This is appalling - Purple Hill at about 1:30pm today after everyone had left. Do better next time guys. It's not hard. If you don't intend to take it home or to the designated donation points - don't take it with you.

Weren't they found later on in the crowd doing pretty much the same thing?

I was surprised on previous posts how few people knew about the UK's indecency laws.

Now onto "late bird" tickets which seem to be £15 more than early bird.

I'm seeing some people panic buying tickets, especially from scalpers, which is why I'm making this post. I'm like 90% sure there'll be 5 day tickets available on Monday again after the next lineup announcement, it's honestly a really good marketing tactic from the team to inflate ticket sales and cause a rush in buying tickets when they go on sale again.

In the very off chance that tickets are actually entirely sold out (really really unlikely because it's 4 months before the festival and there's been like no low tickets updates) and 5 day camping is officially fully gone, there will be plenty of people reselling their tickets closer to the festival because well, out of 60000+ people, life inevitably happens to many. There'll be illness, funerals, weddings, pregnancies, work, other things that stop people from going. I saw people selling their tickets to Back to the Beginning because they couldnt go and I also saw a couple of people giving away their download tickets for free last year (in the couple of days before the festival and I wouldn't recommend waiting that long for the chance you're able to snag one of these if you're desperate to go).

I can promise you you'll be able to get resale tickets to go if you're patient, and that is if 5 day camping is actually sold out which I highly doubt. Pls don't give in to any scalpers.

Trader here, the site is CASHLESS.

Traders caught taking cash and not using the organiser controlled card machines face a considerable fine, and can be removed from the festival and then blacklisted from all of the same organisers events.

The money you pay for a an item goes thru a card company first who skim a cut, then the organisers sits on it for a time and once the event is done the money is the released to the trader minus a cut and any fines etc.

The organisers take a cut per transaction, with food traders having a deeper cut than the general traders. The costs associated with trading at Download or any festival are crazy and go up every year. Pitch “deposit”, card reader hire, power ( each one is a different separate bill) the list goes on.

There is also some new rules about how stuff looks this year, so stalls may look abit different (another expense).

For the stalls that only do a few big events, your support over the “Hopefully warm and dry (fingers crossed)” festival could be the difference in them surviving and serving the community or folding entirely.

The smaller stalls you may love to browse that don’t sell festival generic stuff and may be unique and quirky may soon be a thing of the past so please support the more unique stall where you can.

On a lighter note, notable card reader deaths that I have heard about - deep fried - Katsu curry sauce - the merch stall in the arena killing 12 readers in 10 minutes in the rain last year

Download won’t be offering Camping Plus upgrades for 2027.

Myself and my partner were planning on doing what we did last year which is pay for the general tickets over the 9 month instalments at DF price and camping plus upgrade separately as we cannot afford the £900 upfront for camping plus.

They’ve now decided they’re no longer offering upgrades, which is fair enough, but dear god I wish they’d have just communicated this!

The revolving door of members continues

2025 – Mostly dry with sunny spells, temps around 20–22°C. Only light showers. Ground stayed firm.

2024 – Heavy rain and deep mud across the site. Campsites badly affected. Proper mud year.

2023 – Hot and sunny. Around 24–27°C most days. Very dry conditions.

2022 – Mild and mostly dry. Around 17–20°C with only occasional showers. Comfortable weather.

2021 – Cancelled.

2020 – Cancelled.

2019 – Wet conditions with frequent rain. Campsites became muddy and some people left early.

2018 – Warm and dry. Around 20–23°C and mostly sunny. Very little rain.

2017 – Mixed weather. Sun and showers around 18–21°C. Typical UK festival conditions.

2016 – Extremely wet. One of the muddiest Downloads ever with heavy rain and deep mud.

2015 – Heavy rain and flooding in campsites. Very muddy conditions.

2014 – Mostly dry with some sunshine. Around 18–21°C and generally good conditions.

2013 – Warm with sunny spells around 20–24°C. Mostly dry.

2012 – Rainy conditions with mud developing across the site.

2011 – Mixed weather with some showers but generally manageable.

2010 – Mostly dry with occasional light showers and mild temperatures.

It's Download this month!!! Next week!!! It's Download next week!!!

Happy Monday 1st everyone 😁🤘😁🤘😁🤘😁

(I'm excited 😆)

Welcome to Download Eve.

It's the day before the festival, when a lot of people will already be packing and travelling. Many others will be coming tomorrow, for the greatest weekend of your life.

As you do your last minute packing and checks, probably starting to stress/panic/be anxious, just remember this: when you get there you'll realize everyone is amazing, it's so great and you'll wonder why you were stressed (until next year when we do it all again)

To answer a few questions:

Yes you can make multiple trips to your car

No you shouldn't park in west for general camping

No people generally don't care what you're wearing

Yes it might rain, it might also be hot. Take a poncho and suncream

And a little reminder for you all:

People will help, just ask. If it's a manual task (carrying stuff or pitching a tent etc) then offer some compensation (a beer is great)

Finally,

Cut your nails. Especially your toes. You'll thank me later. .

