Preview: Download Festival

Download
8^th-10^th June
Donington Park

Tickets: £200 w/ camping

Whilst competition in recent years has led to a, perhaps, watered down line-up for Download, this year sees its rock/metal festival dominance restored. Boasting headliners Black Sabbath, Metallica playing the black album in full and, surprisingly, The Prodigy, as well as one of the strongest undercards in a fair while, Download looks ready to slay this year.

Covering just about all of rock and metal, you can pluck any sub-genre you like and find it on display this year. Fancy some old-school thrash, well there’s Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax. Want to blast out some classic rock, go see Slash, Europe and Sebastian Bach. Even the obscure is covered, with Ghost, Opeth and Devin Townsend covering the death metal/prog crossover geeks, Skindred satisfying the ragga metal demand and Tenacious D and Steel Panther sorting the laughs.

Atmosphere wise, it’s just like any other large festival; loud, crammed and for the most part jolly; though there may be a few more shouts of “SLAYER!!!” at 5am. But really, who cares about the line-up. When you throw all the above in the mix with Soundgarden, Dropkick Murphys, Kyuss Lives!, Rise Against and Machine Head, who’d be turning this one down?

Visit the Download website for more details.