Some festivals move around. This one has stayed in the same field for more than forty years. Donington Park, the motor-racing circuit near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, hosted Monsters of Rock from 1980 to 1996, and has been home to Download Festival since 2003. This is the history of that field, and every Download headliner, year by year.
Monsters of Rock, 1980–1996
The first Monsters of Rock took place on 16 August 1980, with Rainbow headlining and Judas Priest, Scorpions and Saxon also on the bill. Wikipedia puts the crowd at 35,000 and says the promoter Paul Loasby, who was promoting Rainbow's UK tour, planned it as the tour's final show.
It became an annual one-day institution, held every year until 1996 apart from 1989 and 1993. AC/DC headlined in 1981 in front of more than 65,000 people, according to Leicestershire's museum service, which records that a bell cast at John Taylor's foundry in Loughborough was struck during "Hells Bells". Whitesnake topped the 1983 bill above Meat Loaf, ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, Dio and Diamond Head. Iron Maiden headlined in 1992, broadcast live on Radio 1. Metallica headlined in 1995, under the banner "Escape from the Studio", and the last Monsters of Rock at Donington, in 1996, had Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne as co-headliners.
20 August 1988
The biggest Monsters of Rock was also the worst day in its history. On 20 August 1988, Iron Maiden headlined in front of an estimated 107,000 people, a record for the festival according to Classic Rock, with Kiss, David Lee Roth, Megadeth, Guns N' Roses and Helloween below them on the bill.
During Guns N' Roses' set, the crowd surged towards the stage. In BBC News's words, the surge ended in "crushing two fans to death". Classic Rock reports that the promoter Stuart Galbraith and Iron Maiden's manager, Rod Smallwood, decided not to tell the band until after their show. There was no festival the following year.
“It was one of the best events, but definitely the worst experience of my career.”
— Stuart Galbraith, promoter, to Classic Rock, 2023
A modern Monsters of Rock
Monsters of Rock faded out after 1996. In 2002, as the festival's own history puts it, Ozzfest at Donington "proved that there was an appetite for a new event at the venue". Download followed in 2003: two days, two stages. Credit for creating it goes to Stuart Galbraith in some accounts and to the promoter Andy Copping in others; Copping, who has booked it since the beginning, explained the idea to Music Week in 2017.
“I wanted it to be the modern day Monsters Of Rock. I was at the very first one in 1980 and I went to a number of them over the years. But I knew why Monsters Of Rock had died: it hadn't moved with the times.”
— Andy Copping, Music Week, 2017
The first year set the tone for surprises. Iron Maiden and Limp Bizkit were booked as the headliners; Limp Bizkit pulled out and Audioslave took their place. Metallica played a secret afternoon set on the second stage, and The Darkness made one of their first festival appearances, in the festival's words, "way down the bill". Download became a three-day event in 2005.
Download 2006: the line-up
The year people still search for is 2006. It ran from 9 to 11 June, with Tool headlining the Friday, Metallica the Saturday and Guns N' Roses the Sunday. The main-stage bills, from the top:
Friday: Tool, Deftones, Coheed and Cambria, Soulfly, Strapping Young Lad, SOiL, Wicked Wisdom, Amplifier. Saturday: Metallica, Korn, Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, Stone Sour, Alice in Chains, Arch Enemy, Bloodsimple, Satyricon, with Down as an unannounced opener. Sunday: Guns N' Roses, Funeral for a Friend, Bullet for My Valentine, Cradle of Filth, Lacuna Coil, In Flames, 36 Crazyfists, DragonForce, Hatebreed, Breed 77.
Metallica played Master of Puppets in full for its 20th anniversary. Korn's Jonathan Davis was taken to hospital, so the rest of the band played with guest singers including Corey Taylor, M. Shadows and Matt Heafy. Guns N' Roses' Sunday set was chaotic: bottles were thrown, Axl Rose slipped, and the bassist Tommy Stinson was hit and briefly left the stage. Further down the bills were two bands who would later headline: Enter Shikari on the Friday and a young Bring Me the Horizon on the Sunday.
Galbraith, by then festival director, told BBC News that 75,000 people a day had attended. The weekend ended badly: about 12 people were detained by police on the Sunday night after fires were started and missiles were thrown at officers.
“There were 75,000 people per day at the event, and up until last night, there had been no major incidents over the weekend.”
— Stuart Galbraith, BBC News, 12 June 2006
Finding its feet, 2008–2019
For its first five years Download lived on the circuit's infield, as Monsters of Rock had. In 2008 Formula One developments pushed it to a site west of the track, and in 2009 it moved to its current home in the fields south of the circuit. Copping has said that 2005, when the bill leaned towards indie, was a misstep, and that 2009 was when the festival found its identity.
