Enigmatic frontman Maynard James Keenan will be joined by his band Puscifier for their electrifying Download debut on the Opus stage on Thursday night. The band has found the time to squeeze in the festival amid their worldwide tour in support of their remix album Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired, which came out in March.

On again off again English alt-rock band Hundred Reasons will also be performing showcasing their new fifth studio album and first album in over 15 years Glorious Sunset. Watch the band’s latest music video for “Replicate” below:

Toronto hardcore band Cancer Bats, Leeds newcomers Static Dress, New York pop punk band State Champs, Newcastle metal band Rituals, and the darlings of rock & roll The Cherry Bombs are some of the much-welcomed additions to the line-up. Casey, Punk Rock Factory, Haken, Snayx, and Redhook have also been crammed into the packed bill.

The festival has also now revealed its stage splits with set times to follow. To see what bands will be playing where visit here.

Download announced the headliners for this year’s festival back in November. America’s biggest heavy metal band Metallica will be playing “TWO completely unique sets on Thursday and Saturday” according to the organisers. Legendary British rockers Bring Me the Horizon will be headlining the festival for the first time on Friday. American metal royalty Slipknot will be headlining the festival for the fourth time and closing out the festival on Sunday.

The festival previously confirmed that bands such as Five Finger Death Punch, Nova Twins, Ghost, Neck Deep, Evanescence, The Distillers, Deaf Havana, Jinjer, Placebo, Mom Jeans, Crawlers, and Architects would be amongst the hundreds of acts performing at the four-day event.

Musing with NME on the secret to the festival’s success, Download boss and booker Andy Copping said, “I think the secret is that you’ve just gotta keep driving to get better. From the very first year, we’ve tried to get better bands, better the layout, better the campsite and better the experience. You can’t rest on your laurels.”

Unfortunately for those who missed out Download has completely sold out this year. For the first time in the festival’s history, all select day tickets as well as weekend tickets have been snapped up by festival lovers.

Metalheads and noise lovers across the continent will gather in the BEC Arena in Manchester on Saturday the 4^th November this year for Europe’s biggest indoor metal festival. This will be the 17^th year of the day festival first held in Jilly’s Rockworld in October 2005.

Iconic singer Julie Christmas’ set will be her UK exclusive this year at the annual festival. According to the festival’s Instagram post, “fans can expect to hear an eclectic mix of new and old solo material as well as Made of Babies and Battle of Mice gems”, during Christmas’ set.

Last month, Christmas delighted fans with her return to the scene releasing the post-metal song “Not Enough”.  The atmospheric scream-filled single is her first release since the space-themed collaborative album, Mariner, she worked on with Swedish metal band Cult of Luna in 2016 and her first solo work in 13 years. Listen to “Not Enough” below:

Undeath shared their delight at their upcoming Damnation debut with the festival saying, “Damnation has been a fest that we’ve wanted to play since we started Undeath a few years ago, so it feels surreal that we finally get a chance to tear it up with y’all in Manchester this fall. We can’t wait“.

Undeath played to sold-out venues on their 8-date UK tour earlier this year and will also be appearing at Download festival in Derby this June. Just over a year ago, the band released their second LP It’s Time… to Rise From the Grave to favourable reviews from Pitchfork and Kerrang!. See the full Download line up here.

Taking their loud and hypnotic sounds to the stage will be the three-piece Kurokuma. The band from Sheffield released their much-awaited debut album, Born of Obsidian, last year. The band shared the announcement on their Instagram with the caption, “New logo, new era, new show”.

Back in March, it was revealed that headlining the festival this year would be Dorset-based doom heroes Electric Wizard – returning to Damnation after seven years. The Norwegian black metal band Enslaved, Belgium atmospheric sludge band Amenra, and Japanese avant-garde metal band Sigh are also topping the bill. For tickets and more information click here.

