Download Festival has become one of the most popular rock music festivals in the UK; with around 111,000 people attending in 2010 it's now the second biggest in the country. Owned and managed by 'Live Nation Entertainment' the festival was created as a follow up to the 'Monsters Of Rock' festival held on the same site at Donington Park Circuit between 1980 and 1996.The name derived from the word 'downloading' which was seen as a 'dirty word' in the eyes of the music industry at the time and was used to symbolise the rebellious nature of the rock music that is performed there. The organisers of the festival received criticism from the rest of the industry who claimed that the event would 'destroy the music industry' but it is, in fact, the opposite. Every year the festival has grown bigger and more popular amongst rock music fanatics and has won countless awards for its performance site, website, music community and the event itself. Starting off as a small rock music festival, here is how Download Festival got as big and as popular as it is today.
2003 – The first ever Download Festival was held on 31st May and 1st June 2003. Around 75,000 people were expected to attend and be entertained by just over 50 bands including main stage headliners Iron Maiden and Audioslave. Later that year Download won 'Event Of The Year' at the Kerrang! Awards.
2004 – Download returned to Donington again in 2004 with headliners Linkin Park and Metallica. They also added an extra stage to accommodate for the 72 bands who performed over the 2 days. Also in 2004 Download was awarded the title of 'The Best Festival' at the UK festival awards and 'Best Event Or Performance Site' at the BT Digital Music Awards.
2005 – In 2005 Download expanded to become a 3 day festival and the Saturday was officially part of 'Ozzfest 2005'. This gave Black Sabbath the right to be a headliner for the event, along with Feeder and System Of A Down.
2006 – The main stage at 2006s event was named in honour of the 25th Anniversary of Kerrang! Magazine with Tool, Metallica and Guns 'N' Roses as the main stage headliners. However, during the set by Guns 'N' Roses bottles were thrown onto the stage causing chaos for the band and later that night, fires were started resulting in 12 people being arrested.
2007 – Download became even bigger in 2007 with over 100 bands performing over the 3 stages and with its popular headliners My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden, the event won 'Top Festival' at the Billboard Touring Awards.
2008 – Headliners for 2008 were Kiss, The Offspring and Lostprophets and with a growing attendance and "fan base" 2008s Download won 'Best Music Community' at the BT Digital Music Awards for the 2nd year running.
2009 – A fourth stage was added in 2009 to make room for the growing number of attendees and performers including the headlining acts Faith No More, Slipknot and Def Leppard. The festival went on to win 'Event Of The Year' from both the Classic Rock Awards and the Metal Hammer Golden Gods.
2010 – A fifth stage was added to the ever expanding site for the arrival of more bands than ever before including AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine and Aerosmith. 2010 was Downloads biggest event to date with around 111,000 people attending.
2011 – Download Festival 2011 was held on 10th-12th June and was headlined by Def Leppard, System Of A Down and Linkin Park. The organisers had gained more sponsors like Jรคgermeister, Vodaphone and Zippo to fund the project and so obtained better facilities, more bands and more camping space to make Download even bigger and better than ever.
Fans of the festival have already started predicting who will be the headliners for Download 2012; rumours have included the likes of Paramore, Foo Fighters and a return by Metallica? Headliners and other performers lined up for next year will begin to be revealed to the public in early December.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.