Donington Park, Leicestershire
Exuberant scenes at the rock and metal festival test event find its 10,000 guinea pigs leaving Covid blues far behind
When was the last time rock’n’roll felt this important? With the world starved of concerts, all eyes are on Download Pilot to roadmap the future of live music post-Covid. Granted, the three days are a shell of the festival’s usual fare; only 10,000 – one-11th of Donington Park capacity – descended upon a shrunken site this year, with the number of stages halved to two.
However, within the arena itself, the normality feels overwhelming. Masks and social distancing have been rendered archaic – every attendee has submitted proof of a negative lateral flow test – replaced by a hunger for heaviness that pervades the air every year.