Jovi Bunce and Abigal Pearce from Didsbury were the fortunate couple to win the tickets. In the video Jovi uploaded to YouTube on the 25^th April, an unexpecting Abigal is seen kissing the bar before opening it and finding the coveted tickets. The camera then flips to Jovi doing a victory lap and jumping with joy whilst shouting “No way!”. Charlie Bucket would be proud. Watch the video below:

For anyone wondering what winning a Golden Ticket to #Glastonbury Festival looks like… pic.twitter.com/kGZwp53Xzn

— Glasto Fest Feed (@GlastoFestFeed) April 25, 2023

Tony’s Chocolonely, whose mission is to make chocolate 100% exploitation free by ending modern slavery and child labour in the chocolate industry, has teamed up with Oxfam to create the bars. All profits from the limited-edition bars will go to Glastonbury’s charity partner Oxfam. Set up by Dutch television producer and journalist Teun van de Keuken back in 2005, Tony’s Chocolonely is an award-winning company that made its products available in the UK in 2019. The ticket containing chocolate bars will be available to purchase until the 16^th June. Bars are sold out online but are still available to purchase at your local Oxfam shop for just £3.99. Find your local store here. Tony’s Chocolonely shared the video of the couple winning the tickets on its Twitter page writing, “Drum roll.. we have our first winner! Congrats to Jovi, who after missing out on resale bought his winning @oxfamgb @glastonbury bar at @OxfamDidsbury”. They confirmed that the couple are the first winners in their caption: “No need for FOMO. There’s still 4 more pairs of tickets to be found”. One of the videos the chocolate company shared on its Twitter currently has over 33.4K views.

Drum roll.. we have our first winner! Congrats to Jovi, who after missing out on resale bought his winning @oxfamgb @glastonbury bar at @OxfamDidsbury No need for FOMO. There’s still 4 more pairs of tickets to be found Find your local Oxfam: https://t.co/X7jXM5Kgfa pic.twitter.com/30mZ4TOtM4 — Tony’s Chocolonely UK & IRE (@TonysChocoUK_IE) April 25, 2023

This year the last wave of Glastonbury tickets sold out in just six minutes on the 23^rd April leaving many wannabe festival-goers gutted they missed out. The festival will be held from 21^st – 25^th June on Worthy Farm with Arctic Monkeys, Guns N’ Roses, and Elton John headlining the Pyramid Stage. Other acts playing Glasto include Lana Del Rey, Lizzo, The War On Drugs, Chvrches, Shygirl, Rina Sawayama, Lil Nas X, Blondie, Alt-J, Christine And The Queens, Carly Rae Jepsen, Fred Again.., FLO, Joey Bada$$, and Manic Street Preachers. See the above poster for the full line up.

Standout acts on the line-up include Crumb, Ryoji Ikeda, Porridge Radio, Sorry, Wednesday, MAVI & MIKE, Sleater-Kinney, U.S. Girls, Yaeji, yuné pinku, Youth Wagoon, and a headlining set from Weyes Blood closing the festival. For a full list of artists see the poster below:

So far it has been announced that the experimental Japanese sound artist Ryoji Ikeda will be performing at The Barbican on the 8^th November. The Brooklyn-based psychedelic band Crumb will be playing Hackney Church on the 9^th November. On the same evening, the American rappers MAVI & MIKE will be teaming up to headline Earth Hall.

Riot Grrl heroes Sleater-Kinney will be joined by U.S. Girls to play the Roundhouse on the 10^th November. Alabaster DePlume will be playing Koko whilst Dudu Tassa pairs up with Jonny Greenwood at Hackney Church on the 10^th November.

On the 11^th November, the festival will take over multiple venues around Dalston. Artists involved include Porridge Radio, Sorry, Wednesday, Just Mustard, and many more. Meanwhile, electronic house artist Yaeji will be joined by Jessy Lanza, yuné pinku, Debby Friday, and blackwinterwells at the Roundhouse.

Idaho dream pop artist Youth Lagoon is set to play the Earth Theatre on the 12^th November. Closing the festival on the 13^th November will be the whimsical baroque pop artist Weyes Blood at Eventim Apollo.

Tickets for the Yaeji and Weyes Blood events are on sale now. All other events go on sale this Friday 28^th April at 10 a.m. Click here for tickets and for a complete list of artists and venues.

This will be the third year the festival has been held in London. Last year acts such as George Clanton, Injury Reserve, Faye Webster, Animal Collective, Courtney Barnett, and Cate Le Bon played to audiences around London as part of the festival.

The Pitchfork Music Festival will also be held in Paris and Berlin this year. Though the lineup has yet to be announced it’s confirmed that Weyes Blood will be headlining both festivals.

The London festival is a spin-off of Pitchfork’s Summer Music Festival which has been held annually in Chicago since 2005. This year the festival will be held from 21^st – 23^rd July with acts such as The Smile, Alvvays, Perfume Genius, Big Thief, Weyes Blood, King Krule, Bon Iver, Kelela, and JPEGMAFIA gracing the stage at Union Park.