Download Festival XXIII – Day 3 (Sunday)
- Charis Lydia Bagioki
- Jun 23
- 7 min read
Final day at Download Festival closes off with a set bigger than nostalgia
It is Day 3 of Download Fest. By now, everyone is sleep deprived, dehydrated, with bodies that ache and running on caffeine, adrenaline and maybe a bit of spite that they have to enjoy the final day as much as possible. The physical stubbornness of a final festival day deserves academic study, because the recurring theme through the day was that circle pits did not cease to exist at all – in fact, they were bigger than ever. Prepping for one of its biggest crowds ever, Download Festival opened the arena doors one final time for 2026, and absolutely nobody seemed interested in slowing down. In hindsight, this feeling made the early morning sprint between stages feel deeply on brand.
The day began with a dash between Spitting Glass and Unpeople, immediately setting the pace somewhere between “ambitious” and “medically questionable”. Spitting Glass delivered one of my favourite sets of the entire weekend, and a perfect reminder of why smaller bands often benefit most from festivals like Download. The band, with only one week of live performances under their belt, performed Dogtooth with a kind of hunger that only exists in bands who know they are fighting for every single person watching them. You can’t fake fan devotion and dedication, and Spitting Glass have established that they have a fanbase that is unhinged at best. Personally, I reserve a soft spot for their vocalist Joe Bad, who knows how to keep the crowd engaged through the set without wasting a second, and for the song “Stalker” because it hits hard (iykyk).
Meanwhile, Unpeople made their Download Apex debut and delivered exactly what anyone familiar with them expected: total chaos. Conquering one festival at a time, the band continue to feel like one of the most exciting emerging names in the UK alternative scene. Their energy feels restless in the best way, whilst their guitarist always joining the crowd for the last song of the set keeps the unpredictability interesting enough to gain new audience. Opening the main stage is no small achievement, and they looked completely at home. What a massive step up from opening the Avalanche stage last year, they skipped an entire stage at Download and brought an even bigger crowd with them.
Back onto the main stage, RØRY delivered one of the most emotionally honest sets of the weekend. Dipping her feet into themes of mental health and self-discovery, RØRY knows how to challenge aggression with empowerment and vulnerability at the same time. Watching the crowd connect with her songs felt different from typical festival energy. It was not about chaos or spectacle but about the shared experience and honesty in her performance, that hit just as hard as any breakdown all weekend.
Then balance was restored via Kublai Khan TX, who arrived with all the subtlety of a demolition team. No concept, or production or gimmicks; the band bought loud riffs, relentless aggression and enough force to make security reconsider their career choices. Sometimes bands seem to rely too much on everything going on around them to invoke spectacle, but Kublai Khan TX go back to the ‘less is more’ mantra, by bringing simplicity into the mix. The band know their role and execute their part with brutality and efficiency, leaving a pile of bodies in their wake. Definitely one of the greatest bands to catch live in a festival, you are guaranteed a full workout in the moshpit.
Over at Opus, thrown were operating at an absurd level. Another band that has been tearing through festival slots lately, with more massive festivals in Europe to come, it is increasingly obvious why they perform at this level. Their set had no unnecessary introductions, speech fillers and wasted time – it was pure impact from the moment it started up until the very last note. The crowd surfers came in relentless waves over the barricade, and every breakdown landed exactly where it needed to. Standing close enough to the monitors meant that the front row could physically feel the bass reverberate through their bodies. Thrown understand something many bands don’t: audiences know what they want. If you can deliver it properly, overcomplication is unnecessary.
Then came Boundaries and frankly, all logic disappeared. This was easily one of the heaviest (and best) sets of the day. It was so good that I made the entirely rational and well-thought-through decision to run directly into the circle pit and personally test my cardio capacity and bone density. I can report back mixed results. What makes Boundaries so compelling is that their heaviness feels multi-dimensional. They are heavy, but there is genuine emotional weight and lyrical impact behind the guitar brutality. That combination is very rare; it’s violence with feeling. Their set felt incredibly cathartic, and it is not an exaggeration to say that the band is destined to rise on a great trajectory.
