Download 2023

[FeverDream]

2 hours ago, thewayiam said:

Not really. Tbh I actually read on here people say that one was smaller and MSE was the proper main stage.

The actual stage + the two rows of crowd control barriers are the same but behind the sound tower on MSW there’s definitely less space than behind the sound tower of MSE (especially as behind the tower on MSW was essentially a walkway to MSE). But then I suppose there’s more space either side of the stage at MSW than MSE (at Leeds, anyway, can’t comment about Reading). Six and two three’s I say. 

 

3 hours ago, King101 said:

This is such a dishonest characterisation of the BMTH situation.

They headlined Reading and Leeds, there’s no inverted commas about it.

R&L has 2, equally sized and equally promoted, main stages and all 6 acts are billed as headliners. You make it sound like they played the old NME tent but lobbied to get a bigger logo on the poster.

BMTH were done dirty with a MSW slot. I think had it not been Arctic Monkeys on MSE they probably wouldn’t have agreed to it given they respect the band a lot and have been vocal of this.

[BenG92]

14 hours ago, King101 said:

This is such a dishonest characterisation of the BMTH situation.

They headlined Reading and Leeds, there’s no inverted commas about it.

R&L has 2, equally sized and equally promoted, main stages and all 6 acts are billed as headliners. You make it sound like they played the old NME tent but lobbied to get a bigger logo on the poster.

Surely nobody actually believes this?

Yeah, they may promote it that way, but Halsey / BMTH / Megan as a regular set of R&L headliners would be laughed off. Rage / Dave / AM, nobody would bat an eye. MSW is always going to be the weaker one because R&L can't afford 6 actual headline sized acts. You're never gonna see Kendrick Lamar on MSW playing before someone else.

That's not to say BMTH won't outright headline Download, they will, it's a different crowd. But if you see dual mains at Download it's 100% going to be the same situation where Metallica play Apex and, say, Parkway, play the Opus. No festival can have 6 equal headliners without scaling those headliners down are murdering the rest of the bill. Primavera manages it by doing the first.

 

Edited October 29, 2022 by BenG92

[BenG92]

10 hours ago, FeverDream said:

BMTH were done dirty with a MSW slot. I think had it not been Arctic Monkeys on MSE they probably wouldn’t have agreed to it given they respect the band a lot and have been vocal of this.

Eh I dunno, I think it was a fine placement for that festival specifically. It meant that the fans were really fans who weren't trying to camp out at AM for hours before they came on. The "worst" part was Pendulum overlapping so I missed the beginning, not actually a complaint.

They stole the show from AM anyway and everyone who was there knows it, it was like taking a Zopiclone afterwards.

[Andre91]

Dual Main Stages works at Hellfest and a tonne of other European festivals. Yeah, there’s always 3 clear headliners and 3 smaller but they get the set length and production of a headliner so it’s all good. 

[FeverDream]

1 hour ago, BenG92 said:

Eh I dunno, I think it was a fine placement for that festival specifically. It meant that the fans were really fans who weren't trying to camp out at AM for hours before they came on. The "worst" part was Pendulum overlapping so I missed the beginning, not actually a complaint.

They stole the show from AM anyway and everyone who was there knows it, it was like taking a Zopiclone afterwards.

I’m gutted I missed Pendulum but I wasn’t missing BMTH! And yeah they were the better of the two headliners that night, and I’d say AM are in my top 5 bands and I hadn’t seen them before that night, but I’ve seen BMTH plenty before and I knew they’d steal the show deep down haha.

Edited October 29, 2022 by FeverDream

[FeverDream]

51 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

Dual Main Stages works at Hellfest and a tonne of other European festivals. Yeah, there’s always 3 clear headliners and 3 smaller but they get the set length and production of a headliner so it’s all good. 

If they’re side by side like at Wacken I think it would work great at Download. They have the space to do that don’t they. Just don’t put them hundreds of metres apart like R&L and give 5 mins in between sets meaning you have to absolutely leg it across the arena.

[JimMacVeigh]

3 hours ago, Andre91 said:

Dual Main Stages works at Hellfest and a tonne of other European festivals. Yeah, there’s always 3 clear headliners and 3 smaller but they get the set length and production of a headliner so it’s all good. 

Fact. Graspop smash this. Parkway closed one year, after the Scorpions I believe did the “proper” headline set, had a full pyro production and around a 75 minute set. 

[Archi]

1 hour ago, JimMacVeigh said:

Fact. Graspop smash this. Parkway closed one year, after the Scorpions I believe did the “proper” headline set, had a full pyro production and around a 75 minute set. 

