Download Festival

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Download Festival
Location(s)	Donington Park, England
Years active	2003 - present
Founded by
Date(s)	mid June
Genre(s)	Rock, Metal, Punk, Post-Hardcore, Powerpop, Ska,
Website	www.downloadfestival.co.uk

The Download Festival is a three day music festival held annually at the spiritual home of rock music in England: Donington Park (which hosted the Monsters of Rock Festivals between 1980 and 1996, and 2002's Ozzfest). It takes place at the end of spring, and is owned and managed by Live Nation. Also see: List of Donington Park Festivals.

Contents 1 Download 2003 2 Download 2004 3 Download 2005 4 Download 2006 4.1 Controversy 5 Download 2007 6 Download 2008 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Download 2003

The first Download Festival was held in 2003. The headliners were originally Iron Maiden and Limp Bizkit, although Limp Bizkit pulled out and were replaced by Audioslave. Metallica attempted to step in as headliners, but were unable due to already being headliners at that year's Reading and Leeds Festivals. Instead, they played an unannounced "secret slot" in the afternoon on the second stage.

Main Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Iron Maiden Marilyn Manson Deftones Ministry InMe Murderdolls Amen Funeral for a Friend Stampin' Ground Shadows Fall Murder One	Audioslave Zwan Flint Apocalyptica Less Than Jake Disturbed Stone Sour Evanescence Mudvayne Spineshank The Darkness One Minute Silence Raging Speedhorn Instruction

Scuzz Stage
Saturday	Sunday
A Reel Big Fish Taproot Sepultura Reef HIM SOiL The Hellacopters SikTh 3 Colours Red From Autumn to Ashes QueenAdreena Violent Delight Arch Enemy Chimaira	NOFX boysetsfire The Bouncing Souls Strung Out Thrice [Spunge] TSOL Real McKenzies Metallica The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster Brand New Beatsteaks Randy Fabulous Disaster

[edit] Download 2004

Another stage was added to the festival in this year, bringing the total to three. 72 Bands played over the two days. The 2004 event was also noticeable for several last minute hitches. Firstly Soil got lost on the way to Donington and missed their main stage appearance on Saturday (they later joined Drowning Pool on stage to perform Drowning Pool's "Bodies" and their own song "Halo"). Static-X missed their slot due to a bus breakdown. Sunday was no better - Slayer arrived on time, but their equipment did not, leading to a slot change from the middle of the afternoon on the main stage to a later slot (and longer set) on the second stage. Slayer were replaced on the main stage by Damageplan, who were scheduled to play the second stage. Their setlist ended with a rendition of Damageplan founders Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell's most recognisable song from their Pantera days, "Walk".

The biggest news came from the headliners Metallica, however, when Lars Ulrich was rushed to hospital.^[1] Taking to the stage an hour and a half late, James Hetfield explained the situation with Lars and the show began with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo playing on Battery and The Four Horsemen. Slipknot's Joey Jordison played the rest of the set apart from Fade to Black which was played by Metallica's drum technician, Flemming Larsen. The set featured no post-Black Album songs and was about an hour and ten minutes long. The set is considered one of the band's most memorable performances.^{[citation needed]}

The full line-up included:

Main Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Linkin Park Sum 41 Iggy & The Stooges The Hives The Distillers Cradle of Filth Monster Magnet Opeth Dillinger Escape Plan	Metallica Korn Slipknot Slayer Machine Head Damageplan Soulfly Ill Niño Turbonegro Breed 77

Snickers "Game On" Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Pennywise Electric Six Wildboyz (Steve-o and Chris Pontius) Arch Enemy Biffy Clyro Million Dead Instruction 36 Crazyfists Akercocke Viking Skull Powder The Bled	HIM Bowling for Soup Taking Back Sunday Slayer Life of Agony Brides of Destruction Drowning Pool Hatebreed Hoobastank Trapt Silvertide Ricky Warwick Terra Diablo

