Download Festival 2012: The Countdown Begins

It’s been five months since Linkin Park gave Download Festival 2011 the mammoth send off it deserved. Since then, I’m sure most of you who were in attendance have had many a conversation with your friends going over all your highlights, whether that be drunken banter in the campsite, or witnessing one of your rock heroes gracing the stages dotted all around Donington. It only feels like yesterday team Daily Dischord was heading back to the north of Scotland in a smelly bus after a long weekend of hard rock, but with the long awaited announcement that Metallica will be headlining the main stage on the Saturday of Download, the countdown truly starts now.

Despite my immediate excitement regarding the addition of Metallica, it seems that no matter what Andy Copping (Download promoter) does, there will always be a number of neysayers who are awfully quick to write the festival off as a whole. I mean, when the rumours started flying about that Metallica were possibly going to be announced, I could understand why many were underwhelmed. The same band didn’t just headline Download’s arch nemesis Sonisphere last year, they done so with “the big 4″ (Slayer, Anthrax and Megadeth), which up until July this year had never happened in the UK before. It wouldn’t have been enough for the Download team to simply throw Metallica on the bill, and they clearly knew this as they announced the American metal band will be playing their self titled (otherwise known as The Black Album) album in it’s entirety on the Saturday of Download 2012. What makes this appearance so special is that both entities will share landmark birthdays on the same forsaken grounds. The Black Album is one of metal’s most well decorated albums, and to celebrate it’s 20th birthday whilst celebrating ten years of Download Festival is just about as good as it gets. Yes, Metallica have indeed played Download twice already. So what? Six years is a long time, and back in 2006, they never played their self titled album in it’s entirety. Download needed a spectacle to hook a wavering fan base once again, and if you can’t recognise that this is indeed a spectacle, then you are a very tough punter to please.

This time last year we were asking questions of Download Festival. How was it ever going to trump the stellar line up Sonisphere was bringing to Knebworth? In 2012, it looks like Donington has turned the tables. Make your move, Sonisphere. It better be a good move too, because with rumours flying around that another headliner announcement is imminent, Download’s organisers are clearly not finished rolling with the punches quite yet. The countdown to June starts now. 7 months isn’t too far away, right?

Posted by Liam | Blog, Download Blog, Download Festival, Festivals
  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1719388696 Dugs Collectables

    Two decades old

  • Spiceyg1

    I agree in it’s entirety however, it needs a gOod back up like sabbath or iron maiden too. In my personal opinion we need old stalwarts to carry off an anniversary year. not just kids are into metal, and not all new metal is good metal either. A good finishing line up is needed to make it memorable iron maiden n sabbath n deff leppard would be fantastic. I tell u Bruce dickinson might be 53 but my god he gives any youngster a run for his money, I saw him in Portugal in July n maiden were awesome. then fill it all up with new guys like korn which in my
    Opinion r brilliant or limp bizkit. There are people still goin back to donnington since it’s inception n they also need a treat.

  • http://www.facebook.com/joe2626 Joe Powlesland

    What I have liked about Download festival in the past is the way that there’s usually a day headlined by a reasonably mainstream act such as Paramore, MCR, LostProphets etc. then there’s a metal/nu-metal headliner on the next night e.g. Slipknot, Linkin Park, Tool etc, followed by the classic metal/rock headliners like Def Leppard, Iron Maiden etc. I understand how many people may be underwhelmed, myself very much included (having seen a Metallica set of around 3 hours at Soni in ’09) but as a sunday headliner, you can’t go wrong as long as the 2nd stage has an impressive headliner and the couple of bands leading up to ‘Tallica are decent.

    Again, this year, i’ll probably have the money for one festival. I wonder if it’ll be Reading, Soni or Download this year…

  • Sean Spencer

    Joe, Metallica are headlining the Saturday night.

  • Anonymous

    For the most part I agree with your comments, I really think they need to bring out the classic acts, and Metallica are certainly one of them. I would love to see Iron Maiden on this bill again but at the same time, I think given Download’s audience these days, they need to have a balancing act. Black Sabbath will almost certainly be the second headliner, so I really expect the third one to be a bit more modern.
     Lets just hope they haven’t blown their budget with these two massive headliners!