It’s the final countdown to the 2025 Download Festival! With the gates of Donington opening in just six days, and the arena fully open a couple of days after, excitement is building. Rock Sins caught up with Download Festival Senior Booker Kamran Haq recently to cover a huge range of topics about this years’ Download. Booking headliners, mental health, battling the elements were all covered and much more. Lets get down to it and dive in to see what Kam had to say….
As always, thank you for making the time to catch up with us. You’ve had all kinds of huge tour announcements recently as well as trying to get ready for Download so I imagine you must be spinning all the plates right now.
Kam: You’re welcome! This time of year is crazy. We’ve got all kinds of stuff that will be announced around Download as well, so we are just gearing all that up. There’s a lot going on.
Rock Sins: That in itself feels slightly crazy because of the amount of huge tours you have announced recently and obviously so much stuff gets held back to be revealed on the posters at Download at the festival itself. There was the Metallica tour announcement yesterday, and Killswitch Engage and Halestorm and various others you’ve announced recently, it seems you are really keeping them coming at the moment.
Kam: I’ll be honest with you, it feels busier than ever. There’s always going to be big tours in October / November / December time, but this year, it’s just chaos. There’s just so much. I think there’s one Saturday in November where in Manchester alone I’ve got shows at the AO Arena, Manchester Academy, The Ritz and the Club Academy, and a show at Rebellion, all in one day.
RS: That could be ….interesting, and a lot of Ubers if you are trying to get round to see everyone.
Kam: Laughs, Yeeaahhh, that one is stressful just thinking about it.
As we are talking we are about three weeks out from Download and it’s an interesting time for us to catch up. Previously we’ve caught up either just after a big line up announcement, or I think once or twice just after the festival has happened. We’ve seen things on social media that things are just starting to get assembled at Donington to get ready, how are you feeling about where everything is?
Kam: Excited. I can’t wait to get actually on site now. We will be on site in about 2 weeks time. I just hope the weather holds up! laughs
We’ll get onto the weather shortly! laughs How are sales looking? We saw something reported recently from Ticketmaster that almost half the ticket holders for this years’ festival are first time buyers, if that’s true that feels quite healthy for the future of the festival.
Kam: Yeah, it’s super exciting and healthy to see new people coming and people coming to the festival for the first time. This is down to a multitude of factors. We’re at a generational shift with younger people coming to the festival, the way we’ve evolved the line up a bit and made it a bit more contemporary. This means we’ve got people who would have never seen us as an option for what they would do for their Summer festival now coming to Download. There’s a whole group of people who missed out on experiencing festivals because of COVID and now they’re desperate to try new festivals and new experiences. I think as well, you look at Social Media with influencers driving that FOMO of people at festivals, people want to be out there enjoying themselves and experiencing something in the real world.
This is the first time in 15 years you’ve had three brand new headliners, so that’s very exciting and I know from talking to Andy (Copping, head of Download for many years) in years past, he’d been trying to get Green Day since about 2008 or something ridiculous, so it must be nice to have made that finally happen after so many years?
Kam: Green Day was a huge win for us. As you say, a band we’ve been chasing for a long time and finally got them to play Download. They’re a band who would usually either do their own stadium shows, or would play Reading and Leeds as they have an affinity to those festivals, it is a huge win for us. I’m really excited. That run for the Green Day day with Jimmy Eat World, Weezer, Rise Against, it’s going to be a great day.
RS: Jokingly when we spoke on social media before the interview I said I was going to hassle you about how my calendar didn’t line up perfectly. I thik my only major complaint was McFly overlapping with Green Day, especially after how Busted went down last year with the size of that crowd they had.
Kam: Laughs That was a tough one. At one point McFly were literally clashing with Green Day so we had to juggle times around. I think the minute McFly ends Green Day start, so we’ve just about avoided a direct clash thankfully. Going back to Busted, that was INSANE. We’ve never seen anything like it with the Avalanche Stage. It felt like there was about 15,000 people outside the tent trying to get in to see them.
RS: We went about two hours early to make sure we got in and we only just got in.
Kam: The size of the crowds Wheatus had as well, that was a moment for them for sure. I think they knew a lot of people were just waiting for Busted, but still the reaction they got was incredible as well.
RS: Quite a lot of people did leave after Wheatus so I think a lot of people were genuinely there for them as well.
Kam: Oh yeah for sure. It’s almost a nostalgia thing with Wheatus, they’re a great band but when they play the hits, everyone knows every word.
It was very well documented what a challenge it was for Download to book its headliners for 2024, has it been easier this time for 2025?
