Download 2025 Announcement: What Does It Mean For The Future Of The Festival?

Green Day, Sleep Token and Korn have been announced as the Download 2025 headliners [photo: Rolling Stone Magazine, The Fluco Beat, Wikimedia Commons]

A triple bill of new headliners have been announced for the 2025 edition of Download Festival, including relative newcomers Sleep Token. Social media vitriol aside, what does this mean for the future of the festival?

It’s the same every year: rampant speculation, handfuls of supposed leaks, and a generally divisive reaction. 

I’m talking about the Download line-up announcements. A premier UK rock and metal festival, drawing tens of thousands of supposedly like-minded metalheads year in and year out, Download has always been the go-to place for the heavier side of music. 

Speculation for the 2025 line-up included bands like My Chemical Romance, Muse, Slipknot, and a plethora of other bands, some who have headlined before, and some completely new ones. However, if you had placed bets on Green Day, Sleep Token, and Korn as headliners, you’d be spot on. 

Three completely brand new headliners were announced for Download’s 2025 iteration, a groundbreaking first for the festival. It’s an impressive feat given at one point it seemed destined to just constantly hash out the same headliners. The Friday sees Green Day make their festival debut; Sleep Token grace the stage on the Saturday for their first appearance since 2018; and Korn get the top headline spot after several runs being either second stage headline or main stage sub. 

That said, it’s just not a lineup I’m that excited by. Sacrilegious, perhaps, with nu-metal royalty Korn closing the festival off on the Sunday. But I have never fully gotten into Sleep Token, and Green Day aren’t a band I’m desperate to see again after their Hella Mega Tour a few years back (same with Weezer for that matter). Other bands in the lineup that I would otherwise be interested in (looking at you, The Darkness) I’ve already booked to see on their separate tours next year. 

The big thing though, is what this indicates for the future of the festival. Bands like McFly being on the bill is a far cry from the early days of the festival - perhaps the focus now is more on rock-orientated bands as opposed to straight cut hard rock and metal? Looking at this year’s lineup as well, the appeal of the festival has definitely been commercialised - maybe this calibre of line-up is what to expect going forward. This isn’t necessarily what I personally want to see Download become, but then again if that’s where the money and the longevity is, it’s better than to see it call it a day. 

Hang on, is that McFly? [photo: Download]

Sleep Token headlining also provides a good insight into the future of the festival. This is a band that haven’t even been active for 10 years, yet they have netted a coveted spot at one of the most recognised and respected metal festivals in the world. The argument that there are more deserving bands who should’ve had this spot will be ongoing, as there has long been a debate about whether Sleep Token are ‘metal’ to begin with (key sign of ‘making it’? People constantly questioning how ‘metal’ you are in Loudwire comment sections). Bands like Parkway Drive, Ghost, and other bands of a similar ‘age’ all equally deserve the headline spot, and I’m sure their time will come in due course. 

It’s a lose-lose situation: people complain if headliners are recycled, saying they need to bring new ones in; people complain if they bring new headliners in, saying that they’re not ready to headline yet. 

If festival organiser Andy Copping is finally starting to listen though, and is offering these headline slots to newer, younger, hungrier bands, maybe it’s time to accept that. Maybe that’s what these festivals need. I love Iron Maiden, but even I get bored seeing them get announced as a Download headliner. 

For better or for worse, this could be the start of a new Download.

One small victory though. The latest marketing material has removed all mentions of Liquid Death as a sponsor. No more #LiquidDeathpresentsDownloadFestival. How long until we go back to the more conventional naming method of just using the year (i.e. Download 2025)? Please. I don’t know how much more of Download XXII (22) I can take.