Festival News: Download 2024 reveals headliners and over 70 acts
Download 2023 was objectively historic. With an incredible four days, filled to brim with some of the best bands around right now, the only question was how the hell Andy Copping and co would top it. Well, now’s the time — 9pm Tuesday saw the first lot of bands dropped for 2024, and although it might not have the same quantity, it definitely has the same quality.
Let’s start with the headliners. One returning legend, in the form of Avenged Sevenfold, whose recent album ‘Life Is But A Dream…’ may have split some opinions but was unanimously regarded as something ground-breaking for the band are back once again. Having last headlined in 2018, it’ll sure feel like a little piece of heaven having them back.
And that’s it for the throwbacks — because the other two are both brand new, at least where headlining is concerned. First up, Fall Out Boy. Having only last week played two sold out, stupidly good shows at the O2, this’ll mark their first time back in ten years, having last played in 2014 as the main support to Linkin Park. Long overdue, really!
And last but very much not least, renowned rockers Queens Of The Stone Age. Known for constantly pushing the envelope as to what their sound could be — with no one album sounding alike, let alone any two — and having impressively fantastic live shows, Josh Homme and the lads are sure to deliver their gritty, macabre, and Donnington best, particularly when concerning recent album ‘In Times New Roman…’, for the first time since 2013.
Joining them come a host of names old and new. There’s UK stalwarts Royal Blood, whose crazily concise yet incredible recent album ‘Back To The Water Below’ has deservedly earned them a top billing, along with the near-primordial Pantera, for their first UK appearance in 20 years; punk rock trend setters The Offspring; and finally the iconic and incendiary Machine Head.
We’ve also got Corey Taylor, who having headlined Download countless times as the lead vocalist of Slipknot of course needs no introduction; Bad Omens, whose recent trajectory has been nothing short of atmospheric; Sheffield favourites While She Sleeps, fresh off of a sold out how at Alexandra Palace; the beloved Canadians of Sum 41, for their final UK festival performance — a sentence no one would ever want to write — as well as the incredible Billy Talent; the insanely vivid, and vicious, Babymetal; the boisterous Bowling For Soup; the otherworldly, etherealy haunting Heilung — seriously, if you don’t know them yet, check them out ASAP — the phase-defining The Used; the phenomenally talented Polyphia; the blistering Thy Art Is Murder; the melodic death metal stalwarts The Black Dahlia Murder; the hardcore punk outfit Biohazard; and the industrial/nü metallers Fear Factory.
Elsewhere comes some of the best up-and-comers and returning favourites: from the recent, German Eurovision entries Lord Of The Lost or the fantastic, femme fatale of Kelsy Karter & The Heroines, to the stunning Swedes of Imminence, the wholesome blues-rock of The Blue Stones, or the superb Scottish duo of Vukovi, the bottom half of the poster reads as a who’s who of new favourites.
Words by James O’Sullivan
The full list of acts announced is below, but one thing’s for sure: Download 2024 will, once again, be one hell of a weekend.
Everyone announced, in alphabetical order (bar the headliners!):
Queens Of The Stone Age
Fall Out Boy
Avenged Sevenfold
311
Alien Weaponry
All Them Witches
Alpha Wolf
Alt Blk Era
Atreyu
Babymetal
Bad Omens
Billy Talent
Biohazard
Bleed From Within
Bowling For Soup
Brand of Sacrifice
Calva Louise
Celestial Sanctuary
Charlotte Sands
Corey Taylor
Counterparts
Crystal Lake
DeathbyRomy
Defects
Delilah Bon
Dream State
Dying Fetus
Dying Wish
Elvana
Erra
Fear Factory
Fit For A King
Frozemode
Gel
Halocene
Hanabie
Harper
Heilung
Heriot
Holding Absence
Hoobastank - playing ‘The Reason’ in full
Hotwax
Imminence
Karnivool
Kelsy Karter & The Heroines
Knife Bride
Lord of the Lost
Machine Head
Make Them Suffer
Missio
Noahfinnce
Oxymorrons
Pantera
Pest Control
Polyphia
Pinkshift
Røry
Royal Blood
Royal & The Serpent
Scene Queen
Scowl
Shadow Of Intent
Silverstein
Slaughter To Prevail
Speed
Storm
Sum 41
The Black Dahlia Murder
The Blue Stones
The Callous Daoboys
The Offspring
The Used
Those Damn Crows
Thy Art Is Murder
Tigercub
Underside
Until I Wake
Urne
Vukovi
Wargasm
While She Sleeps
Zulu