Barfly Stage
Saturday	Sunday
Peaches International Noise Conspiracy Ikara Colt thisGirl Roxy Saint The Glitterati Surferosa Burst Lowfive Yourcodenameis:Milo Bullet for My Valentine The Holiday Plan Hiding Place Fireapple Red	Suicide Girls Young Heart Attack Span The Sounds Dirty Americans Recover Amplifier Do Me Bad Things Danko Jones The Black Dahlia Murder Mooney Suzuki Gonga Acidtone Hurricane Party Planet of Women

Scotland In June 2004 a two day Download festival was held on Glasgow Green, several days before the Donington event. This had a limited line up with only 9 bands performing over a 2 day period. However, the bands which did play were similar to those appearing at Donington including the headliners, Metallica and Linkin Park. Download Scotland also saw an appearance from Welsh rock act Lostprophets who were unique to the event and did not perform at Donington.

Acts which also appeared over the two days at Download Scotland were Korn, Slipknot, Iggy and the Stooges, Machine Head, The Distillers and HIM. The running order went as follows.

Day 1	Day 2
Metallica Slipknot Korn HIM	Linkin Park Lostprophets Iggy and the Stooges The Distillers Machine Head

[edit] Download 2005

Download 2005 was held again at Donington Park, on 10-12 June 2005. This festival was different from previous years as the Saturday was officially dubbed Ozzfest 2005, as well as an "Indie day" on the first day of the festival.

Billy Idol performed on the Snickers stage on the Friday night; his first UK gig after a lengthy hiatus, performing songs such as White Wedding, Rebel Yell and a cover version of Van Halen's anthem, Jump.

Feeder's frontman Grant Nicholas was so relieved the band won the crowd over (there were concerns that they would be received badly by the traditional attendee to the festival), he decided to smash his green Fender Jazzmaster guitar after "Descend" was performed. He later said that he regretted it, but also said he kept the neck and the tremeloes, and might use what was left to make a new guitar. A part of the body was thrown to a member of the crowd.

Lemmy also took to the stage, with former MC5 members, and Gilby Clarke, to perform Back in the USA.

The official line-up included:

Main Stage[2]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Feeder Garbage Dinosaur Jr Megadeth Biffy Clyro The Others JJ72 Wednesday 13 Queen Adreena	Black Sabbath Velvet Revolver HIM Anthrax Alter Bridge Bowling For Soup A The Mad Capsule Markets The Dwarves Trivium	System of a Down Slipknot Slayer Nightwish Killswitch Engage Papa Roach Mudvayne Society 1 DV8

Snickers Stage[2]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Billy Idol The Used My Chemical Romance InMe The Bled Apocalyptica Underøath Lordi Fozzy Flogging Molly	In Flames Chimaira Lamb of God Bullet for My Valentine Meshuggah Unearth Every Time I Die Open Hand American Head Charge The Hurt Process	Motörhead DKT/MC5 Funeral for a Friend[3] Lacuna Coil Mastodon Shadows Fall Helmet Caliban As I Lay Dying Gizmachi Send More Paramedics The Mascara Story

Napster Stage[2]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Napalm Death Raging Speedhorn Paradise Lost A Change of Pace Hurricane Party Tokyo Dragons Colour Of Fire Slunt Just A Word Crashdiet Planet of Women	Helmet The Lucky Nine Breed 77 The Explosion Towers Of London Johnny Truant The Ga Ga's The Answer Panic Cell Crucified Barbara Diamond Nights Quit Your Day Job City On Fire	Therapy? Team Sleep Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster The Dresden Dolls The Glitterati The Saints Engerica 3 Inches of Blood Still Remains No Hope In New Jersey Acidtone Henry Rollins (Spoken word 'Sermon')

[edit] Download 2006

The 2006 Download Festival was held at Donington Park, England on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of June. Download 2006 boasted the largest selling acts out of all the UK music festivals that year (in terms of the combined total of every act).^{[citation needed]} The three days comprising the headlining acts (Tool, Metallica and Guns N' Roses) have sales of approximately 200-250 million albums between them, more than the entire line up of 2006's V Festival.

