Download Festival launch investigation into traffic delays at 2023 event

Download Festival is one of the biggest music events in the East Midlands which is held at Donnington Park annually. This year saw the biggest crowd ever as thousands attended the five-day festival to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the legendary metal event.

The effect of the increased crowds was chaotic travel difficulties across the M1, A42, A453, and A50 as attendees flocked to the site. Some attendees said they missed performances and were stuck for hours as a result.

The team responsible for Download have launched an investigation to find the cause of the traffic congestion and fix it before the event takes place in 2024. Tickets are already on sale for next year’s event and organisers have vowed to find a way to improve residential and community engagement. The event will also be held over three days instead of five in 2024.

In a statement, organisers Live Nation wrote: “Following this year’s Download Festival and several traffic management debrief meetings, 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.

“An investigation has been launched to understand what went wrong on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th June 2023 in the surrounding areas of the festival. The higher attendance and increased number of vehicles accessing the site on the first two days and the routing to some car parks are believed to be the main contributing factors.”

They added: “As organisers of the festival, 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 carparks. As part of the review, the festival will improve community engagement ahead of planning for 2024’s event including meetings with the local residential and commercial community to be held later this year.”

“Plans for the 2024 event are to return to its usual format of 3 arena days and opening of the campsites two days before the festival opens its arena to spread the arrival of our customers over 3 days.”

John Probyn, Festival Manager of Download took to Twitter during the festival to apologise for the delays and to urge fans to check the app for official updates: “We apologise for the delays for customers coming on site today. We have been working continuously since the first reports this morning with the local authority and transport agencies to minimise these delays. We urge road users to ONLY follow the official travel advice from @downloadfest.”

Leicester Police and nearby East Midlands Airport were forced to put out statements warning travellers that traffic may be bad and to allow extra time for delays.