Download 2025

[northernangel]

2 hours ago, Spiral_Low said:

I don't think we will see Iron Maiden at Download again. They've realised they can book cheaper headliners and still sell tickets.

 

Ghost, Blink 182, Parkway Drive

I think you'll see Maiden one last time. They've realised they can book a capped festival at 80k instead of 110k too. But I guess that depends where by if the cheaper headliners are cheap enough they only need to sell that many tickets. I can't see Download though getting mass undercards without bands taking slots higher up than expected without getting big hitters still and the cost isn't going to come down.

[Andre91]

2026: 

 

APEX: My Chemical Romance / A Day To Remember / Turnstile 

 

OPUS: Killswitch Engage 

 

 

APEX: Linkin Park / Architects / Lamb of God

 

OPUS: Good Charlotte 

 

 

APEX: Ghost / Evanescence / Gojira

 

OPUS: Rob Zombie

[FloopFiller]

5 hours ago, Spiral_Low said:

I don't think we will see Iron Maiden at Download again. They've realised they can book cheaper headliners and still sell tickets.

 

Ghost, Blink 182, Parkway Drive

Nah I think they’ll always aim big initially and only resort to smaller bookings if they struggle to lock down the mega headliners like they did this year and seemingly again next.
 

Reckon ‘26 will be one new headliner (Ghost) and then two of your standard bigger headliners if they’ve already got stuff in place and aren’t scrambling for options. 

[callum97]

Linkin park 

 

MCR 

 

Blink 182

 

 

 

[LJR200]

4 hours ago, northernangel said:

I think you'll see Maiden one last time. They've realised they can book a capped festival at 80k instead of 110k too. But I guess that depends where by if the cheaper headliners are cheap enough they only need to sell that many tickets. I can't see Download though getting mass undercards without bands taking slots higher up than expected without getting big hitters still and the cost isn't going to come down.

I agree with this personally. Could definitely see Iron Maiden one last time at Download. I think this whole Download 2.0 thing for me personally is about bringing through the new acts, whilst still giving fans the chance to see the legendary acts like Metallica or Maiden. As a guess I also think we will get Metallica, Slipknot, Linkin Park, System, and Avenged again within the next ten years.

[Andre91]

Download 2.0 is a bit of a misnomer. People talk about it like they’re fully focused on young hands when two of the headliners this year have been around for 30+ years. Download is still booking bands like BFMV, The Darkness and Steel Panther in massive slots so it hasn’t changed totally. 

[GoodbyeLulu]

I like the new direction, and it's clear that it's actually necessary for the festival to survive, but don't see why McFly should be taking up a slot/budget here.

 

Didn't feel strongly about Busted because you could make the argument that their music has some kind of 'edge' to it, but McFly don't even come close to the 'alternative' arena.

 

I'm sure loads of people will go see them, but is that the only criteria bookers should have?

[northernangel]

15 hours ago, Andre91 said:

2026: 

 

APEX: My Chemical Romance / A Day To Remember / Turnstile 

 

OPUS: Killswitch Engage 

 

 

APEX: Linkin Park / Architects / Lamb of God

 

OPUS: Good Charlotte 

 

 

APEX: Ghost / Evanescence / Gojira

 

OPUS: Rob Zombie

 

There is potential here but MCR could just do stadium shows, I don't think them and LP play. I think Rob Zombie is likely there on the second year round. I'd firstly see no reason to book Evanescence in that spot, switch with Architects.

15 hours ago, FloopFiller said:

Nah I think they’ll always aim big initially and only resort to smaller bookings if they struggle to lock down the mega headliners like they did this year and seemingly again next.
 

Reckon ‘26 will be one new headliner (Ghost) and then two of your standard bigger headliners if they’ve already got stuff in place and aren’t scrambling for options. 

 

Likely this.

14 hours ago, callum97 said:

Linkin park 

 

MCR 

 

Blink 182

 

 

 

 

I think there's absolutely no chance you're getting that.