2006 was the first time the festival was mirrored in the Republic of Ireland, as Download Festival Ireland.

One memorable moment of the festival was the announcement that Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis had been rushed to hospital. Similar to 2004's Metallica set, Munky, Fieldy and David Silveria arrived and explained to the fans why Jonathan couldn't make it and played with guest vocalists Corey Taylor from Slipknot, Dez Fafara from DevilDriver, Jesse Hasek from 10 Years, Benji Webbe from Skindred, M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold, and Matt Heafy from Trivium. Lyrics from some of the performed songs were displayed on the big screens for the crowd to sing along. Another talking point of the festival was Metallica playing the album Master of Puppets in its entirety in honour of its twentieth anniversary. Guns N' Roses also performed material from the long forthcoming Chinese Democracy album which was received quite well by the crowd.

Main Stage The main stage was situated in the centre of the arena with crowd control moving around it, and was the largest of all three stages, the safety barriers used at this stage were in a T shape so as to avoid crowd crush in the middle. The stage was open-air and named in honour of the 25th anniversary of Kerrang! magazine.

Main Stage[4]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Tool Deftones Coheed and Cambria Soulfly Strapping Young Lad SOiL Wicked Wisdom Amplifier	Metallica Korn Trivium Avenged Sevenfold Stone Sour Alice in Chains Arch Enemy Bloodsimple Satyricon Down (Unannounced Set[5])	Guns N' Roses Funeral for a Friend Bullet for My Valentine Cradle of Filth Lacuna Coil In Flames 36 Crazyfists DragonForce Hatebreed Breed 77

Snickers Stage The Snickers Stage was situated in a tent, behind the main stage and was the second largest stage at the festival. Access to the stage was via a one-way system which attempted to spread people around the site, rather than all attempting to push through a rather small space.

Snickers Stage[4]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
The All-American Rejects Atreyu InMe Clutch Fishbone Dredg Bleeding Through Gojira Throwdown Suns of the Tundra	Alter Bridge Opeth Within Temptation Secret Machines Billy Talent Henry Rollins DevilDriver SikTh Johnny Truant Khoma	The Prodigy Alexisonfire Eighteen Visions Hundred Reasons Aiden Fightstar From First to Last DevilDriver (Instead of Soilwork[6]) Zebrahead God Forbid

Gibson/Myspace Stage The Myspace stage was the smallest of the three and under a smaller tent. It was positioned across from the front of the main stage.

Gibson/Myspace Stage[4]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Ginger & The Sonic Circus Backyard Babies Cathedral Engerica Bullets & Octane My Awesome Compilation Animal Alpha The Audition Enter Shikari Art Of Dying Kitty Hudson	Killing Joke Reuben Mondo Generator Louie This Is Menace 10 Years Flyleaf Manic It Dies Today Living Things Exit Ten :( Stonegard My Alamo[7]	Sick Of It All Lordi Skindred Moneen Darkest Hour Blindside Mendeed Bring Me the Horizon The Zico Chain Voodoo Six Lauren Harris Winterville Streetlight Youth I-Def-I

Snickers Bowl Stage[4]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Gay for Johnny Depp Keiko SinTuition	Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly getAmped The Hedrons	Viking Skull Betty curse Evergrey

[edit] Controversy

On the Saturday, Main Stage act Korn lost lead singer Jonathan Davis after he was hospitalised over concerns for bruises on his body. After observation, it was discovered that Davis had contracted a rare blood disease and could not perform at the event. Several different acts contributed singers to fill in for Davis, who each appeared with the rest of the band for a shorter set.^[8]