Parkway Drive closed the day on the Main Stage II after Iron Maiden. Originally, Avenged Sevenfold was the headliner of this second Main Stage but they chose to play before Maiden. 

There are 2 MS at Graspop since 2014 but there are only 1 real headliner each day. Yes, Parkway Drive "headlined" this second MS but Iron Maiden were the real/only headliner that day and we couldn't say "PWD headlined Graspop". But there are some exceptions like this year per example where Scorpions and Within Temptation were both promoted as real headliners. At Hellfest, there are 2 Main Stages since a while but the headliners on the MS1 is always the biggest band of the day.

About this debate about R&L, Arctic Monkeys were the real headliner of their day. Like RATM was. No doubt about that. I love BMTH but we can't put them as the same level - in 2022 - as AM on a mainstream festival. 

This long message to say imo that even if Download Festival put 2 Main Stages in 2023, they'll still have 3 clear headliners. It's almost impossible to have 2 huge acts headlining. We'll always compare both of them and look that one is smaller on the festival.

[rivalschools.price]

5 hours ago, BenG92 said:

Eh I dunno, I think it was a fine placement for that festival specifically. It meant that the fans were really fans who weren't trying to camp out at AM for hours before they came on. The "worst" part was Pendulum overlapping so I missed the beginning, not actually a complaint.

They stole the show from AM anyway and everyone who was there knows it, it was like taking a Zopiclone afterwards.

I’m pretty sure that I saw the end of Pendulum and the start of BMTH (Reading).

 

Disclaimer- I’d been on the beer solidly all day so my recollection may be a bit hazy.

[Metalhead_Moz_]

5 hours ago, FeverDream said:

If they’re side by side like at Wacken I think it would work great at Download. They have the space to do that don’t they. Just don’t put them hundreds of metres apart like R&L and give 5 mins in between sets meaning you have to absolutely leg it across the arena.

I’ll show my age here. But at Ozzfest 2000 and 2001 at Milton Keynes they had side by side stages and it was brilliant. Didn’t miss a band, same with Big day out 99. Always liked the idea of staggered bands and side by side. Or close by at least. 

[rivalschools.price]

22 minutes ago, Metalhead_Moz_ said:

I’ll show my age here. But at Ozzfest 2000 and 2001 at Milton Keynes they had side by side stages and it was brilliant. Didn’t miss a band, same with Big day out 99. Always liked the idea of staggered bands and side by side. Or close by at least. 

Yeah, I was there too and had forgotten about that.

The second stage was much smaller though but it still worked.

[Spiral_Low]

If it's dual main stages I'm guessing something like:

Thurs:

Main 1 - Metallica / Alice In Chains / Anthrax / Testament / Exodus / Death Angel 

Main 2 -  Nightwish / 

Fri:

Main 1 - BMTH / Architects / The Distillers 

Main 2 - Ghost / Evenescence /

Sat:

Main 1 - Metallica / Tenacious D / NOFX

Main 2 - Placebo / 

Sun:

Main 1 - Slipknot / Parkway Drive / Jinjer 

Main 2 - The Prodigy / Amon Amarth / Spiritbox

I get the feeling the Thursday is gonna be the old school day, Metallica 80's set plus several thrash bands. 

[thewayiam]

6 hours ago, Spiral_Low said:

If it's dual main stages I'm guessing something like:

Thurs:

Main 1 - Metallica / Alice In Chains / Anthrax / Testament / Exodus / Death Angel 

Main 2 -  Nightwish / 

Fri:

Main 1 - BMTH / Architects / The Distillers 

Main 2 - Ghost / Evenescence /

Sat:

Main 1 - Metallica / Tenacious D / NOFX

Main 2 - Placebo / 

Sun:

Main 1 - Slipknot / Parkway Drive / Jinjer 

Main 2 - The Prodigy / Amon Amarth / Spiritbox

I get the feeling the Thursday is gonna be the old school day, Metallica 80's set plus several thrash bands. 

Tenacious D won't sub now. The Prodigy against Slipknot is awful.

[Andre91]

I would bloody love for Alice In Chains to be there. 

[Spiral_Low]

9 hours ago, thewayiam said:

Tenacious D won't sub now. The Prodigy against Slipknot is awful.

Read it again 😉 Dual main stage 😛 So Prodigy before Slipknot, not against.

8 hours ago, Andre91 said:

I would bloody love for Alice In Chains to be there. 

I just have this feeling they will. Just toured the USA and nothing lined up for Europe yet, haven't been here since 2019.

[Loek]

Have been following the topic for a while but decided to join the discussion.

