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Download boss described the event as ‘the return of the full festival experience we’ve all been waiting for.’
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 01 Jun 2021
Ticketholders will have to provide negative lateral flow tests to gain entry to the festival Credit: Download Festival
Download festival, the UK’s largest rock event, will return this summer with a smaller COVID-safe version of the spectacle after cancelling its main event earlier this year.
Known as Download Pilot, the three-day event will have reduced capacity, hosting just 10,000 attendees rather than the 80,000 it usually attracts.
The mini-festival will feature a campsite as usual, and, organisers have confirmed, moshing - the act of violently dancing and jumping to rock music - will also be permitted.
Taking place between 18- 20 June at Donington Park, Leicestershire, UK, Download Pilot will form part of the UK government’s Event Research Programme, an ongoing scheme that studies the safety of mass gatherings.
Attendees will have to provide a negative lateral flow test to gain entry and take PCR tests before and after, so researchers can track the spread of Coronavirus from the festival.
“This massive next step will help us understand and study the safe return of large-scale festivals with no social distancing or face masks over a full weekend,” said Melvin Benn, chief of Festival Republic, organiser of Download festival.
“[Download Pilot is] the return of the full festival experience we’ve 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,” he added.
The news follows the success of a one-day pilot event held in Liverpool, UK, in May this year, and the approval of Glastonbury’s mini-festival Equinox, which will take place at Worthy Farm in Somerset, UK, in September.
Tickets for Download Pilot will be available will go on general sale on June 3. The line-up will include acts such as Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes, Enter Shikari, Bullet For My Valentine, Twin Atlantic, Boston Manor, Frank Turner & the Sleeping Souls and Neck Deep.
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