Perhaps the most exciting of the new additions to the line-up this year is English punk rock outfit Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, who will be appearing on the Second Stage on June 10^th. The band are replacing The Distillers, who have announced that they are postponing all of their forthcoming European festival appearances, stating on social media: “It is with great regret that The Distillers have been forced to postpone their upcoming European festival appearances and headline tour this June…The band express their sincere apologies to all of the fans and hope to return to Europe to play the headline shows as soon as they can, so please hold onto your tickets.”

Other Second Stage headliners include Airbourne, Megadeth, Mastodon, Steel Panther and The Darkness, and other acts who have recently been announced for the forthcoming festival include Birmingham grindcore pioneers Napalm Death, rock ‘n’ rollers Kris Barras Band, hip-hop group Pengshui and alt-rockers Aniilmalia.

This will mark the second year in a row that Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes will play at a Download event, having made an appearance at the experimental 2021 “Download Pilot”, which spearheaded the gradual return of camping festivals in the UK following the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought all live music in the UK to a standstill.

Festival Republic boss Melvin Benn recently told NME: “It’s just over 50 days until we open the gates to the campsite, and there are many, many people counting down every single one of those days…Also, it’s been nearly 1,100 days between Tool closing in 2019 and Heriot opening in 2022. That’s definitely too long without this festival.”

In other news regarding the festival, Download recently announced some new site improvements that will take effect this year which will tackle issues regarding inclusivity, accessibility and environmental related problems. “The Village” camping will be moved closer to the Arena, granting easier access to disabled fans, and a number of environmentally friendly camping schemes have been introduced.

Regarding the changes, Benn told NME: “The Download community embraces fans with disabilities probably more than any other festival, I would say…We’ve been listening to fans, and formerly the accessible campsite was a distance away from the campsite village and almost impassable during a wet year, so we’ve redesigned the campsite overall…The two are now much closer together and it’s nearer to the heart of the camping world…The walk from the campsites to the arena is now much shorter than it was before. It was a trek, but it’s much better now.”

You can read more about Download’s site improvements here.

The Donington Park Festival will also welcome acts including The Pretty Reckless, Daughty, Of Mice & Men, The Offspring, Korn, Disturbed, Deftones, Black Veil Brides, Skillet and Periphery. The full list of acts scheduled for the annual rock festival can be found through the Download website.

KISS are set to begin as headliners on June 12, followed by Iron Maiden the night after, and finally System Of A Down on June 14. The frontman of Iron Maiden Bruce Dickinson said, “This will be our seventh time headlining at Donington Park. It’s home turf and we all really enjoy playing this Festival, the vibe from the crowd is always fantastic.”

Of the festival, Volbeat said in a statement, “We are very excited to return to Donington Park once again to rock with all of our friends in the UK alongside so many great bands,” 

Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage added, “We are honoured and excited to play the mighty Download Festival once again! We are ready to kick out our new songs and play the old anthems as well! Download crowds are always incredible and we are eager to bring the motherfucking ruckus”

Download 2019 was plagued by heavy rain throughout the weekend, yet bands such as Slipknot, (their first gig as Download headliners since 2015) and Tool were acclaimed as highlights of the weekend. 

Welsh band Skindred’s performance was praised, with “Singer Benji displaying a master class in crowd interaction to emit good vibes throughout the Donington crowd as the clouds darkened in ominous fashion.”

Other performances worthy of mention included Swedish veterans Opeth, Rob Zombie and Def Leppard.