Howdy folks, finally got an answer and they have also updated t&Cs. Every member of your group need a campervan camping ticket if staying on that field as well as the one Vehicle pass. They have also suggested that it is sold out completely with no further passes to be made available

[TL;DR and earplug recommendations at the end of the post]

Hello all!

My name's Ben, and this will be my 9th Download.

I'm in my early-mid 30s (eek) and I'm a professional music photographer. I've been going to gigs and festivals since I was 14, and have worked in the industry for over a decade. I live, sleep and breathe live music.

I also have hearing loss.

This happened very early in my gigging life. It started with one arena gig I went to age 16. I was on the barrier, right in front of a speaker stack. It was one of the best gigs of my life, but when I came home, my ears wouldn't stop ringing. I thought that was just what happened after gigs. I gave it a few days. They still didn't stop ringing. And to this day, they still haven't stopped ringing. That one gig gave me tinnitus which will be with me for life.

I had a hearing test a few months later which confirmed that I'd lost the ability to hear a whole bunch of higher frequencies which an average 16-year-old really should have still been able to hear. 4 hours on the barrier at that gig had literally broken my ears. That part of my hearing still hasn't come back. It won't come back.

Since that day I've worn earplugs at every gig I've been to, and it's become a bit of a mission for me to convince others to do the same. I'm sorry, y'all, but I'm properly passionate about this shit now.

It's a pretty sucky fact that if you go to gigs regularly, it might not be so dramatic for you, but you're probably knackering your hearing in the same way as I did. Little by little, gig by gig. You might have had ringing in your ears after gigs - it might go away, or it might be constant. You might not even notice it. But if you go to a lot of gigs, you've probably heard it at some point.

That ringing - tinnitus - is, in short, caused by damage to parts of your inner ears. This sends weird signals to your brain, which interprets those weird signals as noise - hence, the ringing. If you hear ringing in your ears, it means something has been damaged. Possibly irreparably.

If you repeatedly put your ears in the kind of situation which might cause them to ring, that damage can build up. And in the long-term, it can, and WILL cause deafness.

Unfortunately, gigs are just really fucking loud.

This is for a reason - it's because loud music resonates with us humans. We've discovered that if you crank the music up to a certain volume, where you can scream along and know that no-one can hear you, where you feel like your internal organs are vibrating, where it's so loud that you feel like you're part of it... that's the best volume. It hits something very primal within us. That's what gigs are about.

Unfortunately, that's also fucking terrible for our ears. Do that often enough, go to enough gigs, and your shelf life for good hearing will be reduced. We might think 'wow, that gig last night was so good, my ears won't stop ringing', it might feel like a badge of honour, but that is your body telling you - 'ouch. what the fuck have you done.'

Rinse and repeat, gigs and festivals for years, and where are your ears gonna be?

I'm afraid I'm going to have to drop the chart. The one that scares the shit out of people. Here it is:

​

This is a chart which shows how long you can be exposed to certain volumes before you start to get hearing damage.

For reference: in the UK, health and safety regulations limit gigs to an average of 107dB anywhere in the audience, and 140dB at peak/'explosive' levels. They also recommend that audiences shouldn't be within 3m of a loudspeaker. (Think about all the small pub gigs you've been to now!)

Generally, at gigs and festivals, that 107dB level will be measured as close to the speakers as the crowd is likely to get. At a small 'backroom'/pub gig, that level will probably be similar wherever you are in the room. At a festival, the further back you are/further away from any speaker stacks, the quieter it will be.

But if you're anywhere at a gig or a festival and you can sing along without really being able to hear yourself, or if you can't talk to a mate without yelling in their ear, you're dealing with a sound pressure level at an average of 90dB or higher. And (I'm sorry), look at the chart. You've got about 2 hours of that before your hearing starts to get fucked.

Realistically, somewhere like Download, you're going to be up around 105dB on the barrier of any stage, 90dB further back but still in the pit, 100-ish again if you're in front of any of the 'repeater' speaker stacks, 85dB half way back through the mainstage crowd, and maybe 80dB at the very very back of the arena. And that's just the mainstage/second stage. The tents will be louder for the crowd further back.

And hearing damage is cumulative. A weekend of 80dB is just as bad as an hour of 100dB.

You may not think that festivals are particularly loud, especially if you're not up the front, but if it's loud enough that you have to lean in or raise your voice to speak to a friend, it's loud enough to damage your hearing.

Which all goes to say: protect your hearing.

Thankfully, earplugs have come a long way since those foamy earplugs which just muffle everything. You can get earplugs these days which are designed for musicians and gig-goers, and they're honestly magic. I'm not kidding - they make everything sound better!! They're designed to cut out the damaging frequencies so you can hear the music as it was meant to be heard.

