Download festival goers given highways advice

Metallica are to play two headline sets

Fans heading to Download have been advised to observe road diversions as they travel to the rock festival.

National Highways issued the advice ahead of the four-day festival, which starts at Donington Park, Leicestershire on 7 June.

The popular annual festival attracts about 100,000 people.

National Highways said it was dispatching extra traffic officers and working with the event organisers to keep the roads moving.

The event will be marking its 20th anniversary and the 2023 event will be the first time the festival has hosted four headline sets.

Thousands will return to Donington Park this summer

Metallica are to play two headline sets, while Bring Me The Horizon will headline the Friday night and Slipknot will bring the event to a close.

With a sell-out crowd expected, National Highways said it was advising festival goers to follow the signposted routes and not their sat navs to get to the site.

The organisation said there would be just one arrival day before the event got under way, due to there being an extra day of live music this year.

It said this would probably mean more people would head to the camp site on Wednesday and the roads would be busier.

National Highways' network resilience planner Phil Shaw said: "We expect the M1, A42, A50 and A38 to see significant increases in traffic over the festival period, particularly when everyone arrives on the Wednesday and again when they leave on Monday.

"If you are attending the Download Festival, when you get within a few miles follow the road signs and the instructions from the organisers rather than your sat nav as they will guide you on the correct route to the correct car park.

"Our advice to all motorists is allow extra time for journeys in that area over the weekend, particularly if you are catching a flight from East Midlands Airport."