Download Festival - Download 2012

Download 2012

On 12 July 2011 it was confirmed via Twitter, and the Download official website that the festival would be staged in 2012 between 8–10 June. Limited early-bird tickets were put on sale on 15 July. It was announced on 10 November via BBC Radio 1 that Metallica would headline the main stage on the Saturday and also that they would be playing their self titled album in its entirety. The next day Black Sabbath were announced to headline the main stage on Sunday 10 June, closing the festival. On 18 November, The Prodigy was announced as the headliner for Friday 8 June. On January 16th 2012, Soundgarden, Chase & Status, You Me At Six, Tenacious D, Machine Head, Trivium, Lamb of God, Devin Townsend Project, DevilDriver, Little Angels, Anthrax, Ugly Kid Joe and August Burns Red were all confirmed to perform. Over the month of February, 20 bands were announced, including Friday and Sunday's second stage headliners; Slash (with vocals provided by Myles Kennedy) and Rise Against respectively.

On 19 March, Europe, Emmure, Stellar Revival, Firewind, Theory of a Deadman and seven more bands were added to the lineup. Black Spiders, Four Year Strong, Lower Than Atlantis, Rival Sons, Kobra and the Lotus, Skindred, Kids in Glass Houses, Gallows, Six Hour Sundown, Refused, The Union, Lawnmower Deth, My Passion, Silent Descent, Don Broco, No Americana, Edguy, Porter Robinson, T. Mills and Fearless Vampire Killers were added to the lineup on 3 April.

On April 12th 2012, Download Festival announced on their website, official Facebook page and official Twitter page that the main stage will be named after Jim Marshall who died a week earlier.

American heavy metal band Machine Head reportedly broke the festival record for the most circle pits happening during one song, with a reported 29 pits happening at once.

Comedian Bob Slayer, who is a regular on the comedy stage at Download, broke his neck doing a wheelie bin crowd surf stunt whilst entertaining at the festival.