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 Stephen from The Faim, congrats on playing Download this year – are you all ready for festival season?
Thank you! We can’t wait to kick off the season with such amazing festivals like Download. Having the privilege of playing alongside bands that we’ve looked up to for our entire lives is something we don’t take lightly. We can’t wait to hit the stage and show the UK what we’re about!
What’s your top tip for surviving a summer spent in fields and on the road?
Drink lots of water!!
Do you have any fond memories of Download from years gone by?
We’ve actually never been to or played Download before, so we can’t wait to make some brand new memories there.
Which bands are you most looking forward to seeing there this year? Will you be meeting up with any pals?
We can’t wait to see Guns N’ Roses, Marilyn Manson, Bullet For My Valentine, You Me At Six and so many more! We’re actually hitting the road with Boston Manor in a few weeks supporting Lower Than Atlantis, so it’ll be great to catch up with them again at Download!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_1pMc9DuUI
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?
Absolutely! Festivals like Download are able to accumulate so many people in one space, so using that to help raise awareness of social issues is a great idea. The more festivals that get on board this movement, the more chance of some real change happening in our lifetime.
If you were running your own festival, are there any ‘do good’ initiatives like the above that you’d want to introduce?
If I were to run a festival, I’d implement a way that could encourage recycling and clean living. A way of doing this would be that if you reuse/bring your own cup for a drink, you get a discounted price for that drink. This way, the festival grounds would end up much cleaner, and people would be consciously thinking about saving rubbish and recycling.
What else are you up to this summer, do you have a busy few months coming up?
We have a very busy summer ahead of us! We’re about to kick off the first show of tour supporting Sleeping With Sirens across Australia and New Zealand; then we fly back to the UK for the second leg of the Lower Than Atlantis tour. Also in the UK, we have the privilege of playing all the Summer festivals including the amazing Download.
