Initially a sounding board for the fans (and critics) of the festival, the boards have become an integral part of the festival organisation with regular contributions from festival director John Probyn and promoter Andy Copping. Although this idea has been dropped in subsequent years, the festival organisers have nurtured an online community through the Download Festival Forums. The 2003 festival tickets had a code on them, which would allow festival goers to download tracks from bands which had played. Also Download was to be a Monsters of Rock for the 21st century and the internet would provide connectivity with its audience. Downloading was a dirty word in the music industry at the time, due to file sharing, and rock is seen as a rebellious genre of music.

The name Download was chosen for the festival for two reasons. Download was initially a two-day event, expanding to three days in 2005.

The first Download Festival was created by Stuart Galbraith and co-booked by Andy Copping in 2003 in the same location. The Download Festival was conceived as a follow up to the Monsters of Rock festivals which had been held at the Donington Park circuit between 19. May / June (2003), June (2004–2019, 2021–present)ĭownload Festival is a British-created rock festival created by Terrance Gough, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003) in Paris, France (since 2016) at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 2019) Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne (since 2018) and at the Hockenheimring in Baden-Württemberg, Germany (since 2022).ĭownload at Donington is the most popular British summer rock and heavy metal festival and has hosted some of the genre's biggest names, including Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Slipknot, Metallica, Linkin Park, Korn, Soundgarden, Motörhead, Aerosmith, AC/DC, Def Leppard, Kiss, Judas Priest, Rammstein, Status Quo, Mötley Crüe, Journey, ZZ Top, Whitesnake, Faith No More and Guns N' Roses.

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