Download Festival: a guide to the 2019 rockfest

One of the biggest rock and metal festivals in the world is opening the gates today to welcome thousands of fans ahead of this week's Download Festival. Gates at Donington Park in Leicestershire will open at midday today to allow early-arrivals time to set up camp.

The festival runs from Friday 14th June to Sunday 16th June, and welcomes the genre's biggest names. Festival-goers are being urged to leave plenty of time for their journeys to Download, and to stick to signposted routes.

Major roads in the area are expected to be busy during the festival. Highways England will use electronic message boards on nearby motorways to advise people of any delays. Roads expected to be busy include:

  • M1

  • A42

  • A50

  • A453

The Download Festival will be putting on mindfulness sessions for campers at this year's event. It will host a mix of meditative sessions, conscious breathing workshops and healing sound baths.

Melvin Benn, the Managing Director of Festival Republic spoke to ITV News Central about it.