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Download festival is the undisputed home of rock and metal here in the UK. Saying that, though, and with our ears still ringing as we reflect on another amazing weekend of music at Download 2026, you can’t help but notice that the festival is happily embracing more and more wildcard bookings from outside of the genre we all love; Five, Scooter and Cypress Hill this year joined the recent bookings of Vengaboys, McFly and Busted to make their debuts at Donington.
You can do one of two things with this surprisingly evolutionary step: you can act the purist, grumpily fold your arms and moan that this is not in line with what you want from Download, or, alternatively, you can do what the majority of punters did this weekend and enjoy these bookings for the fun little added extra they are.
Which is exactly what we have decided to do. So much so that we've picked our out suggestions, from least ludicrous to most ridiculous, for eight more wildcard bookings from outside of rock and metal that we’d love to see Download take a punt on.
The Cure
So maybe this isn’t too much of a stretch, really. Robert Smith’s godfathers of goth have been the inspiration for hundreds of rock and metal bands over the years; from Deftones to Paramore, Nine Inch Nails to Blink 182, your favourite band’s favourite band are The Cure. With their size and reputation, you’re almost certainly looking at a main stage headline slot, but imagine the scene as the sun descended on Castle Donington and the bleak majesty of Burn, Lullaby or A Forest filled the air. What a moment that could be.
Jack White
Again, there won’t be many people claiming that Jack White has nothing to do with rock music, so this feels like a pretty conservative pick. Still, save for a few early years with The White Stripes, Jack has tended to hang more with the indie crowd in his career. Which is a shame, particularly as his 2024 solo album No Name was the most rocking thing he has put his name to in many a year. Plus, for Donington Park, with all of its history, to have never had the riff to Seven Nation Army, arguably the biggest rock song of this Millennium, played on its grounds, feels criminal.
Ice Cube
It’s outside of rock and metal for sure but this doesn’t feel like too controversial a call. Cube and rock 'n' roll have plenty of history together, the rapper playing both the Lollapalooza and Family Values travelling festivals in the 90s alongside the likes of Korn, Ministry, Limp Bizkit, Soundgarden and more. Plus, much like Cypress Hill this year, he’s got a shed-load of crossover tunes that metalheads already love. Stick him on main in the late afternoon and it will be a good day.
Skrillex
With both Pendulum and The Prodigy making regular visits to Download over the years to represent electronic music, it is a bit of a headscratcher that Sonny Moore’s alter ego Skrillex has never played the festival. With his background in the post-hardcore scene and his work with Korn, he seems like the perfect fit for an afternoon slot to get a metal crowd lobbing glow sticks about. Also, as much as it might force you to confront the fact that you are getting really old, we’re surely very close to a dubstep nostalgia revival. When that happens, expect Skrillex to clean up at Donington.
![Korn - Get Up! ft. Skrillex [OFFICIAL VIDEO] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rZSh9zKeI-s/maxresdefault.jpg)
Rick Astley
What would have been considered an absolutely absurd booking a decade ago now feels kind of possible. Astley’s career took an unexpected bump in the late 2000s with the practice of Rickrolling, but it’s when he arrived onstage with Foo Fighters to sing his big hit Never Gonna Give You Up in 2017 at the Summersonic Festival that the tide really turned. Since then, Astley’s career renaissance has seen him join Blossom’s to sing the songs of The Smiths and get a Pyramid Stage booking at Glastonbury. A massive rock fan, he regularly covers Foos, AC/DC, Queen, Biffy Clyro and other rock artists during his set. He would not only surely love to play Download, but he’d also absolutely smash it too.
Demi Lovato
Lovato is one of many post-Avril Lavigne pop artists that are happy to openly admit just how big a part rock plays in their music. 2022’s Holy Fvck album featured a very metal aesthetic, contributions from Linkin Park’s Emily Armstrong and Yungblud and was brought to life on the album's tour by Alice Cooper guitarist Nita Strauss. Get Nita back for Download, lean in on the likes of Skin Of My Teeth and Eat Me, and this would be a killer show.
So Solid Crew
If the last couple of years are anything to go by, the good people of Download don’t half love a bit of early 2000s, lairy pop nostalgia. Five smashed it in 2026, so let's go one further and book the infamous garage riot starters So Solid Crew. Back in the early 2000s they were as controversial as it got here in the UK, with pearl-clutching and outrage following them around all over the place. These days you don’t hear from them so much, but imagine the scene of Lisa Maffia, Romeo, MC Harvey and the rest charging the Dogtooth and spitting out Hater, They Don’t Know and 21 Seconds. It would be wonderful chaos.
East 17
Another one on the Five tip here. In many ways, East 17 were the original bad boy boyband, creating headlines and scaring middle England way before N-Dubz or Blazing Squad ever did. The younger demographic of Download may not know the majesty of songs like It’s Alright, Steam, House of Love or Let It Rain (although, trust us, they’re all absolute bangers), but they’ve got one song that everybody will know. Trust us: when East 17 decide to drop Stay Another Day on a sweltering June evening, Download is suddenly going to feel Christmassy. Sing it with us...STAAAAAY NOOOOWWW!!!!