Kam: It fell into place a bit quicker this year. Fall Out Boy were the last ones for 2024, I think we only had them confirmed in October time and we were announcing in November. I think we had this years’ headliners done prior to the 2024 festival.
RS: That must have been a lot less stressful for you.
Kam: We were in a good position well ahead of usual time. With Download, sometimes it is a scramble sometimes things just fall into place. We are already knee deep in 2026 at the moment, so we are getting there.
Based on what you just said about having the 2025 headliners booked this time last year, the punt to put Sleep Token up to headliners so quickly has cleared paid off. No band has risen up the line up this quickly, maybe ever in terms of Download, but given their tour and a number one album both here and in the US, that looks like it has paid off.
Kam: Sleep Token’s tour last year, they did almost 100,000 tickets across their whole UK tour. It was undeniable that they should headline Download. We’ve not seen that since the likes of Linkin Park, My Chem or Slipknot. We’ve not seen a band explode globally like this either. In the rock world it takes a band awhile to reach that level. It took Slipknot ten years to get to headlining Download, and they were grinding in the US for awhile before that as well. You look at Sleep Token, they were playing the fourth stage in 2018 to where we are now. It’s spectacular. Again, Bring Me The Horizon, they played the MySpace stage back in the day in 2006, and they headlined for us in 2023! It’s great to have some new blood and more bands capable of headlining a festival like Download.
RS: It can only be a good thing for the long term of the festival.
Kam: Definitely, and I do feel like it is a rising tide raises all ships. Seeing a band like Sleep Token in our world having a number one all over the world, it shines a new focus on rock and metal which is great.
RS: Going back a few weeks before that too, you have a band like Those Damn Crows who have done the grind and ground their way to a number one album, and then a couple of weeks later you have the contrast to Sleep Token who as you said are just this global phenomenon.
Kam: Yeah, and then also look at Ghost. They didn’t get number one in the UK, they got number two, but their sales were huge, and they had number one in the US and multiple other countries. It’s amazing to see rock being so strong right now.
I’ve noticed, and it is something some of my friends have pointed out as well, Sleep Token seem to have been a big focus of some of your marketing for the festival this year. Is that because they are less well known to the mainstream, or is it because they are this massive force at the moment as we’ve been saying and is there the idea that Green Day and KoRn almost take care of themselves because they’ve been around for so long?
Kam: I think we wanted to showcase that this band has risen through the ranks and is a brand new headliner for us. Green Day have been seen as a festival headliner for many years. KoRn everybody knows they’re a massive act. So I think there was a focus on Sleep Token in that respect. We have had a focus on the other headliners too but again, we did want to showcase that Sleep Token are this massive act.
Something we ask you every year and you always have good answers to it, so we’re going to ask you again; Which bands or acts from lower down the lineup especially would you recommend for people to go and check out? I know it’s hard because there’s great stuff everywhere, but you usually have two or three for us.
Kam: From my side, let me have a think….Orbit Culture. I think they’re a band on the cusp of something great. I think they’ll be huge in the next few years.
RS: They were great on the Trivium / BFMV tour.
Kam: Oh absolutely crushed it. I think they picked up a whole new fanbase from that tour. They’re going to smash the Sunday at Download. Gore., really excited to see Gore., first time playing the UK, I don’t know if you know the story behind them, the singer works for NASA. Check them out, it will blow your mind. Really excited to see them play on the Friday. President. That’s going to be special. The hype around President, you’re not going to get anywhere near the tent.
RS: It’s going to be one of those “how many bands do you have to go beforehand in order to get in”.
Kam: Laughs Yeah it’s definitely going to be a busy one. And then House Of Protection I think is going to be very special, they are an up and coming band everyone should check out. Dead Poet Society as well on Sunday. Sunday is just stacked. I need to clone myself laughs
RS: You already said it with the run from Rise Against upwards on the main stage on Friday is nuts, Sunday is just equally nuts all over the place.
On that note, Saturday’s main stage…possibly the most eclectic main stage you’ve ever had?
Kam: It’s definitely varied to say the least. We’ve got Hatebreed, Poppy, Don Broco….I’m super excited to see Loathe, they’re another band people should check out, they really could explode in the next couple of years.
RS: They feel like a band who have been on the cusp for a little while and they just need that next thing to happen for them.
Kam: I think once they finally drop the album, it’ll go stratospheric for them. Back to Sunday I can’t wait to see Power Trip again, I think arguably that Sunday run is the heaviest we’ve ever had. Orbit Culture, Bleed From Within, Power Trip, Jinjer, Meshuggah, Spiritbox and then Bullet into KoRn.
