New Download Festival travel plan announced after delays

There were major traffic delays in the area around Donington Park as about 100,000 rock music fans made their way to the site on 7 and 8 June 2023

Download festival organisers have put a traffic plan in place following major delays as people arrived last year.

East Midlands Airport passengers missed flights due to the "unprecedented" congestion around Donington Park.

The new plan includes scanning parking tickets further into the venue - instead of where you enter - to get people off the roads quicker.

Festival booker Andy Copping said: "We knew it was something that we had to focus on for this year."

An inquiry by North West Leicestershire District Council found the festival in 2023 did not breach noise and traffic licence conditions.

Queens of the Stone Age, Avenged Sevenfold, Fall Out Boy, The Offspring and Sum 41 are due to perform at this year's rock music festival.

The event - which will take place from 14 to 16 June - will be the 21st in the festival's history.

Avenged Sevenfold will headline Download this year for the third time

Mr Copping said they have brought in a new team - a specialist traffic management company - to resolve problems that came up last year.

He said: "We feel that with their experience and their knowledge, any issues that we faced last year will be eradicated."

Jess Shields, director of Far and Beyond Events, which is overseeing the new traffic plan, said it has been "really overhauled this year because of last year".

She added: "Even down to things like we're looking at the way people drive into the car parks to get them off the road quicker, so that where you're having your car parking scanned, it isn't immediately where you drive in."

Ms Shields said there will always be traffic because thousands of people are arriving

Ms Shields added: "We're moving the location of the transport hub which I think will have a big impact as well.

"We're pulling people into the site a bit further and taking them off the road that they were on for the last couple of years which I think caused a lot of backlog.

"As you can imagine, we're under big scrutiny with the council and the local residents because of the impact we have."

She added there will always be traffic because thousands of people are arriving, "but we are working really hard to make sure that any of the things that could be improved upon from last year will be".