Download Festival 2019 Line-Up: 15 Essential Bands You Must See

The mega bands, supergroups and hidden gems you need to catch.

It's that time of year again when metal and rock music fans the world over converge on Donington, fully expecting to be rained into muddy oblivion but also ready for the world's premier rock music festival: Download.

This year, the organisers have once more sought a heady mix across the full spectrum of rock, taking in classic rock, country-influenced rock, pop punk, hardcore, pop metal, thrash and hip hop... Yeah, that's no typo. There's something for everyone.

Inevitably, sifting through the Line-Up in the days before the festival presents many dilemmas and while it's easy enough to pitch up near the main stage and not move for entire days, to do so would be to miss a whole range of deliciousness. That said, you can't catch everything and sacrifices will be made, but if you can catch at LEAST these 15 bands, ranging from veterans to festival debutants, you'll be in for a hell of a time. Just as long as the weather Gods are kinder than they usually are. Yeah right...

These are some of the essential bands you MUST see at Download 2019.

Contributor
Contributor

WhatCulture's former COO, veteran writer and editor.