13 hours ago, LJR200 said:

I agree with this personally. Could definitely see Iron Maiden one last time at Download. I think this whole Download 2.0 thing for me personally is about bringing through the new acts, whilst still giving fans the chance to see the legendary acts like Metallica or Maiden. As a guess I also think we will get Metallica, Slipknot, Linkin Park, System, and Avenged again within the next ten years.

 

I don't think you'll get A7X again soon and SOAD I think is unlikely. I think there was a prime option for them to come over this year with festivals doing anniversary shows they have played before and theg haven't. Slipknot once more is likely too.

 

11 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Download 2.0 is a bit of a misnomer. People talk about it like they’re fully focused on young hands when two of the headliners this year have been around for 30+ years. Download is still booking bands like BFMV, The Darkness and Steel Panther in massive slots so it hasn’t changed totally. 

 

Download 2.0 means nothing really. But none of those bands you mention there should be in massive slots. Bullet last headlined 2000 trees and that's 3rd down Download at max. Skindred played it too and they get 3rd down off of name. Soft Play headlined Trees. Don Broco who have did bigger tours than Bullet without needing one of those big 'co-headline' things. In my opinion, a big crowd at a festival isn't the only relative point to where they should be...some people are actually holding off on tours actively expecting a band at a festival and Download is kinda predictable. 

 

5 hours ago, GoodbyeLulu said:

I like the new direction, and it's clear that it's actually necessary for the festival to survive, but don't see why McFly should be taking up a slot/budget here.

 

 

 

Didn't feel strongly about Busted because you could make the argument that their music has some kind of 'edge' to it, but McFly don't even come close to the 'alternative' arena.

 

I'm sure loads of people will go see them, but is that the only criteria bookers should have?

 

I was out last night at a pub gig and they covered year 3000, my first thought was how do this sound anything like McFly?! I personally think they are a dreadful booking. They covered Wheatus too. Busted and McFly are mates, that's as close as it comes to being relative. 

[andyrhodes24]

12 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Download 2.0 is a bit of a misnomer. People talk about it like they’re fully focused on young hands when two of the headliners this year have been around for 30+ years. Download is still booking bands like BFMV, The Darkness and Steel Panther in massive slots so it hasn’t changed totally. 

Someone said it right the other day, people have cried out for Download 2.0 but when it comes it’s not good enough.

 

It probably says a lot that this is the first download I’ll be getting a ticket for, it appeals to me as a rock fan and not a traditional metal fan.

[foolee]

7 hours ago, GoodbyeLulu said:

I like the new direction, and it's clear that it's actually necessary for the festival to survive, but don't see why McFly should be taking up a slot/budget here.

 

Didn't feel strongly about Busted because you could make the argument that their music has some kind of 'edge' to it, but McFly don't even come close to the 'alternative' arena.

 

I'm sure loads of people will go see them, but is that the only criteria bookers should have?

They’re honesty the exact same thing. If you dive deeper into McFly they actually have heavier stuff than Busted (see Corrupted - cool live video of Rou Reynolds playing this live with them at Ally Pally). Plus they’re better live.
 

They’ll also get a massive crowd and they’re the same thing in the sense that’s where a lot of younger alternative folk started their music journey into heavy music, a gateway band as a lot describe Busted. I feel like this view on McFly seems to be the one from people that grew up listening to Busted therefore people want them to be heavier or something to kind of justify their liking for Busted. They’re both bands that write their own songs and play pop music, end of. Thunderbirds are go and year 3000 have absolutely no ‘edge’ to them. 
 

Steven Battelle from Lost Alone produced their most recent album which is worth a listen and Jason Perry from A also produced Radio Active which is worth a listen. 

 

Fair enough if you don’t like them or didn’t grow up with them but people did, love them and will have a blast. It’s a win for McFly who love rock/alternative music themselves and for the fans who grew up listening to them. 

Edited November 16 by foolee

[northernangel]

53 minutes ago, andyrhodes24 said:

Someone said it right the other day, people have cried out for Download 2.0 but when it comes it’s not good enough.

 

It probably says a lot that this is the first download I’ll be getting a ticket for, it appeals to me as a rock fan and not a traditional metal fan.

