The 20 greatest Download festival sets ever
Download isn’t just the biggest rock and metal festival in the UK - it’s hallowed ground. A spiritual successor to the legendary Monsters of Rock, Download’s 20-year history has seen it bring together the great and good of rock and metal in a veritable Who’s Who that has made many a career.
From booking reunited legends like Faith No More, Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine to “farewell appearances” from Black Sabbath, KISS and Aerosmith (we’re still not sure we’ve seen the last of all of them!), Download has made its reputation on creating one of the most exciting and vibrant rock’n’roll experiences year-in, year-out.
Even when the festival calendar was decimated in 2020, Download didn’t just survive; it thrived, returning the following year with a 10,000 capacity test event titled Download Pilot, a triumphant celebration of live music that ushered in a return to normality. With its triumphant, double-Metallica-dosing 20th anniversary celebrations following two years later, Download's place atop the UK's rock and metal festival throne remains unchallenged. With 2024's lineup announcing later this evening, here are the 20 sets that have defined its reign so far.
Metallica – Scuzz Stage, 2003
At the first ever Download, rumours started to circulate that Apocalyptica's slot in the middle of the day on the second stage was going to be filled by metal’s biggest band. For once an on-site rumour proved to be true: Metallica stepped out and decimated a packed tent, before heading off into the distance. It was too much to believe for some. A shell-shocked Nathan Gray of Boysetsfire, the band directly on afterwards, asked: “Did Metallica just support us?” Yeah mate, they actually did.
Metallica - Main Stage, 2004
The image of a procession of nervous drummers waiting patiently, sticks in hand, to have their shot at sitting in the most prestigious drum stool in metal will never be forgotten by those who saw it. Metallica without Lars Ulrich seems an absurd idea, but in 2004 – with Lars a no-show due to anxiety – the band roped in Slipknot’s Joey Jordison, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo and Lars’ drum tech Flemming Larsen to play a set that was even faster and more frantic than they had sounded in years. For drama alone it was a landmark Metallica show, and certainly like no other show they’d ever played.
Trivium – Main Stage, 2005
Trivium were basically kids when they were added as the opening act of Download 2005’s Main Stage. When they looked out at the empty field at 10.58, two minutes before their set was due to start, they must have felt a felt tinge of disappointment. It was a different story as they stepped out to start playing and were greeted by the sight of thousands of metal fans careering down the hill toward them. Matt Heafy and co then played the set of their career, instantly establishing themselves as metal’s most exciting new band.
The Prodigy - Snickers Stage, 2006
Anyone bemoaning the idea of The Prodigy playing a festival like Download simply hasn't seen The Prodigy. Billed opposite a main stage-headlining Guns N' Roses still in their 'Axl-and-friends' era, dance music's most abrasive firestarters brought so many punters to the tent that people were spilling out almost as far as the eye could see. Once the band arrived on stage, the place went ballistic: mosh pits immediately opened up, crowd surfers were everywhere and people were even climbing the pillars. Prodigy would return to play the (now outdoor) second stage once more in 2009, before headlining the whole festival three years later.
Gojira - Snickers Stage, 2006
Not many bands would have been up to the task of filling in for Mastodon in the mid-2000s. Atlanta's finest were fast becoming recognised as one of the most powerful, exciting metal bands of their generation. If you're gonna have to swap them out, though, you really couldn't do better than subbing in Gojira for their first ever major UK festival show. The French extreme metal behemoths blew the roof off the tent with the heaviest riffs heard at Donington that weekend. A new force in heavy music had officially arrived.
Machine Head – Main Stage, 2007
It’s impossible not to think that if Machine Head had carried on the momentum of their The Blackening-era career they surely would have gone on to headline Download. In 2007 they were arguably the best band in metal, and they turned up on Download’s Main Stage in devastating form, making even Slayer (yes, that Slayer) look ordinary courtesy of a pulverising seven-song set that culminated in a staggering rendition of Davidian.
Lethal Bizzle - Tuborg Stage, 2008
If you thought the whingers had laid into The Prodigy playing Download, you hadn't seen nothin' yet. While some welcomed the different flavour that grime heavyweight Bizzle brought to Donington, others just weren't having it, a mixture of genre snobbery and outright racism polluting the reaction that the rapper received as he walked out on stage. Bizzle wasn't afraid of a challenge, though: he stepped up magnificently, playing a rowdy set that won the crowd over so decisively that he was roared back on stage for a quick run through of his verse from Gallows' cover of The Ruts' Staring At The Rude Boys. Lad.
Slipknot – Main Stage, 2009
When the bill was announced for Download in 2009, Slipknot were a controversial choice for a headliner (yes, really!). Some suggested that they had yet to earn their place at the top table, despite a decade of near-perfect live shows under their belts. We all know what happened next: Slipknot at Download 2009 was one of those rare moments when a set went into legendary status mere minutes after it finished. The highlights are almost certainly imbedded in your brain at this point; the four-song opening missive from the band’s self-titled debut, the mass sing-a-long that opens Duality and the insane reaction from everyone present, from the front of the stage all the way to the burger vans at the back going crazy. By the time they left with a venomous Spit It Out, Slipknot had Download in the palm of their hand, where they’ve kept it ever since, the idea that they would play Donington as anything other than headliner put very much to bed.