I absolutely do not understand the hate for the double mainstage concept on this forum. It works amazingly on Graspop and Hellfest for example.

I see a lot of people on here asking for new headliners, younger headliners etc. double mainstage is the way to do this. You would get to see a lot of amazing headliner shows from bands that you normally would not. It does not matter that it is not 2 huge headliners, the chance to see younger bands given the opportunity to show their headline show even though they aren’t headliner status yet give full blown headliner shows is amazing. I see people criticizing bookings like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Ozzy, Kiss etc but just imagine that after these ancient bands are done with their set you get to finish the day with a younger more exciting band like Parkway Drive, Lamb of God, Deftones, BMTH, In flames, Amon Amarth, Korn etc etc.

People are complaining that BMTH were not given the chance to headline a long time ago, the reason that this has not happened is that there is only one mainstage. Imagine having Iron maiden from 21:00-23:00 and then after that having a full blown headliner set by BMTH after that to finish the night. 

I don’t see the issue with having more insane headline worthy sets in the dark without losing anything.

As someone that visited Graspop a lot, the headline shows that I remember from Graspop were not the fossils of Scorpions or Def Leppard or whatever, but the headline sets of Parkway Drive, Lamb of god or Korn that followed after. The fact that they were not the biggest band on the bill does not matter.

[rivalschools.price]

24 minutes ago, Loek said:

Have been following the topic for a while but decided to join the discussion.

I absolutely do not understand the hate for the double mainstage concept on this forum. It works amazingly on Graspop and Hellfest for example.

I see a lot of people on here asking for new headliners, younger headliners etc. double mainstage is the way to do this. You would get to see a lot of amazing headliner shows from bands that you normally would not. It does not matter that it is not 2 huge headliners, the chance to see younger bands given the opportunity to show their headline show even though they aren’t headliner status yet give full blown headliner shows is amazing. I see people criticizing bookings like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Ozzy, Kiss etc but just imagine that after these ancient bands are done with their set you get to finish the day with a younger more exciting band like Parkway Drive, Lamb of God, Deftones, BMTH, In flames, Amon Amarth, Korn etc etc.

People are complaining that BMTH were not given the chance to headline a long time ago, the reason that this has not happened is that there is only one mainstage. Imagine having Iron maiden from 21:00-23:00 and then after that having a full blown headliner set by BMTH after that to finish the night. 

I don’t see the issue with having more insane headline worthy sets in the dark without losing anything.

As someone that visited Graspop a lot, the headline shows that I remember from Graspop were not the fossils of Scorpions or Def Leppard or whatever, but the headline sets of Parkway Drive, Lamb of god or Korn that followed after. The fact that they were not the biggest band on the bill does not matter.

There is a curfew for Download so they couldn’t have a band play after the headliners.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

17 hours ago, Spiral_Low said:

Sun:

Main 1 - Slipknot

Main 2 - The Prodigy

🤤🤤🤤

[Andre91]

4 minutes ago, rivalschools.price said:

There is a curfew for Download so they couldn’t have a band play after the headliners.

We were also always told that having bands on the Thursday was an impossibility because the site couldn’t be ready in time. I guess they can pull whatever out of the hat with enough notice/funds. 

[Muppetmark]

10 hours ago, Loek said:

Have been following the topic for a while but decided to join the discussion.

I absolutely do not understand the hate for the double mainstage concept on this forum. It works amazingly on Graspop and Hellfest for example.

I think part of the hesitation is Reading and leeds festival did this and made the lineup much smaller. I'd rather 1 mainstage and more choice throughout the day

[FeverDream]

1 hour ago, Muppetmark said:

I think part of the hesitation is Reading and leeds festival did this and made the lineup much smaller. I'd rather 1 mainstage and more choice throughout the day

Yeah that’s my main issue with the new R&L format after the position of the stages. There just isn’t a real alternative if you don’t want to see the MSE headliner. Not to mention culling the Pit/Lock-up/FR and combining them into one stage with a day each. I get that acts on those stages probably just aren’t as popular anymore at R&L but then they don’t help themselves either by filling half the main stage with tat.

Edited October 30, 2022 by FeverDream

[JSmurphy]

Tenacious D playing The O2 on Friday 16th June.

[Spiral_Low]

22 minutes ago, JSmurphy said:

Tenacious D playing The O2 on Friday 16th June.

Should mean they are out then. I reckon several of the sub headliners/2nd headliners are bands that haven't been announced for any fests yet.

 

[Dixi]

Helloween are doing festivals in 2023. Wishful thinking here 🙂

[DomDom1984]

What sort of spot would Helloween get? I'll probably see them on every tour given how much I loved them the last two times.