Probyn Stays Off Beaten Track

Live Nation chief ops officer John Probyn says moving last year’s Download Festival across Donington Park, England, and away from the race track was one of the best decisions he’s made for the festival – and he’s now happy to leave it where it is.

The track was laid so the venue could compete for the British motor racing Grand Prix. It lost out to Silverstone Circuit, which will continue to stage the race.

The old site is now a quagmire as contractors are digging it up again.

“It was a big gamble at the time but it really paid off,” he told Pollstar, describing how the old site was no more than a mudbath when he last visited it.

If Probyn doesn’t get it right, he’ll likely hear about it at one of the Download forums, where festival fans get the chance to sit down with him in a pub and tell him what they want from the event.

“We obviously can’t do everything that all of them want but we try to take away as much as we can from it,” Probyn explained. The thousands of fans who can’t fit in the pub can watch the forum online and contribute, which may qualify Download as rock’s most democratic festival.

This year there’s a little extra pressure to make it a special event, as the venue is celebrating its 30th year as a festival site. Andy Copping, who books the acts, has already announced a stellar rock lineup including AC/DC, Them Crooked Vultures, Stone Temple Pilots, Deftones, Megadeth and Motorhead.

It’s the fourth time AC/DC has played the field, beginning with the second Monsters of Rock concert in 1981, and returning to the same event in ’84 and ’91.

It’s also the fourth time at Donington for Megadeth and Motorhead.

Bullet For My Valentine is another regular visitor to Donington. This is the fifth time the band has played Download and each time the Welsh metal merchants have been higher up on the bill.

Last year Download sold out its 85,000 capacity and Probyn has plans to further increase the arena space to accommodate even more people this year.

He said the flexibility of the site is one of the main reasons behind the success of Monsters of Rock and Download.

Monsters of Rock was set up in 1980 by Paul Loasby and the late Maurice Jones, who died last year. The event was originally created as a day-long summer festival dedicated to rock and heavy metal bands.

Copping says Download 2010 will be “one for the history books.”

“It will see the return of the world’s greatest rock band to the most legendary and spiritual home of rock. It’s also going to be a fantastic tribute to Maurice Jones.”

Over the years Monsters Of Rock became established as the annual event for the UK hard rock fraternity, while the emergence of Download has ensured the site still stages the UK’s premier rock festival.