A special mention here goes to The Plot In You, whose songs somehow hit even harder at a festival setting. There are moments at Download where analysis becomes irrelevant and all you can feel is music. When you stop thinking about lineups, schedules, genres, bodily functions and debates on who the best future headliner would be, you find yourself being lost in the moment and just existing. The Plot In You’s set is exactly one of those moments where you can hear the choruses echo across the crowd and feel like you are part of something bigger.
Back at the main stage, The Pretty Reckless brought something entirely different into the mix: effortless command. Having seen them in a club setting only a few days before their grand festival set, it feels surreal to see a band orchestrate an audience of thousands. Taylor Momsen remains an incredibly magnetic performer, and the band understands how to hold attention without a massive production. Their songs feel timeless, their stage presence feels natural and they know exactly how to command a crowd. Performing “Make Me Wanna Die” in a field full of people as far as the eye can see was a particularly powerful moment for the festival and the band’s career.
Shortly after, Ice Nine Kills went in the exact opposite direction and fully embraced theatrical excess. Having horror references, live action, elaborate production, staged slaughter sequences and Creeper’s Hannah Hermione join them meant that every song felt like its own scene. Built around the band’s love of horror storytelling, it was an amazing sight to see (and hear) thousands scream along to “American Nightmare” and “A Work of Art”. Less amazing was watching Art the Clown behead the Download Dog, but I guess that elevated things further in a way. In that sense, I guess there is not much else to say. 10/10 set.
One of the biggest and most impressive sets of the day however belonged to Bad Omens. They drew one of the largest crowds of the weekend, and standing there, it was impossible to question why. Few bands have experienced such dramatic rise in recent years, but what makes Bad Omens fascinating is how natural it all feels. They didn’t chase trends, if anything, they understood where alternative music was heading and made a whole wave out of it. Their performance felt massive. The production, the atmosphere, the pacing, and dynamics felt designed for a stage of this scale. Meanwhile, Noah Sebastian delivered a performance that felt both emotionally compelling and technically spot on. A highlight for me was hearing “Left for Good” live (because one cannot have enough of it) and witnessing thousands sing along to “Just Pretend”. Their performance only proved one thing; Band Omens is the present and the standard. And more bands should follow their lead.
However, nothing topped Creeper for me. For their second performance of the weekend, and this time in an indoor stage that actually suited their aesthetic, they delivered one of the strongest sets of their career. This is where Creeper make perfect sense: in darkness, atmosphere, lights, theatre and storytelling. Even after already seeing them earlier in the weekend, they somehow felt even more grand in a smaller indoor stage. Their commitment to world-building remains unmatched in British alternative music, and the atmosphere they create was incredible. In a lineup full of technically impressive bands, Creeper still managed to stand apart because no one else feels quite like them.
And finally, closing off the festival were Linkin Park. I have to admit, the only reason I wanted to see them (and I am sure lots of people feel the same) was nostalgia. It was the atmosphere and the sense of belonging that I was hoping to get, especially when I would find myself in a crowd of 95,000 people singing along the same lyrics that raised a couple of generations. Despite being a sceptic, their performance transcends review. There is no point to comment on production, set pacing or technical performance when the emotional scale of the moment took over. Seeing Linking Park closing Download felt bigger than a headline slot. It was a generational moment, where standing among 100K people singing along to “Crawling”, “Numb”, “Somewhere I Belong”, “What I’ve Done” and “In The End” felt surreal.
These aren’t just songs; they are legacy. They are what brought up entire generations and created the personalities of alternative music fans. More than anything, these songs were connection. They brought together people of different ages, backgrounds, and eras of fandom to sing the same songs with the same intensity and feeling. There are very few bands that achieve this kind of legacy and even fewer that can still maintain it twenty years and a completely different singer later. Whatever expectations people arrived with, Linkin Park delivered a reminder why their songs matter despite the absence of Chester Bennington. Nothing can get more nostalgic and powerful than this.
