie K: What would you say, having seen so many Download’s over the years, are your most treasured Download memories?

Andy: There’s a few; obviously the first one was amazing because we’d got it off the ground, I felt the festival came of age in 2009; that was the year we were in position and the site we are now, we were originally within the racetrack, and that was when we really saw fans mixing with each other, somebody wearing a Whitesnake T-shirt was watching Korn, a person in a Faith No More T-shirt was watching Def Leppard, so I really felt the community spirit in 2009. 2010 when we got AC/DC was huge (not that I’d want to do it again, because it just about killed me, but we did get them), they didn’t do festivals back then, but we managed to persuade them. Last year was massive for us, the 20th anniversary; going four days and getting Metallica for two days was just amazing. And then getting a band that’d worked their way up the bill over the years in Bring Me The Horizon to deliver a headline set and they absolutely smashed it. I wondered how Slipknot were going to follow that; two sets from Metallica, Bring Me The Horizon, and personally I think that was the best performance I’d ever seen Slipknot do.

Sophie K: One big moment for Download was having Liquid Death as the sponsor. Tell us about the moment of hooking up with Liquid Death.

Andy: Right from the beginning of Download we’ve been talking to different people who have become headline sponsor; there’s been various different brands we’ve spoken to who’ve never really understood us and who our audience is, and thus we’ve never felt comfortable with it. Liquid Death came to us last year and we just knew straight away that the people involved with Liquid Death completely knew what we were about. They understood our audience, what the festival meant to people, the importance of it, and we knew right away that this was the brand to be involved with. And the thing with festivals is we tell the fans to stay hydrated and Liquid Death ticked that box. We are very happy to have them as partners and hopefully they are going to be with us for many years to come.

Sophie K: This year you have an incredible line-up with headliners like Queens Of The Stone Age, Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold. Tell us how this year’s line-up was formed and some of the key highlights.

Kam Haq: In addition to the headliners we’ve got Limp Bizkit back for the first time in many years, there’s Sum 41 playing their final UK festival, there’s Pantera playing their first UK show in over 20 years, there’s Machine Head back for the first time in 12 years. There’s newcomers such as Bad Omens who’ll be headlining the Opus Stage on Friday, plus we’ve got Electric Callboy returning after last year’s insane show. We’ve got Storm from Norway who is only 15 years old, and we’ve got Harper who is fresh from America’s Got Talent and is only 12 years old. I’ll give everybody a head’s up to look at the Download app over the weekend because we’ll be announcing some secret, special guests.

Sophie K: What I think you’ve proved here is that you can please all rock and metal fans, of all tastes with just the one line-up.

Kam: We’ve got everything from pop to extreme metal and everything in between. I’ve been going to Download since 2003 and I’ve seen generations of fans come, people who have met their partners at the festival and now come with their kids, last year I saw grandparents and grand kids all enjoying themselves at the festival and it’s incredible to see that. We try to cater to all tastes.

Sophie K: Last year Download came under a very comprehensive review and overhaul of operations, most notably with an international production team, led by the very talented Jess who heads a successful team who’ve been awarded Production Agency Of The Year for both 2023 and 2024. Most notably Jess actually comes from Donington.

Jess S: Yes, I was born and raised right here. Download is a passion project for me, it has been my favourite festival to run. We have the opportunity to put a fresh pair of eyes on the festival. We’ve made a lot of changes to the site plan, lots of changes in the way the management structure is working and we’ve got a ton of feedback to work through from last year.

David H: As Jess said, we’ve really listened to the voice of the customer, and as everyone has touched upon, it’s the people who make Download festival so we’ve got a lot of favourites coming back this year; Rocktail Cocktail, Mini Moshers, our family friendly campsite is coming back, so were looking at all those inclusive spaces. There’s the return of the alcohol-free bar to make sure we are inclusive and you don’t have to drink to have a great time. Our walk-in merchandise megastore is back in the village, well have some exclusive items in there, and there’s some exciting destination area both in the arena and also District X in the village. So, we are recognising that people are with us for five days; food is so much more than fuel, it is part of the experience and there’s some exciting stuff going on food wise. The accessibility aspect is something that we want to overhaul from the ground up; that whole end to end journey and make it so easy for a fan with a disability to get in touch and tell us what their requirements are and I think we’ve processed over 1600 applications to date with a reply within a couple of days. We realise that it’s not just 3 to 5 days in a field, it’s a way of life for our fans. The most important message is that we care and we are custodians of this brand.

Sophie K: We do have some exciting additions to the festival this year, District X are going to be offering a diverse range of non-musical programming, including fitness classes, a farmer’s market featuring local business.

Jenny C: We’ve been in charge of developing District X since 2022, we’ve seen how big the festival has grown and how important it is becoming an experience for the attendee has been an absolute privilege for me. It is a three-day festival, but the majority of ticket holders are there for five days and the mission that we’ve undertaken is to ensure that those five days are varied and entertaining, right up to 3am every night. We work on this all year round, we are observing and looking out for opportunities, really striving to stay at the forefront of what we are providing, and making sure we are bringing back fan favourites every time. We’ve invited Charlie Simpson from Busted to represent the Doghouse, so we have some varied entertainment.

Dannika W: This year we also have Bowling For Soup who’ll be coming from the arena to District X to play an acoustic set, so we’re all really looking forward to a pop-punk sing-along. We also have a self-described 10-piece brass powerhouse the Old Dirty Brasstards who be playing all your favourite punk and metal covers. We’re also pleased to bring back the secret acoustic sets, and they’ll be announced each morning on the socials and on the app. Finally, we’ll have an area where we’ll be having bingo, karaoke and podcasts. We’re also happy to announce that we’ll be bringing back the silent disco, which is something that we’ve been working on for a long time now and that will be hosting DJ battles every night.

Andy C: I’d like to jump in here because I can’t stress enough how important District X is to Download. Over the years we’ve had some after hours entertainment and we’ve never really given it the right amount of attention. I remember particularly when I got Jenny and Dannika involved in 2022, I felt we needed to freshen things up. I remember seeing all this stuff online, seeing people having the time of their lives and thinking ‘where the fuck is this?’, and they were at Download! I got real FOMO, and I couldn’t believe the revelation of what was happening, and this was even before the festival had even started. It’s really made such a big difference to the fabric of what the festival is about. People arrive early, so it isn’t just about the music, it’s the whole experience.

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