Download has rocked for 20 years
FESTIVAL PROMOTER PROMISES BIGGEST AND BEST EVENT TO CELEBRATE ANNIVERSARY
TWENTY years on and promoter Andy Copping is still rocking – all over the world, in fact – to pull together the 20th anniversary Download Festival taking place next June.
Two decades of organising more than 100 acts that appear each year at Donington Park have not lessened his enthusiasm for the project – if anything, he is more excited than ever about his work.
Tickets for the mammoth four-day celebration festival at Donington went on sale last week with the announcement that Slipknot, Bring Me The Horizon and Metallica – the latter for two nights with two different sets – will be appearing.
Andy was positively glowing with pleasure over the fact that the headliners and more than 60 acts were already signed up.
He said: “Actually, we had the headliners in place before the last festival in June this year. We toyed with the idea of announcing them at the 2022 festival, but thought we would wait until we had more bands in place to go with them.
“We have early bird tickets on sale and they have sold really well because people know that the 20th anniversary is going to be something special.
“Metallica, who liked the idea of doing two nights when I approached them, helped us celebrate our tenthanniversary festival as well, along with The Prodigy and Black Sabbath. Certainly, Metallica have enough in their back catalogue to play separate sets. They actually appeared at the first Download in 2003 as part of a secret, and then headlined the following year in 2004.
“Slipknot are old friends of the festival and Bring Me the Horizon, from up the road in Sheffield, are a band we are bringing through.”
The Download Festival grew out of the legendary Monsters of Rock Festival, which ran from 1980 to 1996. It initially ran for two days and increased to three in 2005.
But next year it will run over four days from Thursday, June 8, to Sunday, June 11. Gates will open on Tuesday, June 6, to allow campers to set up in plenty of time, with on-site entertainment, food and shops.
It is expected that at least 100,000 people will be on site each day – about 75 per cent of them camping. The biggest previous crowd was 100,000 in 2012, but Andy is hoping to exceed that easily.
He said: “This is going to be the biggest Download festival ever. We are conscious that people might find it tougher to commit to buying tickets this time with the cost-of-living crisis hanging over them.
“So we have aimed to keep prices as keen as possible, bearing in mind that everything is increasing in price, for us and for the bands.
“We also have a ticket deposit scheme where people can pay in instalments, which is really popular. But for many this represents their annual holiday and they save up for it. With a maximum of six days on site this year, it’s like being away for a week.”
Andy thinks that many of the people who attend the 2023 festival were probably at the original one in 2003 because he says “we have always attracted a very loyal following”. He added: “We recognise that some people come every year and have always played a big part in its success.
“We also rely on those people to tell us how each festival has gone and how we can improve things through the fans’ forum. We are confident that, like last year, with improvements to our car parking, traffic will not be a problem and that the people of Castle Donington, who are very welcoming, will not be disrupted.
“We are on top of most things to do with the event, including staffing, and so it feels good to be ahead of the game and makes me feel a lot more comfortable at this stage before Christmas. Mind you, I am never off duty. I once had an email arrive confirming a band in the middle of Christmas dinner, so I need to be prepared for anything.
“The only thing also needed is more good weather like 2022, and we will all be keeping our fingers crossed for that.”