Further acts have been confirmed to join Download Festival’s 2022 lineup, with Skindred and Yonaka amongst those recruited to perform at the Summer event. The legendary festival is set to return with a bang this year from 10th-12th June 2022 at Leicestershire’s Donnington Park. The new acts added to the impressive line-up will be performing alongside the festival’s headliners Kiss, Iron Maiden and Biffy Clyro.
Along with the inclusion of Skindred and Yonaka, the rock focused festival also confirmed eleven further bands. The annual summer event’s line up now includes Alestorm, Banks Arcade, Bimini, Dana Detata, Dirty Honey, Heriot, Kid Brunswick, Orbit Culture, Red Fang, The Velveteers and Will Haven. The festival took to Instagram to share the new line up poster complete with the new additions.
Yonaka will be making their return to Download this year after taking part in last year’s Download pilot festival, the band played on Saturday 19th June 2021 alongside headliners Enter Shikari. The band’s frontwoman Theresa Jarvis has spoken concerning their upcoming appearance, the singer also describes her personal connection to the festival, “Aghhhh Download! Some of us have been going since we were 14 so it’s an absolute pleasure to be performing there again. The energy is always amazing and such an exciting lineup of music.”
Welsh reggae and metal group Skindred also performed at last year’s demo event and are seasoned Download performers with multiple years under their belt. Frontman Benji Webbe has also provided the following statement concerning the group’s inclusion in this year’s lineup, “Playing the Download pilot after being locked down for a year and a half was an amazing experience so being invited back to our favourite festival and spiritual home to play alongside the likes of KISS and Maiden is a dream come true. Plus we have some amazing rockin’ new tunes which we cannot wait for you all to hear.”
Last September the festival announced that the 2022 lineup would include A Day To Remember, Mastodon, Shinedown, Code Orange, Black Veil Brides, Ice Nine Kills and Creeper. The Southampton formed group also performed at last year’s pilot festival, which served as a test event to gauge the effect of COVID-19 within large crowds. Managing director of Festival Republic, UK promoter for Download Melvin Benn gave the following statement concerning the three-day event. “The pilot went extraordinarily well. Not a single person arrived on site with a positive Covid test. Everyone was incredibly compliant and were reassured that the people they were moshing with were Covid-clear.”
After the event had concluded, reports and investigations were held to examine if the pilot had been successful. The festival was part of the second phase of tests conducted by the Government’s Event Research Programme, the initiative aims to investigate and report the risks associated with event attendance during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s upcoming event will mark the festival’s return to its traditional format. The Summer festival’s star-studded roster will perform across four stages; Main Stage, Second Stage, The Dogtooth Stage and The Avalanche Stage hosted by Download’s long-term partner Kerrang! Radio. Tickets are available to purchase for both Camping and No Camping, music fans are also able to purchase RIP options which include hotel and special camping choices.
Click here to purchase tickets.