 

To be honest though there is a lot of metal in there. That first big section alone with two of the headliners has 10 metal bands vs 6 just about rock bands. There is a hell of a lot of metal throughout the lineup. If the festival went to traditional rock suddenly it would lose a lot of people. When Andy says they have to move with the times he means headliners because he's run out if options, there is plenty of undercard options about. I didn't expect such a reaction to ST in general but I don't really know them. I just know they were subbing FR at Reading and subbing Avalanche in the past few years and now suddenly headlining.

[northernangel]

2 minutes ago, foolee said:

They’re honesty the exact same thing. If you dive deeper into McFly they actually have heavier stuff than Busted (see Corrupted - cool live video of Rou Reynolds playing this live with them at Ally Pally). Plus they’re better live.
 

They’ll also get a massive crowd and they’re the same thing in the sense that’s where a lot of younger alternative folk started their music journey into heavy music, a gateway band as a lot describe Busted. I feel like this view on McFly seems to be the one from people that grew up listening to Busted so people want them to be heavier or something they’re not to kind of justify there liking for Busted. They’re both bands that write their own songs and play pop music end of. Thunderbirds are go and year 3000 have absolutely no ‘edge’ to them. 
 

Steven Battelle from Lost Alone produced their most recent album which is worth a listen and Jason Perry from A also produced Radio Active which is worth a listen. 

 

Fair enough if you don’t like them or didn’t grow up with them but people did, love them and will have a blast. It’s a win for McFly who love rock/alternative music themselves and for the fans who grew up listening to them. 

I have to heavily disagree here, I grew up with Busted on my screen all the time and they were not a gateway at all to the alternative or heavier seen at all. I grew up at a time when Linkin Park, Blink 182 and SOAD were on my tv, I didn't need a pop band to get me into these, I listened to these.

 

They are pop bands that are guilty pleasures for people who at the time were in phase of being too cool to like them or see them as more than just a passing by fun band. Busted I might pass by at a festivals, McFly no.

[Andre91]

The issue with McFly is that it’s just totally uninspired and predictable. ‘We had Busted, who shall we have next? McFly!’ It’s something that was already done about 5 years ago in the exact same way at Slam Dunk. The only difference was that both they and Busted were ‘secret’ sets. 
 

I also don’t think McFly have the same ‘cred’ as Busted which will show when they don’t get the same sized crowd Busted did. Busted and Avril Lavigne were artists at the time who did have a level of crossover with rock fans but I don’t think anyone at the time was going ‘Yeah, McFly!’. 
 

If they’re going to be bringing in more atypical acts and giving them decent slots, go for something interesting like Run The Jewels, Ashnikko or Denzel Curry. I’d even include acts like The Streets and Kasabian who I don’t really think are that much more out of place than McFly. Like I said, I get Busted being there but not McFly as much. 

[foolee]

43 minutes ago, northernangel said:

I have to heavily disagree here, I grew up with Busted on my screen all the time and they were not a gateway at all to the alternative or heavier seen at all. I grew up at a time when Linkin Park, Blink 182 and SOAD were on my tv, I didn't need a pop band to get me into these, I listened to these.

 

They are pop bands that are guilty pleasures for people who at the time were in phase of being too cool to like them or see them as more than just a passing by fun band. Busted I might pass by at a festivals, McFly no.

No such thing as a guilty pleasure in my opinion, just like what you like, no need to be guilty about it.
 

People saying McFly can’t play Download but say Busted can are the same as the people slating Sleep Token headlining and consistently want Iron Maiden etc. in my book. It’s just gate keeping. Same type of people that love Blink but hate on MGK/Yungblud. It’s one thing I really hate about the metal/rock scene, seems to be worse in the UK than in mainland Europe see Maneskin/MGK/Yungblud have all played Rock Am Ring/Rock Im Park. 

[foolee]

10 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

The issue with McFly is that it’s just totally uninspired and predictable. ‘We had Busted, who shall we have next? McFly!’ It’s something that was already done about 5 years ago in the exact same way at Slam Dunk. The only difference was that both they and Busted were ‘secret’ sets. 
 