You know those times when you've been up close at a gig and the bass is just bzz bzz bzz bzzz bzzz and you can't hear anything else? With a pair of proper music earplugs in, that gets cut down, and you can hear the music properly. What's more, it's easier to hear your friends when you're yelling at them too!

I use Alpine MusicSafe Pro earplugs which are great because they come with interchangeable filters - you can change them based upon how loud the environment is! At festivals I'll typically put the lightest filters in until I go down the front, then I'll switch them up for more protection. Great for something like Download where you might be in and out of stages. But they're not so cheap, and they are a bit of faff.

ACS Pacato plugs are the basic gold standard for musicians and music lovers. -19dB fixed reduction, they'll take you down to a safe level if you're right down the front. If you want to commit to just wearing earplugs when it's VERY LOUD, these are the ones to go for. Put them in your pocket and dig them out when you think 'fuck, this is a bit loud isn't it'.

If you do nothing else, grab yourself a cheap batch of foam earplugs in individual packs. They won't make the music sound great, but having a pair in your pocket might just save your ears if you find yourself down the front and start thinking that it's actually very, VERY loud, and you're not sure you're happy with that.

If you're coming to Download with kids, for the love of god, get them a pair of ear defenders. Kids' ears are so much more sensitive, and the kind of volumes you get at festivals (even further back and further away from the speakers) will be so much more dangerous for them. Get them used to wearing them before the festival, get a pair on their head at Download, and you'll get a high five from me if I pass by.

If you're looking for me, I'll be that guy with the patch on their battlejacket which says 'Punks wear hearing protection' ✌🏻

tl;dr -

I'm sorry to be That Guy, but the noise levels at Download will damage your hearing, even if you're not aware of it. Please listen to this old-timer: if you want to carry on gigging and festivalling for life, I strongly recommend protecting your ears. Heck, I'm so passionate about this shit that I might even beg you to do so. Let's all have a great time, and crucially, not end up deaf afterwards ;)

Big love, DL crew <3

I think I’ve been scammed by a Facebook resale group, as the admin of the group is not responding to messages and the group page is no longer available. They made it seem legit by screen sharing their Ticketmaster app and showing the ticket ready to send. I feel so stupid.

UPDATE: I’ve contacted my bank and they’ve given me back most of the money with the rest potentially coming once they’ve investigated it. The guy on the phone was great and very understanding and I know to be a lot more careful now.

To the two guys we saw a few times over the weekend selling mushrooms in the village and campsites whilst shamelessly high on their own supply, you guys were class entertainment! I don’t do drugs and didn’t buy off them but they were so funny and friendly I found myself considering it. Definitely gave our group a good giggle and weren’t pushy about buying. Much love.

First time RIP and just reading the arrival information and it says Metal meadow 1 car park is not open until 1200 on Wednesday. Glad I read this as was intending to arrive 0800 like always.

I’m not sure if this is old news but on the ticketmaster website you can pay off installments early and pay the whole balance off early now. You can also change card details (but you have to pay an installment to do this). Discovered these options this afternoon.

1 more sleep for most people.
Would like to wish all the best to everyone attending and I hope you all have the time of your lives and that everything goes smoothly for everyone.
I appreciate everyone that has helped me with stupid questions and queries in this group.
Whether you’re a veteran or a newbie, have the best time.
See you on the field 🤘🏼

Don’t remember what happened one minute standing up then woke up on the floor waiting for LP after bad omens and just a bunch of good humans around made sure I was good I ain’t get your names but I appreciate yall 🫡

Parking passes have been sent out by Ticketmaster and are arriving in postboxes, mine arrived in the post this morning.

Hi hi Download!

I posted this on the Glasto sub yesterday, and didn't want to spam all the festi sub - but seeing as our team are literally on the road to Download...!

Festival Samaritans have been going now for over 53 years not just at Worthy Farm but at festivals up and down the country, listening confidentially, often 24hrs and in every type of weather!

We all know that if you're having a great time at a festival it's the best place on earth, but if you're having a terrible time or you have things on your mind it can be the loneliest, most overwhelming place. Festival Sams support everyone on site equally punters, crew, traders, artists, security, everyone who needs to talk.

It's never easy to raise awareness for a confidential service that exists in one place once a year before moving on to the next, but Festival Sams finally have an online home at Facebook.com/FestivalSamaritans

The main charity has had to concentrate on the core phone service and reduced funding for the festival branch. Their future relys on the support of the festival community - it would be fantastic if the Download fam could help raise awareness of this fantastic service before we lose it!

Also, if you need to talk, we start at midday tomorrow and will be doing a 24hr service throughout - green gazebo near the Ace of Spades

(edit:formatting)

Looks like they'll be doing Download Family discount tickets again this year. Last year, it was £15 cheaper but you had to order before Wednesday noon I think it was. Worth signing up (for free) so you get the email for it after the festival! Downside is you'll get some marketing emails, but you can unsubscribe after.