Towards the end of the year, Download Festival usually makes its first announcement for the following year.
This announcement is usually the headliners and maybe a handful of main stage bands that are set to perform.
This year however, they had a few more bands to announce.
More than 80, actually.
This is because before it was cancelled, Download Festival 2020 was nearly fully organised, with most of the bands already being booked and announced.
Since the festival was cancelled, these bands then were given first refusal for 2021, meaning they were essentially already booked to play, unless the bands said they weren’t available.
And since 2020 is 2020, we need positivity wherever we can find it, and Download Festival announcing 80+ bands is positivity indeed!
So in this blog post we will talk through the announcement, discuss some of the bands that were announced, some that weren’t, some of the controversies and other interesting details.
Excited? Because I am!
2020 Take 2
As I said, the bands already booked for 2020 were given priority for 2021.
This has meant that roughly 2/3 of the bands already announced for 2020 are still going to play in 2021.
So, is this a good or a bad thing?
On the one hand, it would have been nice to see a totally new line-up, just because it would have been more of a surprise. As it stands, we already knew 2/3 of these bands because they had already been announced last year.
This is probably why they announced all these bands in one large go, because why split up the announcement if it’s the bands we already knew about?
However, the line-up for last year did look pretty good, so why not keep it?
Personally I am excited for a bunch of bands for 2021.
In my YouTube reaction video about the announcement, I talked about the nine bands I am really about for 2021.
Big things:
Maiden or Biffy
For 2020, Iron Maiden were announced as the Saturday headliner.
Now this brought the usual complaints that Maiden have played the festival enough times now, isn’t it someone else’s turn?
They headlined the very first Download Festival, way back in 2003!
Fun fact: Iron Maiden are currently tied with Linkin Park and Slipknot for the band that has headlined Download the most times, with 4 times each.
Assuming Download 2021 happens, Iron Maiden will then be on top, headlining a total of 5 times.
For more fun facts like this, check out my recent History of Download festival blog post.
But the band has announced that they have cancelled all gigs until their tour in 2021, which starts in the middle of June.
So they had already announced they weren’t playing at Download.
So instead, the Saturday headliner slot has been renounced as Biffy Clyro, the Scottish rock band.
This has angered a lot of people who either really don’t like Biffy Clyro, or really really wanted to see Iron Maiden.
Now, are they justified in this ire?
Generally I think no.
I think that the band choices are on the festival organisers. They are always trying to make a line-up that will appeal to as many people as possible.
Now, Iron Maiden and Biffy Clyro maybe don’t have a big overlap of fans, but they do both have huge fanbases.
Download are just trying to keep the potential amount of festival goers high, so they replaced Iron Maiden with another huge band, which I think makes sense.
I think there is one situation in which you are allowed to be angry though.
When 2020 was cancelled, (Download Festival, not just the whole year, sadly) people who had already bought a ticket were given a choice.
Either get a refund of your ticket, or roll your ticket over to next year, and save yourself from any price rise.
I think that if you rolled your ticket over because you were SO EXCITED to see Iron Maiden, then you are justified in being annoyed.
I’m not sure you are allowed to be angry AT Download Festival, but you are allowed to be annoyed in general.
Download festival can not force Iron Maiden to play and there was no guarantee that any band booked for 2020 would play 2021.
No Female Headliner
Did you know that Download festival has never hosted a female artist as a headliner in its 17 years?
There is now a Facebook page dedicated to this cause, ‘Get a Woman to Headline Download 2022’, changed from 2021, obviously.
They put this photo up after the band announcement, showing only the bands announced who have female members.
They put a statement after the announcement saying they were frustrated and will need to change the tile of the page to ‘Get a woman to headline download festival 2021’ (Which makes sense), but that they will continue to push this concept.
Bands Not Appearing:
Considering that most of the bands announced were ones that were already confirmed for 2020, I think we can assume that anyone who was confirmed for 2020 and was NOT announced on Monday are not going to appear.
So with that in mind, here are the bands from 2020 who will sadly not appear in 2021, (or at least haven’t been announced yet, so it doesn’t look good):
- Iron maiden
- Alter Bridge (Though Myles Kennedy is playing)
- Babymetal
- Motionless in White
- The Raven Age
- The Offspring
- Amaranthe
- 3 Doors Down
- Disturbed
- Wednesday 13
- The Menzingers
- Pup
- Sullii
- Bowling for Soup
- Lit
- The Skints
- Milk teeth
- British Lion
- Chelsea Grin
- Fire From the Gods
- Uncured
- Periphery
- North Lane
- Polyphia
- Shvpes
- Heavy Lung
- Renounced
Now this sucks, of course.
There are some fantastic bands here that won’t be at Download Festival.
Personally I’m really annoyed that Bowling for Soup and the Offspring won’t be there, because I am a pop-punk kid at heart and that will never change.
Bit you know what this means? It means that new bands will take their place.
Instead of the Offspring and Bowling for Soup, maybe I’ll get to see other pop punk bands from the 90s instead: NOFX, Bad Religion, Green Day even.
Who knows?
(Well, we ALL know it won’t be Green Day, but my point stands.)
The point is that even though these great bands have pulled out, it opens their spot up for new great bands to be announced! And it brings back the mystery and excitement build up too!
Wrap Up
On Monday 3rd August, Download Festival announced 80+ bands for Download Festival 2021.
Around 66% of these bands were already announced for 2020 before it was cancelled, but this is still one of the biggest announcements Download has ever put out.
Some people are angry and others are happy. I’m very much in the happy camp.
Download festival 2021 is shaping up to be fantastic (Assuming we can stop the Coronavirus by then, so make sure you wear a dang mask!)
