Billed as the 'UK's premier rock festival', Download was first conceived in 2003, and over 20 years after its inception it's still rocking n rolling affair with a jam packed 2024 edition featuring Fall Out Boy, Queens of the Stone Age and Ireland's own Bambie Thug.

The weekend celebration proved to be a raging success in spite of ominous weather forecasts and looming dark clouds.

DAY 1 - FRIDAY

Hailing from Bridgend in Wales, Those Damn Crows set the scene early on the Apex stage. The set opens with the band's pelting and heavy new single ‘Let's Go Psycho’.

Unfortunately the weather, taking inspiration from the track, takes a turn for the worse as heavy black clouds roll in and the rain pelts down. In spite of the downpour, the band still delivers a compelling performance, with frontman Shane Greenhall introducing 'Takedown' as the rain turns biblical.

'Primadonna Like Me' is the weapon of choice for British rock band The Struts to open with. Hot off the heels of their most recent LP Pretty Vicious released in November of 2023, lead vocalist Luke Spiller introduces ‘Body Talks’ as a Rock n roll song. There is an infectious groove to this band which gets the crowd clapping and singing along. Other highlights of the set include 2014 single ‘Kiss This’ and ‘Could Have Been Me’ which closes out the performance to rapturous applause.

The Struts at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

Experimental folk band Heilung are up next comprising members from Denmark, Norway, and Germany. Their unusual music is a mix of pre-Christian music originating from the north part of Europe and some other ancient runic musical styles. Heilung, which means healing in German, suggests that their music is intended to induce relaxation by bringing the audience on a magical musical journey. The curtain falls on a forest scene where a shaman enters wafting incense with some leafy branches before the drums start and the performance begins in earnest. What ensues is a truly unique and evocative recreation of rituals that mesmerize those in attendance. This is an experience not to be missed and an intriguing exploration of our ancient heritage.

Heilung Busted Queens at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

Queens Of The Stone Age are our first night’s headliners on the Apex stage. Josh Homme admits during the set he celebrated the Download festival headliner slot occasion by getting “stoned and fucked up.” Tonight’s performance includes older singles like ‘Little Sister’, ‘Burn The Witch’ alongside more recent ditties like ‘Carnavoyeur’, ‘Paper Machete’ and ‘Emotion Sickness’. The finale for tonight is a storming version of the classic ‘A Song For The Dead’. A formidable set as festival headliners, Queen of The Stone Age bring their A-game, capping off what has been an astonishing day of music.

QOTSA at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

DAY 2 - SATURDAY

Ireland’s own Bambie Thug opens day two on the Apex Stage and may have somewhat under dressed for the inclement weather, wearing a plastic fetish style bikini, devilish hair, and makeup that includes the word witch craftily inscribed across their brow. The set is playful yet risqué broaching subjects like oral sex.

At one point, a masked dancer arrives onstage pushing an unlikely prop, a wheelie bin from which Bambie Thug slowly emerges, singing their track 'Trash'. It is at this point the artist says "You what else is Trash? that governments allow genocide to happen".

This Segways the artist into the highlight of the set; a poignant cover of The Cranberries ‘Zombie’. During the song flags of nations including Ukraine, Congo, Palestine, and Yemen, along with flags of the LGBTQ+ and Transgender community are paraded onto stage.

The finale of the performance is ‘Doomsday Blue’ which is of course met with a rapturous reception. A meteoric rise to fame since last year’s appearance on the Dogtooth stage followed by an incredible Eurovision performance and an upcoming tour, Bambie Thug goes from strength to strength.

Bambi Thug at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

Australia’s Ne Obliviscaris are delayed substantially coming onstage at the Dogtooth stage and are plagued with sound issues throughout their set. Consequently their time is limited but these progressive rockers are not daunted by this. Band members laugh in the face of adversity when forced to share a microphone at one point. The resilience, delivery and musical prowess of this band is obvious from the off and the crowd are enthralled with this impeccably performed set.

It has been over 20 years since Pantera played together but today the Download punters are treated to a much anticipated reunion. Vocalist Phil Anselmo dedicates the third song in the set "Strength beyond strength" to Darrel and Vince replaced today by Zakk Wylde on guitar and Charlie Benante on drums. The set is great epic with favourites like ‘Walk’, ‘This Love’, ‘Cowboys From Hell’ and the finale ‘Fucking Hostile’ whisking the audience back in time. It is great to hear Pantera play live again. Don’t panic if you missed them though, as they play Barcelona Rock Fest before heading stateside then next year return to the U.K. and Ireland for another raft of dates.