I also don’t think McFly have the same ‘cred’ as Busted which will show when they don’t get the same sized crowd Busted did. Busted and Avril Lavigne were artists at the time who did have a level of crossover with rock fans but I don’t think anyone at the time was going ‘Yeah, McFly!’. 
 

If they’re going to be bringing in more atypical acts and giving them decent slots, go for something interesting like Run The Jewels, Ashnikko or Denzel Curry. I’d even include acts like The Streets and Kasabian who I don’t really think are that much more out of place than McFly. Like I said, I get Busted being there but not McFly as much. 

Disagree completely. McFly supported Busted when they first toured. They’re the same crowd and had the same impact with a couple of years between. You can’t put Avril in the convo because she was played on Kerrang! and dressed very alternative so was already in the crowd over Busted/McFly. McFly were just a couple of years younger. If you’re saying 31-34 you’re probably a Busted head when growing up and if you’re slightly younger 28-30 you probably got into McFly. 
 

McFly had DVDs etc. and spoke a lot about the alt influence and bands like Blink-182. There’s songs on the most recent album that are comparable to Weezer (who they love and have written with). 
 

Come on now, someone who grew up listening to Kasabian isn’t the same people getting into Blink after. I actively know people and know of people that listened to McFly and that got them into listening to pop punk. 

Edited November 16 by foolee

[northernangel]

42 minutes ago, foolee said:

No such thing as a guilty pleasure in my opinion, just like what you like, no need to be guilty about it.
 

People saying McFly can’t play Download but say Busted can are the same as the people slating Sleep Token headlining and consistently want Iron Maiden etc. in my book. It’s just gate keeping. Same type of people that love Blink but hate on MGK/Yungblud. It’s one thing I really hate about the metal/rock scene, seems to be worse in the UK than in mainland Europe see Maneskin/MGK/Yungblud have all played Rock Am Ring/Rock Im Park. 

Why would someone who likes Blink automatically like MGK or Yungblud though? 

 

To be fair on the booking Maiden argument you've got the organizer to blame for that as that's what he made a point if booking so many times because he had to have them instead of changing it up. 

[Andre91]

I don’t see any reason why a Blink fan wouldn’t like MGK’s pop punk material or some of YUNGBLUD’s other than stubbornness because of who they are. 

Edited November 16 by Andre91

[Spiral_Low]

22 hours ago, northernangel said:

I think you'll see Maiden one last time. They've realised they can book a capped festival at 80k instead of 110k too. But I guess that depends where by if the cheaper headliners are cheap enough they only need to sell that many tickets. I can't see Download though getting mass undercards without bands taking slots higher up than expected without getting big hitters still and the cost isn't going to come down.

It will be interesting to see if they keep the cap next year. 

19 hours ago, FloopFiller said:

Nah I think they’ll always aim big initially and only resort to smaller bookings if they struggle to lock down the mega headliners like they did this year and seemingly again next.
 

Reckon ‘26 will be one new headliner (Ghost) and then two of your standard bigger headliners if they’ve already got stuff in place and aren’t scrambling for options. 

Thing is I think these big bands are increasing just going there own way, doing stadiums and selling a tonne of merch doing so. Plus Download seems to be actively trying to switch their audience to a younger crowd (I mean they are a business after all) so I think future bookings will reflect that. We'll see. 

 

52 minutes ago, foolee said:

No such thing as a guilty pleasure in my opinion, just like what you like, no need to be guilty about it.
 

People saying McFly can’t play Download but say Busted can are the same as the people slating Sleep Token headlining and consistently want Iron Maiden etc. in my book. It’s just gate keeping. Same type of people that love Blink but hate on MGK/Yungblud. It’s one thing I really hate about the metal/rock scene, seems to be worse in the UK than in mainland Europe see Maneskin/MGK/Yungblud have all played Rock Am Ring/Rock Im Park. 

I'm seeing just as much gatekeeping from Gen Z these days, saying they don't want the older crowd there and using comments like 'bloodstock crowd' to describe all metal fans. 

