Download Festival 2025
Photos and words by Matt Sheppard

Download Festival is a name known to all UK Rock and Metal heads as the UK’s biggest festival dedicated to the scene, it’s a yearly pilgrimage for some and might have been some fans’ first year at the festival. After a few years of wildly different weather (flashbacks to the scorcher for 2023, and the mud bath that was 2024), I packed both my wellies and sunhat to cover all bases and made my way to the hallowed ground at Donnington Park Race Circuit. I've been a regular at Download over the years since my first time in 2016, but this was my first year photographing and reviewing the event, so I was keen for a different experience to years gone by.

The 3 days of music / 100,000+ capacity festival is already a hive of activity and buzz when I arrive, even before any of the music has started. A good number of festival goers have been there since Wednesday, soaking up the Leicestershire sun and (probably) drinking way to much beer. Entertaining themselves with activities and events in Downloads village area, filled with rides, food stalls, and most notably, Download’s very own night club tent, District X. The most notable act to be performing before the main festival started was Thursday night, where The Vengaboys were playing in a weird clash of music genres. However despite this and from watching videos online, its clear to see that all the metalheads in that tent were all up for a trip on the Vengabus to go to Ibiza. No room for music genre snobbery here, just alot of people up for a hell of a good time.

It should be noted that none of the 3 headliners of this years festival have EVER headlined Download before, which is refreshing to see new bands who have not been on the bill before be either given a shot in the guise of Sleep Token and KoRn, or finally managing to give a headline slot to one of the great bands of this music genre with Green Day.

After a very early coffee fuelled drive up North, arriving on Friday morning and getting the tent setup, it was straight off to the arena to make the most of the day. Upon writing this review, I've just realised how varied the locations of the musical talent in this years festival is coming from, evidence of how alive and well the rock scene is in current times. Northlane hailing from Sydney, Australia, Crossfaith all the way from Japan, Vola from Denmark, Green Day coming over from America, all bands from anywhere are welcome as long as they're ready to melt some faces with heavy riffs and breakdowns.

Friday's viewings for me included Dead Pony, Northlane, Graphic Nature, Crossfaith, Vola and then another surprise genre clash in the form of McFly. Yes you read that right, headling the avalanche stage. Which I felt was a problem, McFly could probably have done with being on the second stage with a lot more room, the crowd was spilling outside of the tent to watch the pop rock quartet play some of their biggest songs. Including a tribute to some other Download royalty, with a snippet of Metallica's Master of Puppets thrown into McFly's song ‘5 Colours In Her Hair’.

Green Day were the main event on this UK summer evening, bringing their classic brand of American anti-establishment punk they've become world famous for over the last 4 decades. Opening their set with some of the classics such as ‘American Idiot’, ‘Holiday’ and ‘Know Your Enemy’. It was a joy to finally watch a band from my early teen years. Special moments of the set include front man Billie Joe getting distracted by a plane taking off from East Midlands Airport at one point, seemingly forgetting he was on stage in front of tens of thousands of people. Another being during ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, as Billie sang the lyrics "Here comes the rain again" it actually started raining across the site, almost as if some divine intervention from the powers that be.

Saturday started off a bit grey but heated up quickly. I started off the day in the Avalanche tent, watching Autumn Fires, a small newcomer band to Download who won Kerrang’s "The Deal 2025", but very much showing why they deserved to be there pulling a good crowd for a pre-midday show at a festival. Lastelle, were up next, followed by Split Chain and then LØLØ. Mallory Knox made a great appearance in the Avalanche Tent, then followed by seeing Cradle of Filth on the Dogtooth Stage. Watching this set from the photo pit was intense, as Cradle of Filth seemingly brought every pyro machine they could get their hands on.

Sleep Token were up to headline on the Saturday night. Their meteoric rise is nothing short of astounding. 2022 they were playing the Avalanche stage, the third largest stage at Download. Now just 3 years later, they've gone from a small tent to headlining the entire festival. They took over the entire festival for the day, truly making a mark that this was a day for worship to the god, Sleep. With bunches of flowers inspired by the album artwork from their new album, Even In Arcadia, appearing almost magically Friday morning, winding their way up the sound towers and around the arena. Once Shinedown had finished their set on the main stage, the whole stage was curtained off to allow the work to begin to set up the stage for the main event. With the excitement for the show reaching fever pitch, and once that curtain had dropped the suspense that had been building throughout the day was justified. The set included all of their biggest songs. ‘Alkaline’, ‘Caramel’, ‘Emergence’, all there, performed in absolute sheer awe of the crowd. Sleep Token truly nailed their first Download headline slot, I can't imagine it's going to be the last and they have proved that they absolutely deserve to be there and the hype is well and truly justified. I'm not sure where Sleep Token goes from here but they might just have to create another level for themselves, which they'll then inevitably get to.

Sunday kicked off for me seeing the American rockers Arrows in Action, then more American rockers in the form of Nothing More, then Survive Said The Prophet from Japan. Followed by the secret (not so secret) set of Malevolence. I'm pretty sure these guys nearly broke the Avalanche tent with how many break downs and riffs these lads from Sheffield have in their setlist. Crowd surfers were coming over the top of the crowd within the first few drum beats of ‘If It's All The Same To You’, their opening song. Shortly followed by seeing Dead Poet Society, Lorna Shore and Bullet For My Valentine in quick succession. A quick run over to the Dogtooth for the Novelists and then back to the Avalanche to see the Cardiff lads of Kids In Glass Houses round out the final tent set of the night.

Sunday's headliner, KoRn, have played Download more than 10 times prior to 2025, always on smaller stages or support slots on the main stage. But now, in 2025, they were given their space at the main slot, 30 years in the making. Normally on Sundays at Download, there's a mix of exhaustion, hangovers, heat stroke, tiredness, whatever for the headliner. Some people on Download Sundays opt to leave early and make an early dash for the exit to get home to indoor plumbing and comfy mattresses. This was not the case this year for KoRn. The arena was packed for the set and they came out swinging, starting their set with Blind, with its iconic intro to start the set off. It felt like KoRn were out to show what they can actually do, with a point to prove that they deserved this shot at the headliner. Which they very much did deserve.

Overall, Download is always a great weekend regardless of whether its hot and beautiful sunshine, or rainy and muddy, or in this year's case dusty. It's a wonderful testament to the rock and metal scene and there’s a reason its the biggest metal festival in the UK, every year its always a fantastic weekend. I'll be waiting for the first line up to be announced before getting tickets for 2026, but mentally I've already spent the money.