Download Festival - Download 2011

Download 2011

The Download Festival was confirmed to return to Donington on the 10, 11, and 12 June 2011. Linkin Park and System of a Down were the two main stage headliners officially announced, with Saturday subheadliners Avenged Sevenfold and Sunday second stage headliner Rob Zombie announced a short while later. On 24 January, Korn, Pendulum, Bullet for My Valentine, Alice Cooper, Alter Bridge, Danzig, The Cult, The Gaslight Anthem, Hollywood Undead, Thin Lizzy, Buckcherry, Black Veil Brides, The Damned Things, Escape the Fate, Clutch, Mr. Big, Gwar, FM, Masters of Reality and Rise to Remain were also announced to be performing at the festival.

On 22 February, Def Leppard were announced as Friday's main stage headliner, with Twisted Sister, Down, Duff McKagan's Loaded and Trash Talk also added to the line-up. The following day more bands were added to the line-up: Turisas, All That Remains, Sacred Mother Tongue, Bowling for Soup, The Devil Wears Prada, Bring Me the Horizon, Frank Turner, Cheap Trick, Asking Alexandria, Straight Line Stitch, Disturbed, Black Stone Cherry, The King Blues, Madina Lake, Jameson Raid and Ghost. The Pretty Reckless, Puddle of Mudd, VersaEmerge, Evile, Your Demise, Times of Grace and Suicide Silence were announced on 2 March.

15 March saw The Darkness unveiled as the widely-speculated Friday subheadliner, with Funeral for a Friend, Plain White T's, Framing Hanley and Hyro Da Hero also added. In April, the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage and Jägermeister Acoustic stage's acts were revealed.

Wayne Static was scheduled to open up the main stage on the Sunday, but he pulled out a month prior. Masters of Reality were scheduled to perform but pulled out on the 30 March. Karma to Burn were to play the second stage on Sunday but were replaced by Hyro Da Hero, thus giving him three sets over the course of the festival; the most in Download history.

Steward 836 was manning the main stage at the festival, when he caught the attention of fans waiting for Sunday's bands to appear. Some friendly interaction led to cheers from the audience, then one of the giant stage-screens showed him making the "devil horns" gesture, which was applauded by tens of thousands of rock fans. The official Download Festival website even featured him as an artist on their site.