MOSH PITS MASTERED: DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL

FESTIVAL REVIEW | DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL | DONNINGTON PARK, DERBY | by Kayleigh Nickson and Nora Toth

What started as a rainy miserable time ended up being a dust-filled hot weekend and we couldn’t have been happier (and maybe a little sunburnt) about it. 

Only District X was open on Thursday with a handful of bands playing, we managed to catch Five performing their iconic ‘Everybody Get Up‘ and ‘Keep On Movin’. They started late which was disappointing as we had to leave their set early to see Dune Rats. The Aussie trio are one band we couldn’t miss, especially when it comes to their cover of ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again‘ by The Angels. I love that they add a crowd participation to it where they scream “No way, get fucked, fuck off”. They did also play their own songs such as ‘Scott Green‘ and ‘Too Tough Terry‘. If you’ve never seen them before, their sets get pretty chaotic and this one included a Fosters case as a hat, a wheelie bin and a shoey competition.  

Friday 

The atmosphere for Hollywood Undead was incredible and it’s exactly what Download is all about – constant crowd surfers, people on shoulders, mosh pits and a massive inflatable penis jumping around the crowd. During their set they did an unexpected cover of Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ as well as their own top hits such as ‘Riot’ and ‘Undead‘. The band finished their set the only way that made sense to us all – with their iconic ‘Everywhere I Go‘. 

Early on in the afternoon, Creeper took to a very full Opus stage. Creeper are a British punk/rock band, with a flair for dramatics; dressing up quite ‘spooky’ as vampires with captivating makeup and fake blood dripping from their mouths. Their setlist was great, a mix of their best songs and the set itself was even more intriguing, with a live (fake) beheading of the lead singer. Even looking into the crowd, you could see the big fans – copying the makeup style and fully committing to the bit with the fake blood.

Limp Bizkit started their set off strong with ‘Break Stuff‘ and if you were in the audience like I was, you know that you had no choice but to jump around with everyone as the crowd forced you to move up and down while we were all shoulder to shoulder. They invited Lauren Sanderson on stage to perform ‘Hot Dog’ before they performed ‘Nookie’. Fred Durst encouraged crowd surfers by saying “everyone was crowdsurfing before.” When some of the crowd surfers made their way to the front, Durst asked them where they were from and the locations ranged from London to North Yorkshire. The band invited 4 girls – Brooke, Kara, Isla and Jemima – on stage to sing ‘Full Nelson‘ alongside them. They were still in a state of shock when I spoke to them but they claimed “It was amazing, so good!” The girls also thanked Limp Bizkit by saying “Thank you, that was the best experience of my life!”  

Saturday  

At the start of the week, Australian pop-metal band Melrose Avenue had never played a festival and now their set at Download was the third one. Considering the fact that they hadn’t had much of a moment to stop and chill, their set was still incredible and they still managed to pull in a big crowd for the Avalanche Stage. It only took until the start of the second song for lead singer, Vlado Saric, to take his shirt off and be in his ‘natural state’ for on stage. The band definitely have the stage presence and energy for festival shows but I do wish I knew more songs.  

A set I was super excited for on the Saturday was Black Veil Brides, an American rock/heavy metal band who have been in the scene since 2006. Due to them having such a long history, the crowd was absolutely packed with hardcore fans, many dressed up like ‘Andy Sixx’- the lead singer Andy Biersack‘s style and makeup from the early 2010’s. Coming off the release of their latest album Vindicate the band created a setlist that displayed some of their newer music, while still playing fan favourites such as ‘Knives and Pens’ and ‘In the End’. The performance was brilliant, truly an amazing band to see live and one of my favourite sets from the weekend.

As a big fan of Set It Off, I knew that their set was going to be full of banger after banger and they delivered. From ‘Fake Ass Friends’ to ‘Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing [Reborn]‘, I couldn’t help but sing/scream along to every song. The only thing I wished was that their set was longer but I suppose that means that I’ll just have to catch them at a show whenever they next do a UK tour. 

I only watched the first hour of Guns n Roses set as I refused to stand and watch a three hour set and while I did enjoy it, they were definitely the weakest headline act that we had this year. The fact that there was more commotion about what was happening on the ferris wheel rather than what was happening main stage really says something about the band. For me, the most enjoyable part of their set was seeing a young lad next to me in awe of his favourite band that him and his dad have spent years listening to – for his sake, I’m glad he was able to see them. I do feel bad for the band as they just didn’t manage to draw in a big crowd and it looked a little pathetic – from that alone I can tell that they won’t ever headline Download again and maybe the festival will start to realise that it’s time to give the headline spot ‘newer’ and ‘more current’ bands as the classics don’t always work anymore.

Sunday  

A band that I would’ve perhaps not checked out if it weren’t for the bassist was Dogstar. Bringing in a massive crowd was no big surprise, you could tell there were fans of the band all around, however I do think a big portion of people were only there to see bassist and movie star- Keanu Reeves. The show itself was good, it didn’t really stand out to me an awful lot and didn’t leave me wanting to deep dive into their music, but I did think they sounded good and the songs were good too! If it weren’t for Keavu Reeves, I don’t think the crowd would’ve been there for it as much.

Another one of my favourite sets from the weekend – Bad Omens. I mentioned in the review of their Manchester show late last year that I didn’t think they quite had the stage presence built up yet but were incredible regardless. This was absolutely not the case for this performance, I’m not sure if it’s due to it being a festival or Noah Sebastian has worked on it more but my god were they great! The audience they drew in was enormous, and apart from headliners, I think this was the crowd with the most people singing along passionately to all the songs. One thing I wasn’t a massive fan of was how they formatted this show, breaking up the set with the same ‘tapes’ they used on their tour didn’t feel very needed and confused a lot of people who hadn’t seen them live before- keeping this up didn’t make too much sense for a festival. Overall, I would definitely love to see them again on their own tour, I do think that they have become more comfortable and confident in their art.

Closing out Download 2026, Linkin Park played a very memorable set on the Sunday night. Making history as being Download’s first ever female headline with new lead singer Emily Armstrong, they definitely did not disappoint. The crowd was packed and absolutely the most dense it had been all weekend for any band that had performed the entire weekend. I am very biased so I’m saying Limp Bizkit were the best headliner this year, but I hadn’t listened to Linkin Park too much before and even like this, I thought they were really really good and one of the best headliners I have seen at any festival. This is probably not an uncommon opinion among people who attended the weekend, most definitely a fan favourite.

Overall, it was an incredibly busy weekend, full of fantastic bands and so much to do at all times. Discourse has already started online about who might be the headliners for 2027 and all I can say is that if any of the predictions I have seen so far are true, we are in for an insane weekend. Early bird tickets for Download 2027 are available to purchase here.

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Kayleigh Nickson

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