Download Festival 2023 weather forecast

Jun 09, 2023

Will it be sunny or rainy?!

Just like every long-running music festival on these shores, the weather at Download Festival has been something of a mixed bag over the past two decades thanks to the UK's reliably unreliable meteorological conditions.

2005, 2006, 2009 and 2018 were all absolute scorchers, while 2016 was a mud bath of epic proportions and it literally didn't stop raining all weekend. 2012 and 2019 were also soggy.

Just days before Donington Park opens its gates, Planet Rock takes a look at the weather forecast for the 20th anniversary of Download Festival.

Taking place over four days for the first time in its history from Thursday 8th to Sunday 11th June, Download Festival is headlined by Metallica, Slipknot and Bring Me The Horizon.

BBC Weather: Sunny spells until 2pm before unabridged sunshine for the rest of the day. Highs of 17°C and lows of 9°C.

The Weather Channel: Partly cloudy with sunny spells. Highs of 20°C and lows of 9°C.

BBC Weather: Similar conditions to Wednesday with sunny spells and cloud until 11am, and sunshine throughout the rest of the afternoon. Highs of 18°C and lows of 9°C.

The Weather Channel: Partly cloudy with sunny spells. Highs of 18°C and lows of 8°C at night.

BBC Weather: A gloriously sunny day after a cloudy start with a moderate breeze. Temperatures will peak at 19°C and reach lows of 10°C.

The Weather Channel: Partly cloudy with sunny spells. Highs of 21°C and lows of 10°C at night.

BBC Weather: Sunny spells throughout the day, however there is a chance of light rain in the afternoon. Temperatures will hit 21°C and lows of 13°C overnight.

The Weather Channel: Sunny spells with an 80% chance of light rain in the afternoon. Highs of 23°C and lows of 13°C.

BBC Weather: Sunny spells with a chance of thundery showers in the afternoon. The hottest day of the week with temperatures peaking at 24°C and going down to 14°C at night.

The Weather Channel: A hot day with temperatures peaking at 24°C and lows of 14°C. However, there's an 80% chance of rain with thundery showers predicted.

If you still haven't packed for Download Festival, check out our survival guide below featuring all the essentials you need to pack before heading off to Donington.

If you're going to return rock and metal to its rightful home of Donington Park, then it only seems right and proper to get the UK's biggest heavy metal act to kick things off. And kick off they did!

Proving that supergroups still remained a popular draw, this fusion of Soundgarden's Chris Cornell and the instrumental wing of Rage Against The Machine transcended their original bands to forge an identity wholly their own.

Promoting their second album, 'Meteora', Linkin Park brought their fusion of heavy metal and rap when they headlined the main stage on the opening night of Download 2004.

Having made "secret" mid-afternoon appearance on the second stage with no soundcheck the previous year, the behemoth that is Metallica took its rightful place at the head of the table. Despite Lars Ulrich being rushed to hospital minutes beforehand, Metallica ploughed on with their set with Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Slipknot's Joey Jordison and their drum technician, Flemming Larsen, filling in for Lars.

So overjoyed was he at Feeder's reception from the crowd, the band's singer-guitarist Grant Nicholls smashed his Fender Jazzmaster. We hate to think what he'd have done if it had gone badly.

The origin of the species, Black Sabbath pretty much invented heavy metal with their eponymous debut album before refining it throughout the 70s. You can call this one a homecoming.

As one of the most important metal bands of the 90s and beyond, System Of A Down are genuine gamechangers and worthy headliners of this celebrated event.

Promoting their fourth album, '10,000 Days', Tool displayed an effortless ability to take the main stage and own it.

Returning to Download for their second headline slot and third appearance overall, Metallica celebrated the 20th anniversary of 'Master Of Puppets' by the playing the album in full. Fortunately Lars was in good health this time around.

After threatening to walk off after bottles were thrown onstage, both band and audience settled in for some hard rocking, with Axl Rose declaring, "I'm actually having quite a good time now! I couldn't have said that an hour ago!"

At arguably the highest point of their career, My Chemical Romance brought 'The Black Parade' to Donington Park.

Riding high on the back of their third album, 'Minutes To Midnight', Linkin Park returned to Donington Park for their second Download headlining set.

With the end in sight for their massive 'A Matter Of Life And Death' tour, Iron Maiden returned to the UK for the first time since the previous December for their second Download headliner.

Playing an epic 20-song set, Kiss brought their spectacular live show to this side of the Atlantic. Though perhaps the less said about Gene Simmons' bass solo, the better.

The only punk band to have headlined the Download festival, The Offspring brought the pogo the headbangers. There's probably a song title there…

Returning for their first live shows in 11 years, Faith No More served to confirm just how much they'd been missed.

Slipknot's first headline appearance at Download would also be their last UK performance with bassist Paul Gray before his death in 2010. Their performance was later released as the live DVD, '(sic) nesses'.

