While Festival Republic’s Download Festival won’t return at full capacity this year due to COVID-19, organizers announced there will be an event after all, launched as a pilot event as part of the UK Government’s Event Research Program.
The 10,000-capacity pilot festival will take place in Donington Park, under the supervision of a group of Researchers from Public Health England.
The festival will not require attendees to be masked, but everyone on site will be required to have taken a lateral flow test before entry and received a negative result and will have taken a PCR test too.
As well, the festival will be age restricted, with attendance open to those who are 16 and older. Attendees will also need to read and agree to a consent document first to ensure they understand the research process and meet these criteria before they can buy a ticket.
“Following the huge success of our Sefton Park event, we are delighted to contribute to Phase II of the Government’s Events Research Programme with the creation of the first three-day camping festival which will be the Download Pilot at Donington Park,” said Festival Republic’s Melvin Benn.
“This massive next step will help us understand and study the safe return of large-scale festivals with no social distancing or facemasks over a full weekend… the return of the full festival experience we have all been waiting for and a much-needed return to work for musicians, backstage crew, caterers and many more that form part of the UK’s exemplary live music industry.”
The full Download Festival will return in June 2022 with Deftones, Korn, Megadeth, Steel Panther, The Ghost Inside, Funeral For a Friend, Sepultura, Descendents, and Electric Wizard among the artists announced for the lineup.