Throughout most of the festival, bottles were thrown around the crowd, mostly in a harmless manner. However, during the Sunday headline set of Guns N' Roses, one or more bottles landed on the stage. This caused problems after the band's lead singer, Axl Rose, slipped on the wet surface and a bottle filled with urine apparently hit bassist Tommy Stinson. Stinson threw his bass, accidentally hitting one of the cameramen, and left the stage. He returned after the song and apologized, but warned the crowd that if this activity continued, he would leave for good. There were some disturbances but they eventually died down, and later in the set Rose commented "I'm actually having quite a good time now! I couldn't have said that an hour ago!"^[9]

On the final night, fires were started by some festival goers and police were called, arresting twelve people.^[10]. At around 4am, the fire brigade arrived to put out a large fire at the gold campsite. A number of people had taken the railings that had been used to separate the campsite area from the path and used them to barricade the road to prevent the fire engines from reaching the main fire. At this point a number of police assembled in riot gear, and proceeded to stop the troublemakers. The festival director, Stuart Galbraith, posted a message on the official website stating that "About 150 people spoiled the end of what had been a great weekend for over 75,000 of us." ^[11]

[edit] Download 2007

The 2007 Download Festival took place on June 9-11 2007.^[12]

The three bands that headlined the 2007 festival were My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden. My Chemical Romance's announcement sparked a furor among the festival's forums and myspace users for many weeks leading up to the event.

Through February, March and the beginning of April, more bands were announced in small groups of five or six,^[13] and on 17 April this lineup was arranged into days and stages on the official website.^[14] A further announcement of fifteen bands on 24 April added to this lineup, and announced the names of the second and third stages - The Dimebag Darrell Stage, and The Tuborg Stage.^[15]

Korn's Jonathan Davis stated that the reason for the band returning this year, was because of his absence due to illness last year. He states on the official Download Festival website, "I am so looking forward to coming to the Download Festival this year. I was heartbroken to pull out last time. So this time I am very happy to be coming back and we promise to rock the place! I will definitely make-up for missing the last one. You can expect an amazing Korn show!"^[16]

Download '07 was Dimmu Borgir's first ever festival appearance in England. Hardcore Superstar pulled out of their slot on the Tuborg stage on the Sunday because their tour bus broke down in Germany.

2007 featured the first band to officially perform on the Thursday of the festival. Scumface played on the Tuborg Stage during the boardie barbecue.^[17]

Iron Maiden's set along with others was broadcast over the internet. Additionally, Maiden's performance will eventually be released as a DVD, as frontman Bruce Dickinson announced during the show.

Main Stage[14]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
My Chemical Romance Velvet Revolver Wolfmother DragonForce Megadeth Hinder Buckcherry Zico Chain	Linkin Park Marilyn Manson Slayer Machine Head Bowling for Soup 30 Seconds to Mars Aiden Shadows Fall HELLYEAH Turisas	Iron Maiden Evanescence Killswitch Engage Stone Sour Lamb of God Mastodon Papa Roach Chimaira Reuben Parikrama

Dimebag Darrell Stage[14]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Korn Enter Shikari Paramore Porcupine Tree Saosin From Autumn to Ashes Turbonegro Ill Niño ANJ	Mötley Crüe Satellite Party Biffy Clyro My Vitriol My Dying Bride Gallows Anathema As I Lay Dying Bring Me The Horizon Bloodsimple Elliot Minor Cat the Dog	Billy Talent Dream Theater Dimmu Borgir Within Temptation Napalm Death Paradise Lost Orange Goblin DevilDriver Unearth Cancer Bats After Forever Eyelash

Tuborg Stage[14]
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Suicidal Tendencies Hayseed Dixie yourcodenameis:milo Job for a Cowboy The Hedrons Sanctity I Was a Cub Scout The Scare This Et Al Fortune Drive Drive-by Argument	Head Automatica Necro The Answer Silverstein Lez Zeppelin Architects Priestess Panic Cell Beyond All Reason My Alamo Damone Army of Freshmen Malpractice	Reel Big Fish Fastway Cult of Luna Lauren Harris Fair To Midland Kids In Glass Houses Between the Trees Flood of Red Hardcore Superstar Lights.Action! In This Moment The Ghost of a Thousand LostAlone

[edit] Download 2008

The 2008 Download festival will take place on the 13th-15th June. Tickets went on sale on Friday the 8th of February.

