If you close your eyes right now and listen very carefully you might, just might, be able to hear the bass beginning to thunder as the promised land of Donington Park prepares to welcome us all into her warm embrace this summer.
In just over 60-days the mosh pit will return, the Download Dog will once again howl in delight as up to 100,000 marauding metallers and rock n’ roll revellers will descend on the East Midlands for the unrivalled, unmissable, and much needed musical tonic for our thirsty souls.
After two dreadful years which have been blackened by the dark shadow of the Covid witch, and a time in which so many of us were restricted to our homes or gardens if we were lucky for long stretches. And a time when live music, far less a festival like Download, felt like a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the return of Download this summer is the perfect summer destination for music lovers from around the globe.
For three heart-warming, soul stirring, foot stomping days, June 9, 10 and 11, we will descend on the hallowed and sacred turf of Donington Park for the returning Download Festival which is to so many of us the Mecca for metal, the paradise of punk, the heaven of happiness and the promised land of rock n’ roll.
With a little over two months to go until we pack our wellies, flip flops and Converse All Stars (you never know what kind of mood old Mother Nature will be in over Download weekend) anticipation is naturally creeping up towards maximum levels.
Four absolutely stacked stages, rammed to the rafters with all the bands we have grown up with, have exploded onto the scene or bands waiting to be discovered by new listeners – one thing they all have in common is they have provided the soundtrack for the longest and most difficult time of all our lives.
For two summers they have filled our Spotify playlists, crackled through vinyl and laid ear worms in our heads but now, finally, thankfully, we can pay homage to the bands and the songs we love, live and in living colour.

The main man himself, the cult hero, band booking, era defining, stetson wearing, always smiling festival head honcho Andy Copping has pulled together a glorious line-up for us in 2022 and we can’t wait to see him unchaining the padlock and opening Donington for the hordes in early June. It is then, when we first step onto that famous grass, the turf which has hosted all our most cherished and precious musical memories from Monsters of Rock to Download Festival, that the darkness of two years without the festival will finally disappear in our rear view mirrors.
For the following three days and three nights it will be a weekend in the promised land, basking in the musical glow of the bands and artists who have wooed our musical souls for another weekend which will undoubtedly further cement the legacy of Download in our hearts, minds and souls.
By the time I make my way through the gates of Download, so many of my fellow rock n’ roll brothers and sisters will have already spent a night or two in the campsites setting up their favourite home-from-home, deck chairs facing the sun, swilling from their precious stock of tins and Jack Daniels as the Download family welcomes us all home.
This year Copping and the Download crack team have compiled such a stellar line-up it really should be displayed in 12-foot neon. Our Friday night delight will be fuelled by a heady mix of joy, fireworks, some of the biggest and catchiest rock tunes of all time and might even end with a tear or two, as KISS play their final ever UK show.
The Demon, The Starchild, The Catman and The Spaceman will have their passports stamped on UK soil one last time before the American legends hang up their face paint.
Download will beBlessed with a staggering back catalogue of mega hits from Crazy Nights; Detroit Rock City and Love Gun; KISS will be an event not to be missed, and they will bring their usual pyro-packed show to the main stage before they bow out from our musical lives.
Sharing the top of the podium as headliners are also Iron Maiden on Saturday night and Biffy Clyro on Sunday.
Donington Park sits proudly on the premier site for rock music in the UK, and arguably across the world. The rock stars’ playground and home to the annual Download Festival – the fist-pumping, head-banging phoenix which rose from the ashes of the fondly remembered Monsters of Rock.
There is literally nothing quite like it. Festival season brings out the best in rock fans and Download brings you the best in the planet for your musical pleasure.

In around two months, we will be alongside an expected 100,000+ like minded rock revellers on the sacred turf for the 2021 edition of the best weekend of the year, and this year is shaping up to be better than ever before.
We can picture the scene in our musical hearts as the sun sets and the sky moves from deep sea blue to purple in the East Midlands sky, while the bona fide future headliners Volbeat – surely a shoe-in to make the leap from upper festival slot to headliners in the near future – will bring their unique blend of metal, rockabilly and melodic hooks to the main stage.
On subsequent nights A Day To Remember, Deftones and Korn will take the sub-headline slots, playing in the fading light to an ocean of happy, grinning rock fans – Downloaders scattered throughout the vast expanses of Donington Park.
Standing in a field full of your musical brothers and sisters, shoulder-to-shoulder with your best friend or other half with the sun (hopefully) bearing down on your back, a cold drink in your paw, the other arced skywards in the traditional rock horns shape.
And on the stage, any one of over one hundred bands to tickle all your rock and metal fancies.
As the gates open to the promised land on Friday, we will charge onto the turf like an army of recyclable plastic cup and grin wielding Spartans.
Finding a spot to settle in as the bands plug in and the music … begins.
As the opening bars crank in, a wall of noise rushes forth from the stage like a ravenous beast looking to reclaim its territory.
In the crowd, you begin to stomp your foot, swing your hips, raise your spirits and break into a face splitting smile – Download Festival welcomes us home.
This is a cycle which repeats over three glorious days and for most it passes like a motion-blur, over too quickly, but it leaves its musical bootprints on your soul until the countdown begins for the next visit to Donington Park.

This June the metal masses, the rock rebellion and the festival fun-seekers will descend on the sites around Donington Park for this year’s musical marathon, which pumps up the volume for one gloriously, unforgettable weekend.
Aside the headliners who we mentioned earlier, the likes of The Distillers, Bush, Steel Panther, Deftones, Sepultura and Airbourne head-up a bill stacked to the rafters with the kind of bands you’d do pretty much anything to see, and the others? Well, they are just new favourite bands waiting to be discovered by you.
But one of the most anticipated bands for us were always going to be the UK’s own Creeper. And by next June we expect they will draw a record breaking crowd to the Avalanche Stage where they are tucked away on Saturday evening.
Just last year Southampton band were the toast of the genre as they win their tongue-in-cheek battle with Ronan Keating to secure a Top 5 place in the UK Top 40 Album Charts, with their stunning second album Sex, Death & The Infinite Void.
Yes, the secret about Creeper, one of the flag bearers for the new and soul stirringly exciting generation of rock bands, is well and truly out. Expect a thunderous charge to their set next summer and sorry in advance to whoever is up against them on the other stages, because they don’t really have a chance.
But then the beauty of a festival with four stages and a huge number of bands is there is always something to see, and for every band you haven’t heard of is just a new band for you to fall in love with.
The weather is always something us festival revellers enjoy a moan about or look ahead to with trepidation or hope, but to be honest after the shit storm 2020 and 2021 dropped on all our lives we couldn’t give a crap about the weather. Nothing Mother Nature flings our way can be anything compared to the mess 2020 dumped onto Planet Earth and all us miniature dwellers.

At the risk of repeating what I said earlier – Download is the best weekend of my year every year. Here at the New Rock Times we’re already counting the days off until we will be nesting down in East Midlands all over again. Time to start stocking up on baby wipes, portable power banks for your phones and preparing to make another head and heart full of unforgettable memories.
After all, the likes of KISS‘ Beth, Strutter, Rock N’ Roll All Night, Deuce are the kind of songs from a legendary band which turned so many of us onto this gloriously muddy path to festivals like these in the first place.
It’s festival season, the gates to paradise are almost open and it’s time to go to the promised land once more.
Horns up and see you and all the metal army next summer – no rain though Mother Nature you moody old boot – we’ve all been through enough!


Download Festival takes place at Donington Park between 10th – 12th June 2021. For further information and tickets head to the festival website.