LIVE REVIEW: Download Festival 2025 – Friday
Following a miserable, sopping wet 2024 fraught with technical difficulties and bands dropping out due to (now terminated) links with Barclays as part of the BSD movement, Download Festival needed to really pull it out of the bag this year. Even more so when considering that not one of this year’s headliners have actually headlined the festival before – even with two of them having long-running careers and arguably having deserved a slot already. It’s also, as outlined in an Instagram post after the festival, Kamran Haq‘s first year as head booker taking over the Andy Copping (who remains involved, but is handing over the reins).
Fortunately for Download Festival, not only did the weather agree, supplying scorching heat and sun for the majority of the weekend, but there weren’t too many technical gremlins either, and the smaller stages saw some of their best turnouts in years. 2025 was, then, a triumphant return for the UK’s biggest rock and metal festival – as our coverage attests to, beginning with Friday.
UNPEOPLE – Avalanche Stage
The sun is scorching Donington Park and the tent is swelling when UNPEOPLE take to the Avalanche Stage. They’re the perfect accompaniment, summery uplifting melodies and gargantuan singalong riffs, though their lyrics are far more incisive, tackling mental health and social decline. The quartet are grinning throughout, the huge crowd yelling their words back and pitting with glee. It’s an incredible way to kick off the weekend with one of the UK’s most vital new bands.
Rating: 10/10
GORE. – Dogtooth Stage
This is GORE.‘s first ever festival appearance. It’s also only their second show outside North America, having just made their headline debut two nights ago in London. The Dogtooth Stage is packed to the rafters with people watching from outside, and the crowd sing back the likes of Pray loudly. They open with a brand new, unreleased song and slip in the recently released Sepsis, the latter of which is their heaviest material yet and shows an exciting future ahead. In the now, it’s a stellar debut that’ll hopefully see the Texan quartet invited back sooner rather than later.
Rating: 9/10
THE MEFFS – Avalanche Stage
Bringing the noise again, THE MEFFS over on the Avalanche Stage proved you don’t need half a dozen members on stage to make a raucous racket at Download Festival. Opening with Broken Britain Broken Brains, they immediately got the audience on board and clapping along. A short slot but with stunning, screaming vocals, they certainly did stand up and speak out with their performance.
Rating: 8/10
RISE AGAINST – Apex Stage
A sun soaked set, punk bangers and political fury. It may have been a short set for the Chicago punk quartet but they left their mark upon the Donington turf. In what was a surprisingly low slot for the band, it saw the Donington faithful turn up early to mosh and crowd surf along to a career-spanning set that spat in the face of fascism to huge cheers from the crowd who screamed back the lyrics for tracks such as Give It All, Prayer of the Refugee and Savior with pure joy as we saw RISE AGAINST at the top of their game.
Rating: 8/10
JIMMY EAT WORLD – Apex Stage
JIMMY EAT WORLD are festival staples at this point, appearing everywhere from When We Were Young to Coachella, and there’s good reason they so often appear in lineups. Even after a career spanning three decades, the Arizonan emo rockers never fail to put on a great show and today at Download Festival is no different as they play through hits old and new. Although leading man Jim Adkins seems to be starting to lose a little of the youthful energy in his vocal performance, anthems Sweetness and Bleed American still go undeniably hard and the crowd are clearly having the time of their lives singing and dancing around. Of course the highlight is as the band close out with The Middle, a song that almost feels tailor made for a huge outdoor show like this, the atmosphere on stage and in the crowd is joyous. Another solid outing for the band, and mostly worth the watch.
Rating: 7/10
CROSSFAITH – Avalanche Stage
With an 11 year absence from Download Festival, CROSSFAITH had a lot to prove since they last played the festival. Opting for the Avalanche Stage this time, they turn it upside down with pure energy. Playing a very short set, CROSSFAITH show their fans they absolutely still have it, coming back stronger than ever, saying as Kenta mentions, this short European stint is the “start of Chapter 2” for CROSSFAITH. The sheer unrelenting force of the band and the crowd kick up a cloud of dust that could put others to shame. An unmissable live act from this weekend, and one to catch again at a headline show to see what they can do with more time.
Rating: 9/10
SVALBARD – Dogtooth Stage
Having recently announced their impending breakup, SVALBARD are now undertaking an extended farewell, one of the first stops being here on the Dogtooth Stage for their first and final Download appearance. It’s a sparser crowd than they deserve, but those in attendance are treated to a typically excellent show from the band, even if it is bittersweet. The likes of Faking It and Open Wound remain as poignant and visceral as ever, if not more so, while Eternal Spirits is a rallying cry to the heroes that inspired them to chase this dream that finally landed them a Download Festival slot. For the first and final time here, SVALBARD‘s flame burns bright.
