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 Jeremy from Mayday Parade, congrats on playing Download this year – are you all ready for festival season?
We are ready, and excited to be playing! It’s a festival we have been wanting to play for awhile.
What’s your top tip for surviving a summer spent in fields and on the road?
Just stay hydrated and take it easy. A lot of people go all out and are drained after one week. You need to pace yourself because it’s a long summer.
Do you have any fond memories of Download from years gone by?
I remember wanting to play, but we actually haven’t played before!
Which bands are you most looking forward to seeing there this year? Will you be meeting up with any pals?
We are excited to see Guns N Roses. We all love them. I’m not sure if we have any pals playing this year or not, to be honest, I haven’t checked because I wanted to get there and be excited when I see the lineup.
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 do, I think it’s our responsibility to set a precedent for those who come after us. We need to stress the importance of these issues, so they don’t get buried with so many other things.
If you were running your own festival, are there any ‘do good’ initiatives like the above that you’d want to introduce?
I would probably try and set something up with the artist, so that they can choose the charity/organizations they believe in, and then have a portion of the merch cut that the venues take goes to that bands charity/organization.
What else are you up to this summer, do you have a busy few months coming up?
We have a new record coming out, so we will be very busy this summer promoting that!