Faith No More – Main Stage, 2009
It had been 12 long years since Faith No More disbanded, although the legend and influence of their brand of idiosyncratic funk rock had only grown during that time. No one expected a reunion, so when they announced they would be returning to headline Download it blindsided everyone. Their performance saw frontman Mike Patton hobbling out on a cane, doing pushups onstage and slipping bits of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face into the set, the band delighting longtime fans by being as unique and bizarre as they ever were.
AC/DC - Main Stage, 2010
Download bent over backwards to accommodate AC/DC back in 2010; their name didn’t appear on any t-shirts and they even got to bring their own stage just for them for the day. But once the band got up there all the fuss was forgotten, eclipsed by the joy of seeing the Young brothers onstage at Donington Park for the first time since the old Monsters Of Rock days. And, armed with a bulletproof set of rock’n’roll bangers and an actual train that burst through the stage, AC/DC had 100,000 people eating out of their hands.
Ghost - Pepsi Max Stage, 2011
Mere months after their debut album had set the underground scene alight with excitement, rumour and confusion, Ghost made their Download bow halfway through Saturday afternoon in the confines of the roofed third stage. Shrouded in smoke and lurking around the stage, trusty thurible in hand, the OG Papa Emeritus announced himself to a bewitched, packed-out tent, surrounded by his mysterious masked cohorts. The full-hearted singalongs that greeted Ritual proved Ghost were far more than a fun gimmick, setting the stage for Tobias and his crew to become their generation's breakout metal band.
Iron Maiden - Main Stage, 2013
Any time Maiden come to Download you’re looking at something memorable, but 2013 had it all. With the band on their Maiden England Tour, revisiting 1988’s Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son setlist, it was a set of heavy metal manna from heaven, chocked full of some of the most anthemic songs our genre has ever produced. From the moment a Spitfire flew over the heads of the crowd at the start of the set before the band launched into opener Moonchild, this became a show for the ages.
Linkin Park – Main Stage, 2014
For fans of a certain age, Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory is a landmark album, a record that introduced an entire generation to guitar music. Fourteen years after its release the band rocked up at Download having agreed to play it in its entirety. Their set pulled in one of the largest crowds in recent memory, and gave 80,000 people an unforgettable nostalgia trip, made even more poignant with the passing of frontman Chester Bennington a few years later.
Babymetal - Second Stage, 2016
After Download's organisers initially baulked at the idea of booking the sugar-sweet kawaii-metal sensations, Babymetal snuck onto the bill for a surprise appearance in the third stage tent with Dragonforce in 2015. They went down such a storm that they were brought back properly a year later, playing outdoors to a huge crowd, with an atmosphere that grew from curious to delighted as the show went on. Even some typically horrendous English festival weather couldn't dampen the fun, consolidating Babymetal's status as Download alumni forever more.
Tool – Main Stage, 2019
The seemingly endless wait for new material and some UK live shows from music's most enigmatic and mysterious band had gone on so long that many fans believed that there was to be no return from Tool. So, the anticipation that hung in the air on the last night of Download 2019 was palpable. Maynard James Keenan and co didn’t disappoint, using the video screens for their own psychedelic images and playing a set of transcendent, ethereal post-metal, the band turned a field in Leicestershire into a religious experience.
Slayer – Second Stage, 2019
The final UK show from one of the greatest metal bands the world has ever seen. After over 35 years of destroying metal fans’ vertebrae, we finally said goodbye to Slayer with their headlining slot on the second stage in 2019. Far from getting sentimental, Kerry King and co did what they had spent their career doing, namely powering through a set of warped speed thrash with not a pause for breath. We’ll never see the like again.
Skindred - Main Stage, 2021
Announced at short notice and featuring a British-centric lineup, the Download Pilot event was a more intimate but desperately needed version of the festival after the pandemic had KO'd the previous year's edition. It was an event full of emotional, heartwarming moments as UK metal fans were able to frolic in a field together once more, but few summed up the weekend better than Skindred's marvellous early evening set in the Sunday evening sunshine, a thunderous Newport Helicopter putting the cherry on the cake of a historic showing.
Spiritbox - Avalanche Stage, 2022
Almost two years after they became a viral sensation with Holy Roller, Spiritbox proved the buzz wasn’t purely digital when they packed out the Avalanche Stage tent in 2022. With a howl of “Cut down the altar”, the Canadians wasted no time in showing what they were made of; gigantic riffs, scream-along anthems and one of metal’s most commanding new frontwomen in Courtney LaPlante ensuring Spiritbox first UK show was the most legendary Download debut since Trivium played the Main Stage in 2005.
Evanescence - Second Stage, 2023
16 long years since their last appearance at Donington, Evanescence drew an astonishingly huge crowd to the Opus Stage for a stunning, career-spanning set that dished out plenty from latest album The Bitter Truth, but still threw in enough all-time classics to make sure Amy Lee and her crew drew some of the biggest singalongs of the whole weekend. If ever there was evidence needed at just how important this band were to a whole generation of rock and metal fans, this was it.
Bring Me The Horizon - Main Stage, 2023
At Download's biggest weekend ever (literally: they had four bloody days), Bring Me The Horizon finally got the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of Slipknot and Avenged Sevenfold before them in proving once and for all that they had the chops to headline the UK's biggest rock and metal festival. They seized it in style, bringing the most grandiose, retina-singeing stage show of the weekend and a career's-worth of hits, underlining their importance to both the British metal scene and to the progression of heavy music in the 21st century.