Rating: 9/10
OPETH – Opus Stage
When a band as expansive as OPETH frequent a midday festival slot, the expectation might be a handful of songs and then to be on your merry way. Unfortunately for the superlative Swedes, the curse of Friday the 13th strikes as they encounter a myriad of technical issues resulting in a 15 minute delay to their arrival on stage. Frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt keeps the crowd entertained with his signature, dry, self-deprecating wit, admitting he hasn’t transformed into a “complete diva” just yet and if all else fails the attendees have MCFLY to fall back on. Despite their fleeting performance they made their time on the Opus stage count, showcasing the spectacular combination of Master’s Apprentice, In My Time Of Need, Ghost Of Perdition as well as §1 from more recent installment, The Last Will and Testament. Not their finest hour but enough to give the crowd a glimpse of their powers.
Rating: 8/10
WEEZER – Apex Stage
Following pop-punk counterparts JIMMY EAT WORLD, it wasn’t too exciting when WEEZER took to the Apex Stage. Despite opening their set with Hash Pipe and My Name Is Jonas, whatever momentum they had was quickly lost where tracks such as Surf Wax America and Island In The Sun couldn’t really bring it back. Throughout the show, the band looked incredibly bored and disinterested on stage which dulled the atmosphere massively. Buddy Holly did bring in their biggest sing a long but it was more of a relief to see it played because it at least meant GREEN DAY was now less than an hour away.
Rating: 5/10
ALCEST – Dogtooth Stage
Strolling from WEEZER limping through Pork & Beans into the Dogtooth for the transcendent blackgaze of ALCEST is an odd experience to say the least, and not one many have made. Much like SVALBARD though, there’s a core of dedicated fans to make up for it. Neige and co are, unsurprisingly, on fine form as they explore the esoteric edges of blackgaze through melody and an excellent command of dynamics. Their set list ebbs and flows expertly, from screeching, cathartic release to melancholic, meditative passages while seguing between the two with ease. They could easily have headlined this stage and perhaps drawn a bigger crowd for it, but it’s a stellar set regardless.
Rating: 9/10
WITHIN TEMPTATION – Opus Stage
The Netherlands aren’t particularly well known for their musical acts, but watching WITHIN TEMPTATION live it’s easy to see how they managed to break their way through to the international scene. Frontwoman Sharon Den Adel is nothing short of captivating on stage, and her vocals are just as spellbinding live as they are in the studio. Delving into their rich discography, we get incredible performances of In The Middle of The Night, Stand My Ground and Shot In The Dark. The band, including new keyboardist Vikram Shankar, have fantastic chemistry on stage and their performance feels as fun as it is heartfelt. Den Adel takes a moment during the set to reflect on their first time performing at Download, having only had time for six songs at that first outing, while today they are headlining Opus with a 14 song set, it’s enough to make even a new fan emotional. Unfortunately for the audience and for WITHIN TEMPTATION, their set time clashes with fellow headliners on the Apex Stage, GREEN DAY, which sadly sees a chunk of the crowd leave before they can finish up, but those who left miss out on a fantastic finish from the Dutch powerhouse of symphonic metal as they close out with a stunning rendition of Mother Earth. An incredible performance.
Rating: 9/10
GREEN DAY – Apex Stage
It seems almost unbelievable that this is the first time GREEN DAY are headlining at Download Festival, but it was clearly a wise booking, considering the sheer scale of the crowd who gather to hear the US punk rockers perform. As the sun begins to mercifully set on a blisteringly hot day one, the industry veterans waste no time at all and barrel straight into American Idiot as a foolproof opener. The crowd go nuts as the camera pans out to a Trump effigy in the crowd during the song, and frontman Billie Joe Armstrong takes a moment to warn the audience of the perils of slipping into fascism after. It’s nonstop from here on out. As has become customary, a fan is brought on stage for a song, this time it’s a fantastically energetic lady dressed as a cheerleader who helps belt out Know Your Enemy.
The two hour set continues on to cover off just about every hit imaginable, but the completely surreal magic comes when the group perform Wake Me Up When September Ends only for the heavens to open at damn near the exact moment Armstrong sings the line “Here comes the rain again”. It seems the band themselves can hardly believe the timing, as they look out to the crowd in pure wonder. The energy at the festival is unparalleled as GREEN DAY continues into Jesus of Suburbia, and Bobby Sox where Armstrong once again muddles the lyrics a-la Coachella. Before closing out with Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), they announce that this will be their last show in the UK for a while, leaving the audience all the more thankful they’re here to witness this evening’s absolutely stellar performance.
Rating: 10/10
Words: Will Marshall, Alex Morgan, Ed Walton, Ben Blissett, Dan McHugh
And that wraps up our coverage of the Friday of this year’s Download Festival! Keep posted to Distorted Sound as we bring you our coverage of Saturday and Sunday’s action!
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