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Council leader would support Download 2024 cancellation if traffic issues aren’t addressed
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 3 July 2023
Live Nation has confirmed that it is undertaking an investigation into traffic levels around this year’s Download festival after last month’s edition resulted in “unprecedented” congestion on roads near the event’s site.
That confirmation came as the leader of Leicestershire County Council said that changes would need to be implemented in 2024 or he’ll push for “the damn thing” to be “cancelled”.
Festival-goers arriving for Download 2023 at Leicestershire’s Donington Park on 7 and 8 Jun caused long delays on many roads near the site, including the M1, A50 and A453. The congestion affected the festival-goers themselves, but also local residents and people heading to the nearby East Midlands Airport.
According to the BBC, leader of Leicestershire County Council Nick Rushton said: “Hundreds of people emailed me from their cars, phoned me from their cars, people trying to get to the airport. 600 people actually missed flights. It was an absolute disaster”.
To further illustrate the point, he said that it had taken his lawyer two and half hours to drive what should have been a ten minute journey.
“Something’s got to change for next year otherwise I’ll be pressing that the damn thing is cancelled”, the councillor added. Although, he did concede that management at Donington “are pretty good operators” and that he was confident the issues could be addressed next year “with a bit of controlling”.
A spokesperson for festival promoter Live Nation said last week: “We recognise that the level of traffic congestion was unprecedented and not acceptable due to the effect it had on our customers and the local community”.
“As organisers of the festival”, they added, “we have committed to a full review of the traffic management plan and information that was provided to ticket holders relating to the route to designated car parks”.
This year’s Download had an additional day of programming on the Thursday as part of 20th anniversary celebrations. However, the festival’s campsite still opened at midday on the Wednesday as usual, which may have contributed to the heightened congestion.
Live Nation have confirmed that the event will return to its usual three day format next year with the campsite opening two days before performances begin, which should help spread out people arriving at Donington Park.
