This weekend all the rockiest rock bands are heading to Donington Park for Download Festival. Alongside headliners Avenged Sevenfold, Guns N’ Roses and Ozzy Osbourne, you’ll find a number of Upset’s faves – from former cover stars Black Foxxes and Milk Teeth, to cover-stars-in-waiting The Faim (right, guys?!). We sent a bunch of ‘em our patented (not really) Download 2018 Q&A to find out what their plans are, and who they’re looking forward to checking out (spoiler alert – almost everyone said Guns N’ Roses)…
Hey Ant from Black Foxxes – congrats on playing Download this year – are you all ready for festival season?
Thank you! We’re super excited to play download again, was a great show when we played a couple of years ago. We love festival season! Going to be a great summer for our camp.
What’s your top tip for surviving a summer spent in fields and on the road?
Stay hydrated, pack plenty pairs of pants and socks and try to take in as much of where you are as you can.
Do you have any fond memories of Download from years gone by?
Yes. We played the UK festival a couple of years ago, and it was such an amazing surprise. We didn’t know what to expect for our band at that time, but it really was a highlight of that summer. We also got the open up for Slayer at the Paris Download last summer, one for the bucket list!
Which bands are you most looking forward to seeing there this year? Will you be meeting up with any pals?
Very excited to see Alexisonfire. Haven’t seen them for going on three years now. There’s always plenty of pals to catch up with at festivals. Hopefully, we have enough time for a few beers.
Download’s got a new Greenpeace campsite this year – do you think festivals have a responsibility to do some good by raising awareness of things like environmental and/or social issues?
I think it’s fantastic if a festival can do some good. One year I went to Reading Festival as a fan, and I left my tent because they were taking them and sending them to Africa.
If you were running your own festival, are there any ‘do good’ initiatives like the above that you’d want to introduce?
It would be awesome to take food donations at the entrance gate. Maybe exchange an item for a can of beer/cider, sure there’s a company that could sponsor that!
What else are you up to this summer, do you have a busy few months coming up?
Besides festival season we’re starting to write album three, but personally, I’ll be getting back into video projects and making the move to Bristol!