[Andre91]

51 minutes ago, foolee said:

Disagree completely. McFly supported Busted when they first toured. They’re the same crowd and had the same impact with a couple of years between. You can’t put Avril in the convo because she was played on Kerrang! and dressed very alternative so was already in the crowd over Busted/McFly. McFly were just a couple of years younger. If you’re saying 31-34 you’re probably a Busted head when growing up and if you’re slightly younger 28-30 you probably got into McFly. 
 

McFly had DVDs etc. and spoke a lot about the alt influence and bands like Blink-182. There’s songs on the most recent album that are comparable to Weezer (who they love and have written with). 
 

Come on now, someone who grew up listening to Kasabian isn’t the same people getting into Blink after. I actively know people and know of people that listened to McFly and that got them into listening to pop punk. 

I’m not saying that, definitely not. What I mean is that I think someone like Kasabian would do well even if they are a total wildcard. 
 

Where do they go from McFly if they want to make it a thing? 

[andyrhodes24]

We’ve all talked about gatekeeping R&L over in that board for years, it’s not stopped the festival changing. How many comments do you see on socials saying ‘look at what we had in 2005’ etc.

 

Download will change because it has to, not necessarily because it wants to. You’ll see Download becoming what R&L was, and Bloodstock becoming what Download is/was over time.

[Spiral_Low]

1 hour ago, andyrhodes24 said:

We’ve all talked about gatekeeping R&L over in that board for years, it’s not stopped the festival changing. How many comments do you see on socials saying ‘look at what we had in 2005’ etc.

 

Download will change because it has to, not necessarily because it wants to. You’ll see Download becoming what R&L was, and Bloodstock becoming what Download is/was over time.

Bloodstocks capacity is capped at 20000 so I don't think they're really change too much, they have a good thing going.

 

But if I was AEG I'd be seriously looking at putting on a rock and metal fest in July, like Kilimanjaro did with Sonisphere. 

Edited November 16 by Spiral_Low

[GlitterTea]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

Where do they go from McFly if they want to make it a thing? 

 

 

 

Slamdunk had nowhere to go after it 😅

 

I do think it's interesting that Busted have the 'cred' for being rockier, seemingly just for being a bit older? Or is it that Charlie is also in Fightstar? Because I don't think we can pretend the fightstar stuff has any influence on Busted in any way.

[northernangel]

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

I don’t see any reason why a Blink fan wouldn’t like MGK’s pop punk material or some of YUNGBLUD’s other than stubbornness because of who they are. 

 

I like some of Yungblud but not MKK. The difference is that Blink are a punk rock band and MGK is a pop punk rapper. He gets similarities with Eminem not Blink 182.

1 hour ago, Spiral_Low said:

It will be interesting to see if they keep the cap next year. 

 

Download have the potential in the not too distance future to become a bit of an IOW where it just downgrades a little. For what they have booked this year it is not much different to a case of IOW booking a huge band and some others that are able to top but at a lesser size.

1 hour ago, Andre91 said:

I’m not saying that, definitely not. What I mean is that I think someone like Kasabian would do well even if they are a total wildcard. 
 

Where do they go from McFly if they want to make it a thing? 

 

If Kasabian were ever booked for Download sh*t would hit the absolute fan. So many of Download's yearly annual attendees would vote to go elsewhere.

[LazyDavid]

Assuming McFly headline Avalanche, I'm not enjoying this trend of deliberately booking bands too big to headline that stage, the whole area was a horrendous bottleneck (and it was also the exact time my stomach decided the yorkshire pudding I had earlier in the day was a big nope).

[northernangel]

1 hour ago, LazyDavid said:

Assuming McFly headline Avalanche, I'm not enjoying this trend of deliberately booking bands too big to headline that stage, the whole area was a horrendous bottleneck (and it was also the exact time my stomach decided the yorkshire pudding I had earlier in the day was a big nope).

It happened for a lot of bands in 2023 as well as with that sellout the second stage space was too small for any slightly big act on there.