UK Music Festivals

Breakdowns, Emotion, Chaos And A Donington Crowd Properly Flattened Some bands ease into a festival set. LANDMVRKS do not. LANDMVRKS walk onto a stage, plug in, and suddenly it feels like someone has launched a concrete mixer full of riffs directly into your chest. Taking to the Apex Stage at Download Festival 2026 on Saturday afternoon, the French metalcore bruisers...

Heavy metal warriors Tailgunner rolled into Download Festival 2026 with all the leather, denim, soaring vocals and twin-guitar ambitions you'd expect from one of Britain's fastest-rising traditional metal acts. The crowd gathered early, horns were raised, and there was no shortage of excitement around seeing the band bring their high-octane sound to Donington. But if we're being completely honest here...

Bodies, Bounce, Big Riffs And Donington Getting A Proper Saturday Lunchtime Batterring There are some songs that are not really songs anymore. They are alarms. They are chaos buttons. They are festival field detonators. They are the sort of tracks where one word is enough to make thousands of people look at each other and go, “Oh no, here we...

Fresh Energy, Big Hooks And A Saturday Lunchtime Crowd Getting Fully Switched On There are certain festival slots that can make or break a band. Saturday lunchtime on the Apex Stage at Download Festival is one of them. It is not headline chaos. It is not late-night madness. It is not the time when everyone has had enough pints to...

Well then, Downloaders… as if this weekend wasn’t loud enough already! 🔥🎸 The legendary RAF Red Arrows will be taking off and landing from East Midlands Airport, right next door to Download Festival, giving festival-goers an extra dose of high-speed excitement throughout the weekend. Anyone who’s been to Download knows that planes are practically part of the festival experience. The...

Australian Atmosphere, Heavy Groove And A Saturday Morning Wake-Up Call At Donington There are easy ways to start a Saturday at Download Festival. A bacon roll.A strong coffee.A bottle of water and several regrets.A slow shuffle from camp while pretending the previous night did not absolutely batter your soul. Or, if you were brave enough to drag yourself to the...

Ginger, Hooks, Punky Riffs And Donington Getting A Proper Saturday Morning Wake-Up There are gentle ways to start a Saturday at Download Festival. A coffee.A breakfast bap.A slow wander into the arena.A quiet moment to assess how much damage Friday has already done to your body, bank account and emotional stability. And then there is The Wildhearts on the Opus...

Is There Trouble Brewing at Donington? Download Festival 2026 has already delivered massive crowds, huge performances, plenty of mud, and enough aircraft noise to remind everyone they're parked right next door to East Midlands Airport. But now there could be another bit of drama unfolding behind the scenes. Fans have spotted what appears to be a stage and schedule change...

The Wait Is Over, Butt! 🤘 After two days of campsite setup, inflatable furniture disasters, queueing for showers and attempting to remember where we’d actually pitched our tents, Friday finally arrived and with it came the opening of the Main Arena at Download Festival 2026. This is the day Download truly begins. The campsites may have been buzzing since Wednesday,...

The Download Festival community is one big family, and today our thoughts are with the person who reportedly collapsed during the Limp Bizkit set at Donington Park. While thousands of fans were enjoying one of the most talked-about performances of the weekend, festival medical teams were called into action to assist someone in the crowd. Incidents like this are a...

We’ll be honest, butt. For years here at The Riff Report, Limp Bizkit carried a nickname that wasn’t exactly flattering. “Soggy Bizkit.” There. We said it. It became one of those running jokes that followed the band around whenever their name appeared on a festival poster. Sure, they had the classics. Sure, they sold millions of records. But were they...

Hip-Hop Legends, Rock Festival Chaos And Donington Absolutely Going Insane In The Brain There are some bookings that look brilliant on paper. Then there are bookings that make you stand in a field at Download Festival, look around at thousands of rockers, metalheads, nu-metal veterans, curious wanderers and bucket-hatted chaos goblins, and think: “Yeah. This makes perfect sense.” That was...

Lzzy Hale and Co Deliver One of the Weekend's Biggest Performances Download Festival is packed with incredible bands every year, but every now and then a performance comes along that reminds everyone exactly why they fell in love with live music in the first place. This year, that moment belonged to Halestorm. The American rock powerhouse rolled into Donington Park...

Well then, Downloaders... this wasn't on anyone's bingo card for the weekend! 😲 As thousands of rock and metal fans continue their pilgrimage to Donington Park for Download Festival 2026, reports have emerged online that a truck believed to be connected to Limp Bizkit's touring operation has been involved in a serious road traffic incident. Photos circulating on social media...

Lzzy Hale, Flames, Confetti, Monster Vocals And Donington Singing Its Heart Out Some bands headline a stage. Some bands close a day. Some bands simply turn up, play the songs, thank the crowd and disappear into the backstage mist like sensible professionals. Then there is Halestorm. Halestorm do not just play rock shows. They storm the place like a band...