All human life is here in Donington Park, gathered in their masses to worship at the temple of high-volume amps in this, the epicentre of Metal festivals for the past forty-six years. It is heartening to walk around a sea of people and witness countless thousands smiling as they forget their day jobs and the world outside just to lose themselves for a few days as Download 2026 rumbles onwards, an unstoppable titan.
Download XXIII – Friday, 12 June 2026
Words: Paul Monkhouse
Photography: Matt Pratt
Whilst things may have changed a little at the head of the event, what does not alter is the bewildering amount of bands spread over four main arena stages and the opportunity to tick off bucket list acts as well as finding a new favourite.
From people who were probably at the very first Monsters of Rock festival to the young children held on shoulders and with ear protection as they throw the horns skywards, this was a multi-generational event that proved again that UK metal has found its home in this little part of Derbyshire.
It was certainly a year of contrasts as veteran acts rubbed shoulders with the young pretenders and the term ‘rock’ was at times stretched to breaking point with the addition of acts like Scooter and Five to the bill.
Fortunately, there were more than enough bands with heft to outweigh the off-kilter choices, and with headliners Limp Bizkit, Guns N’ Roses and Linkin Park, there was more than enough spectacle for even the most demanding.
With a shower on Thursday, the site was nicely drying out by Friday, and with a capacity crowd in attendance, moving around the site through knee-deep mud was not an issue, with sunburn and dust being more of a problem to most.
Kicking off things on the Apex stage, Scene Queen warned her family, present at the side of the stage, that the set was going to be her most offensive and certainly her self-dubbed ‘Bimbocore’ was a joyously filthy riot of no-punches pulled songs about all aspects of the human experience, all wrapped up in punk pop glitter.
Equally feral, Slay Squad dominated Dogtooth with their ferocious blend of street-smart rap and rock, their gloriously righteous anger a jolt of electricity to the senses that even their exhortation of “this is our first time in London” could not derail.
Back on the main stage, the very welcome return of P.O.D. saw the San Diago Nu-Metal princes bring their own fire to proceedings, anthems like Voice Of The Nation and Alive sounding as fresh and relevant as they ever have.
James And The Cold Gun brought an old-school hard rock flavour to things, their set full of big riffs and the sort of feel that would not have felt out of place at the original Monsters of Rock festival back in the ’80s.
Bringing sunshine vibes across the site, Hollywood Undead effortlessly switched between heavy hitters like opener Undead through to the bright acoustic led Bullet before Pendulum bring bouncing anthems like Propane Nightmares and Archangel to get the masses moving.
Incendiary sets by Drain and Lake Malice tore things up before Periphery and Electric Callboy brought their own madness to the day, the German electronicore particularly well received with their manic neon-covered beats and party vibes setting them out as certain future headliners.
More serious but just as impressive, Daughtry shone, the main man himself possessing a very fine set of pipes and whilst it was a bit of a disappointment that Lzzy Hale did not join the band for their take of Journey’s Separate Ways (Worlds Apart).
The rest of the set contained infectious numbers like Pieces and The Day I Die that more than made up for that.
Elsewhere, Cyprus Hill’s incendiary hip-hop, Band-Maid’s Heavy Metal thrills and Feeder’s Brit rock hits all got already sweating audiences up to boiling point, but it was Halestorm’s well-earned headline set on the Opus stage that drew a massive crowd.
In Lzzy, they have one of the greatest voices of a generation, and material like I Miss The Misery, Love Bites (So Do I) and Back From The Dead shows they have the songs too, with a cheeky little cover of Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance thrown into the mix.
Celebratory and triumphant, it was the perfect way to get everyone ready for a bittersweet set by Limp Bizkit, the field in front of the Apex stage a thickly carpeted sea of grinning people.
With the recent loss of bass player Sam Rivers heavy on their minds, this was a tribute to the brand he built and saw the band on ferocious form, Fred Durst leading the singalong as every lyric was projected on the huge screen at the back of the stage.
With Wes Borland’s extraordinary outfit and a set made up of giant cassette boxes, My Generation, Hot Dog and Nookie all were received with unhinged fervour but things really kicked off when Rollin’ tore into its chorus.
Covers of Faith and Behind Blue Eyes brought some different flavours and despite having to stop when there was an incident in the crowd, the band swept back and topped everything off with a furious and potent Break Stuff.
With the option of catching the mighty Cavellera or to head into the Village to finish the night, there was no doubt that Friday was going to be hard to beat.