Main Stage
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
KISS Judas Priest Motörhead Disturbed Kid Rock Seether Beat Union Black Tide	The Offspring Incubus Bullet For My Valentine Biffy Clyro Alter Bridge Madina Lake 36 Crazyfists Job For A Cowboy Skindred Sign	Lostprophets Jimmy Eat World Coheed and Cambria In Flames Within Temptation Apocalyptica Black Stone Cherry Fightstar From First To Last Glamour Of The Kill

Tuborg Stage
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Simple Plan Rise Against Rival Schools The Subways Fall of Troy Comeback Kid The Black Dahlia Murder Stone Gods Zebrahead	HIM Ash Pendulum Ace Frehley Amon Amarth Bleeding Through Throwdown A Day to Remember The Devil Wears Prada Alesana Annotations Of An Autopsy Malefice	Cavalera Conspiracy Children Of Bodom The Wildhearts Elliot Minor Kids In Glass Houses Chiodos Airbourne Rose Tattoo Lethal Bizzle Municipal Waste Animal Alpha Cry For Silence

Gibson Stage
Friday	Saturday	Sunday
The Dillinger Escape Plan Kill Hannah Slaves to Gravity High on Fire In Case of Fire Blackhole Hostile Firewind Caimbo Rolo Tomassi Lovvers	Testament Saxon Johnny Truant Fighting With Wire Brigade Army of Freshmen The Haze Big Linda The Last Supper Trigger the Bloodshed Mexicolas Go Audio Rise to Remain Verra Cruz	Jonathan Davis Valient Thorr Haunts August Burns Red Voodoo Six Between the Buried and Me Ted Maul Canterbury Exit Ten The Galvatrons Sons of Albion Devil Sold His Soul Invasion

^[18]

This year, alongside the three stages of non-stop music, the Download Festival will be offering a fantastic selection of comedy acts, organised by Download and in association with Funhouse Comedy Club! Set to take to the stage in the Campsite Entertainment Tent from 10pm Wednesday 11 June . The Campsite Entertainment Tent will be used later during the evenings to host burlesque performers, Guitar Hero, and new for 2008 – Silent Discos!^[19]

Entertainment Tent Weekend Compere – Lou Saffire
Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Ivan Brackenbury's Hospital Radio Roadshow Chris Lynam Duncan Oakley Jason John Whitehead	Chris Lynam Gary Delaney Rob and Skatz Sully O'Sullivan	Jason Rouse Andrew O'Neill	Ian Cognito Greg Cook

^[20]

The Fuel Girls(a burlesque act) have confirmed over myspace they will be at Download Friday 13th to Sunday 15th.

On June 13th, KISS is scheduled to be recording their performance at the 2008 festival, along with other european dates, As limited edition Live albums. They are to be shipped to any buyers a day or two after the performance. Chris Cornell was originally scheduled to play the festival, but he cancelled his European tour so he could focus on a new album. Twin Method and Finger Eleven were announced to play but have since been removed from the official websites lineup.

The site where the 2008 version of the festival will be held is slightly different to that of the previous years with the stages being situated left of the race track on what is usually the Sunday market site, instead of on the centre of the track as usual. ^[21] In addition to this, the Tuborg Stage will now be open-air in order to accommodate a higher capacity of fans. ^[22]

[edit] See also

• Monsters of Rock
• List of Donington Park Festivals

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Official Website
• Official Myspace
• Unofficial Download Festival Flickr Group
• Nokia's Rock up & Play Play live at this year’s music festivals, including the Download Festival
• UK Music Festival Info and Forum

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