“There was a proper sea change in 2009 when Def Leppard and Whitesnake were booked with Faith No More and Slipknot. I remember seeing somebody in a Slipknot shirt watching ZZ Top. I thought, This is working!”
— Andy Copping, Music Week, 2017
In 2010, thirty years after the first Donington festival, AC/DC headlined with their own stage and the museum service records crowds of more than 100,000. Metallica played the Black Album in full in 2012, Linkin Park played Hybrid Theory in full in 2014, the main stage was renamed the Lemmy Stage in 2016, and Def Leppard played Hysteria in full in 2019.
Every Download headliner, 2003–2026
- Iron Maiden, Audioslave. Limp Bizkit were booked but pulled out.
- Linkin Park, Metallica. Lars Ulrich was in hospital, so Dave Lombardo, Joey Jordison and drum tech Flemming Larsen drummed.
- Feeder, Black Sabbath, System of a Down. The first three-day Download.
- Tool, Metallica, Guns N' Roses.
- My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden.
- Kiss, The Offspring, Lostprophets.
- Faith No More, Slipknot, Def Leppard. First year on the current site.
- AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine, Aerosmith.
- Def Leppard, System of a Down, Linkin Park.
- The Prodigy, Metallica, Black Sabbath.
- Slipknot, Iron Maiden, Rammstein.
- Avenged Sevenfold, Linkin Park, Aerosmith.
- Slipknot, Muse, Kiss.
- Rammstein, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden.
- System of a Down, Biffy Clyro, Aerosmith.
- Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N' Roses, Ozzy Osbourne.
- Def Leppard, Slipknot, Tool.
- Cancelled (COVID-19). Kiss, Iron Maiden and System of a Down had been announced.
- Full festival cancelled. Download Pilot: Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, Enter Shikari, Bullet for My Valentine.
- Kiss, Iron Maiden, Biffy Clyro.
- Metallica (two nights, two different sets), Bring Me the Horizon, Slipknot. 20th anniversary, four days.
- Queens of the Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Avenged Sevenfold.
- Green Day, Sleep Token, Korn.
- Limp Bizkit, Guns N' Roses, Linkin Park.
Maiden's field
No band is more tied to Donington than Iron Maiden. When they were announced for 2007, the band called it a record-breaking fourth headline appearance there, after 1988, 1992 and 2003. They returned at the top of the bill in 2013 and 2016, and when they were announced for 2020, Bruce Dickinson said it would be their seventh. The pandemic cancelled that festival, so the seventh came in 2022 instead.
“This will be our seventh time headlining at Donington Park. It's home turf and we all really enjoy playing this festival.”
— Bruce Dickinson, 2019
The cancelled years and the Pilot
The 2020 festival was cancelled on 26 March 2020 and replaced by an online Download TV weekend. The full 2021 festival was called off on 1 March 2021. Instead, from 18 to 20 June 2021, Donington hosted the Download Pilot, a test event under the UK government's Events Research Programme: 10,000 people, an all-British line-up, a lateral flow test to get in, and no masks or social distancing on site. Tickets were £120, and Blabbermouth reported it as the UK's first post-COVID festival.
2026: full circle
The 2026 bill closed a loop that had been open since the first year. Limp Bizkit, the 2003 headliners who never showed, finally topped the bill, which Blabbermouth noted was the first headline slot of their 31-year career. Guns N' Roses returned for their third Download headline, after 2006 and 2018, and Linkin Park, who had headlined four times between 2004 and 2014, came back as headliners for the first time since re-forming in 2024.
Going to Download
Download is held in mid-June on a site of about 900 acres that wraps around the Donington circuit, next to East Midlands Airport. It is owned by Live Nation, was run by Festival Republic until 2023, and has been run by Far and Beyond since 2024. For the 20th anniversary in 2023 it ran for four days and reported a record 100,000 attendees; BBC News said about 75,000 people were expected in 2024.
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- Headliners by year, the 2006 bills, sites, ownership and the cancelled years: Wikipedia, “Download Festival”, cross-checked against Kerrang! Radio, 20 May 2025, read 10 Oct 2026
- Monsters of Rock: Wikipedia, “Monsters of Rock” and Leicestershire Museum Collections
- 1988: BBC News, 12 Jun 2006 and Classic Rock/Louder, 9 May 2023
- Download 2003: the festival's own history page; Copping: Music Week, June 2017
- Iron Maiden: ironmaiden.com, 30 Jan 2007 and Louder, 23 Sep 2019
- The Pilot: Guitar.com, 26 May 2021 and Blabbermouth, 19 Jun 2021; 2026: Blabbermouth, Nov 2025
- Attendance: uDiscover Music, 12 Jun 2023 and BBC News, 14 Jun 2024
