From AC/DC to ZZ Top - Rock Comes to Donington

Held on 20th August, 1983 and headlined by Whitesnake with support from Meatloaf, ZZ Top, Twisted Sister, Dio and Diamond Head.

Courtesy of Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland

Joe Elliot from Def Leppard on stage at Donington in 1986 with a Boeing aeroplane leaving East Midlands Airport above!

Courtesy of Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland

The 1992 festival was held on August 22nd and was headlined by Iron Maiden and supported by Skid Row, Thunder, Slayer, WASP and The Almighty. The event was broadcast live on Radio 1.

Courtesy of Record Office for Leicestershire, Leicester & Rutland

Download 2009 was held on Friday 12th to Sunday 14th June and saw the Download Festival move to a new, bigger area on the park, in the fields south of the circuit. This helped to increase numbers and made the campsite a lot closer to the action! This new site offered much more room which meant a second stage could be included which was nearly the equal the size of the main stage and two smaller ones also.

Download 2010 ran from Fri 11th to Sunday 13th June with headliners AC/DC, Rage Against the Machine and Aerosmith.
Celebrating 30 years on from the first Monsters of Rock festival at Donington, Download 2010 attracted crowds of over 100,000. The new site used the previous year had no problem accommodating these numbers of fans.

Download 2010 had got so big that it needed two Main Stages, though one was only for AC/DC who insisted on bringing their own stage and full stadium show.

This year, Download celebrates its 20th anniversary with a special 4-day festival with Metallica headlining two days with Bring Me the Horizon and Slipknot headlining the other two.