Donington Park, 13โ15 June 2025. Rain, riffs, and ridiculousness.
๐ง๏ธ THURSDAY: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM (SORT OF)
Pre-Party Chaos ๐๏ธ
Download 2025 kicked off Thursday night with the usual โquiet nightโ that turned into โtent-on-fire, someone-lost-their-shoe, cider-riverโ mayhem by 7pm. Itโs tradition. Itโs beautiful. Itโs disgusting. Itโs Download.
๐ฅ FRIDAY: RIFFS, RAIN & REVELATIONS
MAIN STAGE
Bring Me The Horizon ๐ค
These lads came to headbang and cause existential crises, and they were all out of chill. Oli Sykes commanded the crowd like a gothic preacher at a nu-metal revival. Pyros, giant screens, lasers โ it was a cyberpunk sermon with breakdowns. New stuff slapped, old stuff had us screaming like 2007 emos at Warped Tour.
Verdict: โCan you feel my heaaart?โ โ YES, ITโS POUNDING.
Rating: 9/10
Architects ๐๏ธ
Sam Carter = throat-shredding beast. But the energy felt off. Crowd was into it, but halfway through, it sagged like a wet tent pole. Technical tightness? โ . Vibes? Bit lukewarm.
Verdict: Metalcore meat, but missing some spice.
Rating: 7/10
Neck Deep ๐ธ
Wrexham pop-punkers brought the Welsh weather and the Welsh fun. Crowd surfers, circle pits, and heartfelt singalongs. Felt like early blink-182 got a pint with McFly and it worked.
Verdict: Tidy! A fun, sunny set in a grey sky.
Rating: 8/10
SECOND STAGE
BABYMETAL ๐โ ๏ธ
Still confusing. Still captivating. Samurai dancers, kawaii screams, thunder riffs. One minute itโs anime hellcore, the next itโs Iron Maiden with pom-poms. We loved it. We feared it.
Verdict: WTF in the best possible way.
Rating: 9/10
Nova Twins ๐งจ
Biggest โI-told-you-soโ band of the weekend. Explosive. Loud. Unapologetic. Took the second stage and turned it into their own riotous revolution.
Verdict: Punk, power, and paint-peeling rage.
Rating: 9.5/10
DOGTOOTH STAGE (THE CHAOS DEN)
Heriot โ๏ธ
Sounded like a robot war in an abattoir. Brutal. Unrelenting. But not a lot of variation. Sound guy probably lost his eyebrows.
Verdict: Good for 15 minutes. Then: sensory overload.
Rating: 6.5/10
๐ถ๏ธ SATURDAY: BIG NAMES, BIG MOMENTS, BIGGER BEERS
MAIN STAGE
Slipknot ๐ญ
Clown masks, blood, and a goddamn marching band of destruction. Corey Taylor unleashed the beast. Absolute chaos from start to finish. When โDualityโ dropped, Donington collectively blacked out.
Verdict: Still kings. Still terrifying.
Rating: 10/10
Parkway Drive ๐ฅ
Came in like a flaming freight train. Pyro cannons everywhere. Winston McCall roared like heโd eaten Lemmyโs ghost for breakfast.
Verdict: Metalcore that punches you in the kidneys.
Rating: 9/10
Sum 41 (Farewell Set) ๐ฅน
Not a dry eye in the pit. A nostalgic sledgehammer of skate punk classics. โFat Lipโ turned the field into a teenage wasteland one last time.
Verdict: Thanks for the memories. You legendy Canadian loons.
Rating: 10/10
SECOND STAGE
Electric Callboy ๐ โก
A fever dream of neon spandex, techno-core, and 80s workout aesthetics. Every song felt like Eurovision gone heavy metal. Crowd lost its collective mind.
Verdict: Absurd. Perfect. More please.
Rating: 9.5/10
Dying Fetus ๐
Name = accurate. Brutal. No nonsense. No survivors. But maybe not the Saturday evening mood-lifter we needed?
Verdict: Tighter than a tent zipper at 4am.
Rating: 7.5/10
AVON STAGE
Kid Bookie ๐ค
Genre blender. Punk, grime, metal โ all mashed together in a chaotic ball of energy. Not for purists. But for the open-minded? A revelation.
Verdict: Wild, weird, wonderful.
Rating: 8.5/10
โฐ๏ธ SUNDAY: THE FINAL RIFFNING
MAIN STAGE
Metallica ๐งจ (Secret Set Surprise!)
YEP. They did it. Secret Sunday slot. No announcement, just BOOM โ Hetfield strutting out like a riff-daddy warlord. They played Master of Puppets in full. Crowd = dead. From joy.
Verdict: LEGENDARY. HISTORY MADE.
Rating: 11/10 (Yeah we broke the scale)
Five Finger Death Punch ๐
Muscles, riffs, and militarism. Standard FFDP chaos, but felt tired after the Metallica high. Ivan Moody tried to start a pit every five minutes. Crowd went meh.
Verdict: Heavy but hollow.
Rating: 6.5/10
Halestorm ๐ช๏ธ
Lzzy Hale is an absolute goddess. Voice like a whiskey-fuelled hurricane. Ripped through their set like she was headlining Glasto.
Verdict: Top-tier rock nโ roll ferocity.
Rating: 9.5/10
SECOND STAGE
The Hu ๐
Mongolian throat-singing metal warriors. Epic. Ritualistic. Like Rammstein in a yurt. Crowd didnโt know what hit them, but they were chanting by the end.
Verdict: Unique and unforgettable.
Rating: 9/10
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes ๐
Frank stage-dived off a speaker stack wearing nothing but leopard print and rage. Crowd obeyed every word. Carnage in the best way.
Verdict: Punk messiah energy.
Rating: 10/10
๐๏ธ MONDAY MORNING: TENTS ABANDONED, DIGNITY LOST
You know itโs Download when you see:
- A pair of Doc Martens in a tree ๐ณ
- Someone asleep in a bin ๐๏ธ
- A fully inflated paddling pool floating in mud ๐ถ
Everyone left exhausted, hoarse, sunburnt and frostbitten somehow. But buzzing.
๐ค FINAL VERDICT: DOWNLOAD 2025
Download 2025 was a beautiful mess of metal madness, muddy pits, and magic moments. From Metallicaโs surprise set to Sum 41โs farewell, it was a wild ride through everything rock has to offer. And yeah, a few bands flopped โ but thatโs festival roulette, innit?
Total Vibe Rating: ๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค๐ค (5/5 Riffs)
MVP Band: Metallica (obviously)
Best Crowd Moment: Frank Carter commanding 30,000 people to sit in the mud โ and they bloody did
Weirdest Thing Seen: Man dressed as a traffic cone crowd surfing during BABYMETAL
๐ช UNTIL NEXT YEARโฆ
Download, you muddy, metal-loving maniac, weโll see you in 2026. Same field. Same chaos. Different hangover.
Diolch yn fawr, Donington! ๐ด๐ฅ๐ค
