Download Festival 2008

Download returns for it's sixth year over the weekend of Friday 13th to Sunday 15th June 2008. Download Festival will have a brand new improved site layout for the 2008 festival at Donington Park this June, moving away from the confines of the Donington racetrack, the Download Festival will now have a new home within Donington Park for 2008 and subsequent years to come.

The headliners have been announced as Kiss, The Offspring and Lostprophets, also confirmed are Judas Priest as 'very special guests', Lemmy's Mötorhead, Rise Against, Jimmy Eat World, Ash, Ace Frehley, Bullet For My Valentine, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis, Saxon, Testament, Fall Of Troy, 36 Crazyfists, Pendulum, Job For A Cowboy, Children Of Bodom, Coheed and Cambria, Alter Bridge, Disturbed, In Flames, Incubus, Kid Rock, Bleeding Through, Throwdown, The Black Dahlia Murder, and The Subways. For the line-up details, days and stage splits as available please click here.

Tickets for Download 2008 are priced at: a full weekend ticket £130, standard camping £20, camper van £40, family zone camping £20, lockers £11, parking £10 in advance or £15 on the day. Day tickets are available priced at £65 for Friday or £60 for Saturday or Sunday. To buy your tickets, click here.

This year the Second Stage will now be a completely open air stage rather than housed inside a tent. The new layout will incorporate more hard standing areas reducing mud and dust significantly. There will be no one-way system, giving quicker and more direct access to the three stages and all car parking will now be within the Donington Park site removing the footbridge to the site. The new position of the Main Stage is now within a natural amphitheatre.

There will also be more seating on site, better facilities for the carers of disabled festival-goers in the disabled campsites, plus ways of dealing with overcrowding on the disabled platform, and the cup recycling scheme will be extended to include plastic bottles.

Expect the campsite to open at noon on Wednesday 11th June and to close at noon on Monday 16th June.

This year the campsite will have comedy acts in the Campsite Entertainment Tent from 10pm Wednesday 11 June and running up to Saturday night will be the satirical Ivan Brackenbury's 'Hospital Radio' Roadshow, with Chris Lynam, Duncan Oakley, Jason John Whitehead, plus Gary Delaney, Rob And Skatz, Jason Rouse, Andrew O’Neill, Ian Cognito, Greg Cook, Sully O’Sullivan, and Lou Saffire. The Campsite Entertainment Tent will be used later during the evenings to host burlesque performers, Guitar Hero, and new for 2008 – Silent Discos!

As well as music, expect lots of on-site activities in ‘The Village’, which includes activities such as LaserQuest, human table-football, contortionists, and drumming workshops. This year's Download Radio, which broadcasts across the site from the Wednesday straight through to the Monday is available by tuning into 87.7FM.

Download Festival 2007 made efforts to reduce the festival's overall carbon footprint. Over 2,100 fans participated in their Liftshare scheme; 17.6 tonnes of drinks cups, and over 60 tonnes of waste were recycled; while 633 pieces of camping equipment were donated to charity. In 2008 they plan to make the festival even greener and are looking at more ways of reducing car use to get to the festival as well as improving recycling on site and other environmental improvements.

At Download all the lockers will have a 12v power socket inside. This means you will be able to charge your mobile (using a car charger) as well as lock up your valuables.

More details will be here when available.

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