Since emerging from Sheffield as part of the New Wave Of British Metal, Def Leppard have gone on to become one of the biggest bands on the planet. Worthy headliners, indeed…

The only band to have brought their own stage to the Download festival, AC/DC delivered their full stadium show to create one of the most memorable headline sets ever.

Bringing the revolution to Download, Rage Against The Machine detonated in combustible and explosive style just six months after claiming the UK Christmas number one with 'Killing In The Name'.

Headlining a day of torrential rain, classic rock overlords Aerosmith brought a touch of glamour to the otherwise sodden environs of Download.

Having clearly enjoyed themselves just two years earlier, the NWOBHM juggernaut that is Def Leppard returned for their second Download headliner.

SOAD returned for another round of headline action at the Download festival.

Slotted in between the release of 2010's 'A Thousand Suns' and 2012's 'Living Things' album, Linkin Park made their third headlining appearance at Download.

Fusing heavy metal with techno, The Prodigy lit up the Download festival after a wet start forced the cancellation of some acts.

For their third Download headliner, the metal titans that are Metallica elected to play the whole of their 1991 eponymous album – in reverse order.

Despite being treated for cancer, Tony Iommi played as strongly as ever as Black Sabbath went through some of their biggest career highlights including 'War Pigs', 'Children Of The Grave' and 'Paranoid'.

Iowa's masked metallers Slipknot embarked on the The Memorial World Tour in honour of their late bassist Paul Gray, who died in 2010. As the scene of Slipknot's last UK appearance with him, calling in at Download was only right and fitting.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of their first Donington headline slot at Monsters of Rock as part of their 'Seventh Tour Of A Seventh Tour', the metal institution that is Iron Maiden returned to this hallowed ground.

Does it get any more explosive than Teutonic titans Rammstein? Probably not, and so it be proved as Donington Park ignited in flames.

Hot on the heels of their first transatlantic chart-topping album, 'Hail To The King', Avenged Sevenfold hit Download with the force of a Viking raiding party.

Following in the footsteps of bands such as Metallica revisiting their landmark records, Linkin Park played their debut album, 'Hybrid Theory', in full.

Back for their second Download festival headliner, Aerosmith brought this year's event to a spectacular close.

You can't keep a good band down as Slipknot return for their third Download festival headline slot.

Playing and headlining Download festival for the first time, Muse's frontman Matt Bellamy – a man fond of conspiracy theories and fearful of state surveillance – lashed out the facial recognition software that had been employed the constabulary: "F*** Leicestershire police for scanning your faces!"

Was the police's facial recognition software needed for Kiss? And would they be able to tell the difference between say, Tommy Thayer and Ace Frehley?

It may have been one of the wettest Download festivals ever – perhaps it should have been re-named 'Downpour'? – but Rammstein still managed to bring their explosive live show.

Embarking on their 'The End' farewell tour, Black Sabbath called in for one last time at the home of heavy metal.

Topping the charts on 24 countries with their epic 'Book of Souls' album, Iron Maiden delivered the goods once more at Download.

A third headline appearance for System Of A Down – no mean feat for and that hasn't releases an album since 2005's 'Hypnotize'.

Celebrating their second No. 1 album in the shape of 'Ellipsis', Biffy Clyro headlined Download for the first time.

Aerosmith have got to be doing something right if they've been asked back for their third Download headline appearance.

Dedicating a cover of Pink Floyd's 'Wish You Were Here' to the late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, Avenged Sevenfold also played a blistering career-spanning set.

'Epic" doesn't even begin to it as Axl Rose reunited with guitarist Slash and bassist Duff McKagen for a mammoth three-hour set. And yes, they really did cover Glen Campbell's 'Witchita Lineman'.

Amazingly, it's Ozzy Osbourne's first solo headline slot at Download that sees him delivering the hits and a few dips into the Black Sabbath back catalogue.

Sheffield's prodigal sons topped the line-up for a third time at Download 2019 where they performed their seminal 'Hysteria' album in its glorious entirety, alongside other gems.

A decade on from their first bill-topping performance, Slipknot headlined Download Festival for a fourth time in June 2019 in support of their sixth studio album 'We Are Not Your Kind'

The Los Angeles alternate metallers closed Download Festival 2019 with an audio-visual spectacular!

The one-off Download Pilot line-up featured 40 UK based acts with Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes, Enter Shikari and Bullet For My Valentine headlining. The 10,000 capacity event was held in June 2021 as part of the second phase of the Government's scientific Events Research Programme during the Covid pandemic.

After three long years away, Download Festival returned in June 2022 with KISS topping the bill on the Friday night as part of their End of the Road World Tour. Whether it's their last ever UK show remains to be seen.

The mighty Iron Maiden brought their spectacular Legacy of the Beast World Tour to Donington Park in June 2022. The Saturday night performances marked the fifth time Maiden had headlined Download Festival.

Scottish rockers Biffy Clyro brought Download Festival 2022 with a hit-packed set in front of a sparsely-packed field.

Taking place over four days for the very first time, the 20th anniversary of Download Festival in 2023 is headlined by Metallica (twice), Bring Me The Horizon and Slipknot.

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