RS: Bullet are the lightest band on that, which is nuts.
Kam: Laughs – Yeah exactly. I mean they’re still a heavy band, so it’s pretty nuts.
RS: The Bullet set, is that just a standard BFMV festival set, is it Poison themed, Poison heavy?
Kam: They’re going to lean into The Poison, but they’re not playing the album in full.
Changing tack slightly, obviously we all know what happened last year with the weather. It was biblical at times, the arena was an absolute swamp, probably some of the most challenging conditions you’ve had to deal with since the festival started. Have you put (even more) things in place to try to protect against the weather? I do fully appreciate with that level of rain there is only so much you can do.
Kam: We had almost 6 hours of non stop rain from Saturday into Sunday. It was tough, especially Sunday morning. We had to open slightly later. But the Download audience is resilient to say the least. Rain or shine, they are there. Sunshine is unfortunately never guaranteed. But this year we do have far more track in, so hopefully that will help people navigate the site more easily, but it is tough. If you get a deluge like that there’s not a lot you can do.
RS: And even when it dries, because Sunday afternoon was really nice and warm, it kind of goes to that quicksand like texture which in some ways is even worse.
Kam: Yeah…you’re going from soup to quicksand, that’s a good way to put it. But we are always trying to come up with ways to make the site easier to navigate, especially when there is adverse weather. It’s a constant work in progress.
You’ve increased your wellness offering and that’s something you’ve quite rightly made a big deal out of what you’ve added in the village and in the arena for customers. I just wanted to ask about Wellness for Artists. I don’t know if you know or ever promoted Dropout Kings, their frontman Adam Ramey was a friend of mine and he very sadly died by suicide earlier this week, so it’s been a hard week for a lot of people and it just got me thinking, do you have mental health first aid available for artists, or anything like that in terms of the facilities in place for artists?
Kam: We do have a dedicated set up backstage for artists from Music Support. They have a cabin right next to the artist backstage entrance so if any artist needs any help they can go there. We’ve had it for the last couple of years. They’ve had artists come to them during the festival and go in and sit down and speak to their people and get help. It is definitely beneficial having them backstage.
RS: Really, really pleased to hear that. We all know how hard life can be on the road and you never know when someone could be having a down moment so to know that is available is really great to hear.
Kam: In this day and age, mental health is so important. We all need to be talking about it. We’ve now got therapy available in District X and in the arena, meditation, yoga sessions, quiet spaces for people who are experiencing sensory overload. We’ve got non alcoholic bars this year. We have Raven Records who have a non alcoholic bar set up. We’ve got coffee shops. Alternatives for people who don’t drink alcohol is a part of the experience we are always trying to improve at Download.
RS: I thought the sensory calming stations or whatever you want to call them in particular were a really great idea. We know it’s loud, there’s thousands of people everywhere, there’s lights and pyro and everything else. I thought that was a great idea that was maybe tucked away in with some of the other stuff you’d announced in this area.
Kam: We try to pay attention to our audience. We see what people say online and we do take note of it and try to implement it where we can.
Finally for today, you mentioned District X a couple of minutes ago. Vengaboys. Discuss laughs
Kam: Laughs I mean we’ve been asked to do it for years. So it really was, why not Vengaboys? We have actually tried to approach them in previous years. It just happens that this is the first time it has actually worked out. Jenny and Dannika who book District X, I think they reached out in 2023 or 2024 to see if we could get them and the schedules didn’t line up, but finally this year we made it happen.
RS: Aside from a quite frankly miserable minority who have given it the usual “that’s not metal”, blah, the reaction to this has been one of the most overwhelmingly positive things I’ve seen in a Download announcement for years.
Kam: You just said it. Overwhelmingly positive. I did wonder how it was going to go down when we first announced it. But it went down an absolute storm.
RS: We can absolutely see that being another “you won’t get near the tent unless you go substantially early” situation.
Kam: Yep. That’s definitely going to be a busy one. We’ve even had requests from some of the artists who are playing the festival, can we come and see Vengaboys In District X? So it’s definitely going to be a fun one.
RS: Are you going to have time in your busy schedule to hopefully get along and see that yourself?
Kam: laughs I’m not going to miss that, something as special as that at Download, definitely not missing that.
A huge thank you to Kam as always for his time and for covering so many topics with us. If you want to be a part of the fun at the 2025 Download Festival, limited weekend and day tickets remain for the event that is headlined by Green Day, Sleep Token and KoRn. They top a line up of over 100 artists, plus five days of entertainment in District X before the arena opens and after hours.