Fall Out Boy are tonight’s headliner on the Apex stage. As the show starts Patrick Stump appears on the big screens in a hospital bed complete with gown accompanied by the sound of a heart monitor. However his malaise doesn’t last as he jumps out of bed as the band explode into life for ‘Disloyal Order Of Water Buffalos’. Tonight the set list delves into the archives to give us a taster from most of their back catalogue in almost chronological order. The performance is not without theatrics either with flaming bass guitars, cheerleaders, and flying sheep.

Fall Out Boy at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

DAY 3 – SUNDAY

After a night of rain, Code Orange from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania stride onstage as if they owned it. As they launch into their set vocalist Jami Morgan smashes his own forehead with the microphone and blood flows as he encourages the crowd to “wake the f*** up.”

Due to torrential weather set times are being squeezed and as the Code Orange set comes to an abrupt end, the defiant band try to continue playing resulting in their sound being cut. Rock n roll tantrums are in order as anger issues surface resulting in vocalist Morgan hurling his microphone across the stage and guitarist Reba Meyers attempting to trash the drum riser.

Goth rockers Creeper, this year move up the bill to main stage. The band arrive looking like they have just left a vampire feast accompanied by talented dance troupe in ghoulish make up. Today’s set includes ‘Cry To Heaven’ and ‘Teenage Sacrifice’ both lifted off the 2023 album ‘Sanguivore’. Vocalist Gould gets a crowd chant going before launching into ‘Down Below’ and the finale is ‘Lovers Led Astray’ featuring a guest appearance from Dan Jacobs of Atreyu. A polished performance from an accomplished band with great things yet to come.

Creeper at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

Kerry King returns to Download Festival with his band which include former Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph, bassist Kyle Sanders from Hellyeah Vocalist, Phil Demmel formerly of Machine Head and Mark Osegueda, of Death Angel fame. Osegueda thanks the audience for sharing the aggression before kicking off ‘Idle Hands’ A blistering set including two Slayer tracks ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Black Magic’ closing with the single ‘From Hell I Rise’. Another titan of thrash has returned in glory.....Hail to the King.

The rumoured secret set is revealed to be Parkway Drive and they pack the Dogtooth stage to capacity well in advance of show time. The short but intense set opens with ‘Glitch’ from the 2022 ‘Darker Still’ album and older material like ‘Vice Grip’ and ‘Bottom Feeder’ from 2015 album ‘Ire’.

Sum 41 on the main stage have attracted a massive crowd for their last ever UK festival performance. The tour aptly named ‘Tour of the Setting Sum’ is set to finish with two shows at Scotiabank arena in Toronto in January 2025. Tonight Sum 41 are truly on fire as favourites like ‘Motivation’, ‘The Hell Song’ and ‘Walking Disaster’ are rolled out. A cover of Queen mega-hit ‘We Will Rock You’ is also included. Deryck Whibley hints there may still be a chance to see them later this year. The show reaches a crescendo with closing songs ‘Fat Lip’ and ‘Still Waiting’.

Sum 41 at Download Festival. Copyright Enda Madden.

Avenged Sevenfold are the final headliner. M.Shadows arrives on stage sporting a balaclava on and kicks off proceedings with ‘Game Over’ and ‘Mattel’ from the most recent ‘Life Is But A Dream’ album. This is the second time Avenged Sevenfold have headlined Download. Massive favourite ‘Hail To The King’ is dedicated to all the fathers in the audience as it is Father’s Day. ‘Nightmare’ goes down a treat until the sound system fails after the solo forcing the crowd finish the song. Once resolved, Avenged Sevenfold come back out fighting with ‘Unholy Confessions’. The set is a mix of old and new which holds true to M. Shadows admission “We are going to play all kinds of shit for you.”. He also tells the crowd that Avenged Sevenfold may return to these shores in 2025.

And so another Download Festival comes to an end…

Despite the torrential downpours, the 2024 iteration of Download rocked. We got through it with smiles on our faces, plenty of fist pumping and the magic that is rock n'roll.