England's heaviest annual music festival returns June 11th through 13th with Download Festival 2010, a three-day celebration focusing largely on hard rock music. This year's festival will commemorate 30 years since the first rock festival played on the famous racetrack grounds in Donnington Park, England. In 2003, the Download Festival took over permanently for the Monsters of Rock series which reigned throughout the eighties, and has been helping rock 'n' roll fans hear a little bit less better every year since. This year's headliners, AC/DC, were also on top of the bill at the second annual Monsters of Rock, way back in 1981, and they returned again in 1991 to shoot their in-concert film "Live At Donnington." Other highlights of this year's Festival are expected to be Rage Against the Machine's first-ever Download appearance, Aerosmith returning to the road after spending most of their time so far this year debating break-ups in the gossip column, and Them Crooked Vultures, the mighty union of Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones, and Dave Grohl from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters. All told, dozens of bands will perform across four different stages, including many who have appeared at festivals past, making this somewhat of a Donnington homecoming for veterans such as Slash, Motorhead, Cinderella, Ratt and many others.
Tickets are still available at the 2010 Download Festival site in a variety of single and multi-day packages. You can buy single-day admission for any of the three days at a cost of £75 or attend all three days for £145. For just a bit more, with prices ranging from 170 to 180, you can also camp for part or all of the weekend on this festival grounds. Tickets are also available for special chill-out areas on the grounds, and more information about other attractions, food, beverage and merchandise booths should be available shortly.
Here is the list of bands confirmed to be performing as part of the Download Festival 2010 lineup. More acts are expected to be added, and performance times are still to be revealed, so be sure to bookmark this page and check back often for the latest information.
Download Festival 2010 Lineup:
Friday:
Main Stage:
AC/DC
Them Crooked Vultures
Wolfmother
Second Stage:
Bullet For My Valentine
Coheed and Cambria
A Day To Remember
36 Crazyfists
Unearth
Third Stage:
Job For A Cowboy
As I Lay Dying
Tyketto
Lawnmower Death
Sweethead
Year Long Disaster
Fourth Stage:
Funeral Party
Imicus
The Humour
Saturday:
Main Stage:
Rage Against The Machine
Deftones
Megadeth
Lamb of God
Five Finger Death Punch
Flyleaf
Hell Yeah
Taking Dawn
Second Stage:
Thirty Seconds to Mars
The Blackout
Atreyu
Volbeat
We Are The Fallen
Cancer Bats
Rock Sugar
Rise to Remain
Third Stage:
Michael Monroe
Skin
Y&T
Senser
Enuff Z'Nuff
Halestorm
Genitorturers
Reckless Love
Sybreed
Holy Grail
Killing For Company
Godsized
Fourth Stage:
Breed 77
Glamour Of The Kill
The Dead Lay Waiting
Revoker
Sunday:
Main Stage:
Aerosmith
Stone Temple Pilots
Motorhead
Billy Idol
Slash
Cinderella
Saxon
Ratt
Dommin
Second Stage:
Stone Sour
Airbourne
Steel Panther
Porcupine Tree
The Used
Dillinger Escape Plan
The Damned Things
August Burns Red
Nonpoint
White Wizzard
Third Stage:
Suicidal Tendencies
Zebrahead
Young Guns
Die Apokalyptischen Rieter
Whitechapel
Max Raptor
The Morning After
No Americana
Ben Poole
Fourth Stage:
Panic Cell
T-34
Esoterica
Straightlines
Tiger Please