The Download Festival will take place in June for the first time in three years at Donington Park and festival-goers are being promised lots of extra features, attractions and improvements after the long lay-off. These include more hard-standing especially for the Village area, better and more accessible car parks and close camping sites to the main arena.
It will have been a massive 1,092 days - between Tool closing the last full Download festival on June 16, 2019 and Heriot playing the first guitar chords on June 10 - since the festival proper took place.
Last year, a pilot festival was allowed to take place with just 10,000 fans but many people still have tickets they purchased for the full 2020 festival, which was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.
Read more about the Download Festival 2022
Tickets are still on sale here for this year's festival, which is expected to attract up to 85,000 people, when the main headliners will be Kiss, Iron Maiden and Biffy Clyro with more than 90 other bands over the three days.
Here's all you need to know about this year's Donington Park rock showcase.
Who are the big hitters on the line-up?
Biffy Clyro (Sunday), Iron Maiden (Saturday) and Kiss(Friday) headline the main Stage of the festival and the rest of the bill looks pretty tasty too with the likes of:
A Day to Remember, Skindred, Black Veil Brides, Bury Tomorrow, Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes, Megadeth, Mastodon, Daughtry, Steel Panther, The Darkness, Funeral For A Friend, Sepultura, Descendents, Electric Wizard, Myles Kennedy, Deftones, Korn, VolBeat, Shinedown, Lacuna Coil and Wargasm plus many, many more.
When is it?
The three day festival takes place June 10 -12 2022 at the spiritual home of rock in Donington Park, Leicestershire.
What time does the campsite and arena open?
The general campsites open on Wednesday, June 8 for those camping for five nights through Sunday, June 12, although most people will then leave on Monday morning.
The Arena opens at the following times:
Friday: noon
Saturday: 10am
Sunday: 10am
What's new for Download Festival 2022?
Unofficially dubbed "Drownload" on occasions, the festival has been renowned for muddy conditions in some of its 19 years but by working with the owners of the park, site improvements had been able to take place.
* The Village area, where festival goers can buy food, listen to music and mingle over the three days, has moved closer to the main arena and is now located on hard-standing ground.
* The Access campsite where many people are in wheelchairs will be able to get from the campsite to the Village without leaving solid ground.
* Campers, who were looking at almost an hour walk to the campsite from the arena previously, have new campsite locations which mean that this is reduced to 25 minutes.
* There are also shorter walking distances across the site to various stage and event locations and the car parks have been re-located, including access for the first-time from off the new Castle Donington bypass to the new east car park.
* New car parks mean that festival-goers can look forward to bridge-free access to the festival and campsites as there are no car parks across the main Donington to Melbourne road any longer.
* Introduction of a new circular camping option, which means offering clean, upcycles tents and camping equipment all ready on site for those who want a greener option.
* The festival is also looking to improve its green credentials. Recycling and composting rates rose from 46% in 2018 to 59% in 2019 with zero waste going to landfill. All water bottles will be 100% recyclable and a litre bottle of water can be refilled in three seconds thanks to high flow technology in the arena.
What food and drink will be available at the festival?
Food and drink vendors have yet to be revealed but what has been confirmed is that there will be a brand new pop-up Co-op supermarket on site selling all your essentials while those who enjoy a campsite tinny can pre-order cold cans of Carlsberg of Somersby cider to be delivered on arrival by visiting music.carlsberg.co.uk. Crates cost £20 for 24 cans.
What's the parking situation at Download 2022?
Car park passes (£21) and motorbike passes (£11) are still available.. If you are driving to Download you MUST purchase a car parking pass and make sure you keep it in a safe spot as lost and stolen car park passes will not be replaced and they cannot be exchanged or refunded either.
Look below for where the car parks are this year:
Sounds great! But how much are tickets and are there any left?
At the moment there is still some availability for campsites, as well as day tickets.
A five-day standard camping pass will set back an adult £268, as will five days in the Eco Campsite.
Three-days camping is £260.
So what about day tickets?
They cost £98.40 (Friday), £101.20 (Saturday) and £98.40 (Sunday). Weekend arena only tickets are £233.
What camping options are there?
There's three different options: standard camping, quiet camping or there's still spaces at Download's Eco Campsite, which can accommodate up to 3,000 festival-goers and is located amongst ancient oak trees and native wildlife... perfect for blowing the cobwebs away.
What is the weather going to be like on the weekend of Download Festival 2022?
Of course, no-one really knows but the long-term forecast is as follows: According to Metcheck , the weather will be unsettled over the three days from June 10 to June 12, maximum temperature 21 degC on Saturday when it could be sunny with some overcast periods. A small amount of rain could fall as showers on June 10 and there will be more cloud on June 12.
But it could all change before then and fingers crossed it doesn't look as if it will be Drownload this year.
