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Download Booker Tips Ghost, Parkway Drive And BMTH As Future Headliners

Download's Andy Copping eyes-up some potential new headliners for the festival, including Ghost, Architects and Frank Carter

Download booker Andy Copping has spoken to Kerrang! about potential future headliners for the festival.

This year's Download was scheduled to feature System Of A Down, KISS and Iron Maiden topping the bill, but was cancelled due to the current circumstances. But who does Andy see as the next band(s) to step up and headline the monster Donington weekender?

“That’s quite easy. Bring Me The Horizon, Architects, Parkway Drive, Five Finger Death Punch," he tells Kerrang! for a Face-To-Face Zoom interview, going on to mention other more established bands who haven't headlined Download yet.

"Paramore, Fall Out Boy, twenty one pilots… We haven’t had Foo Fighters, blink-182 or Green Day headline Download. Of the new and contemporary acts… Frank Carter, even! Just seeing Frank’s rise over the years has been incredible. Ghost without question will be a headliner in future years."

In fact, as Andy says, a band headlining in five or six years' time might not even have formed yet, "such is the trajectory of acts and the way the business is sometimes."

READ THIS: What happened when I went to Download's virtual festival

But ultimately, as he explains, it's not just up to Andy to support the new breed of headliners.

"We need everyone in the industry to get behind these acts. It’s not just festival promoters, it’s yourselves in the media, the labels, and without doubt the fans – you’ve got to get behind these acts. Even if it’s not somebody that you particularly like personally, to keep things alive we’ve got to be bringing bands through, that’s why I did it with Slipknot, why I did it with Biffy Clyro, why I did it with Avenged Sevenfold, and there’ll be other bands in the next three-to-four years that we’ll bring through."

You can watch the full 50-minute interview with Andy Copping and K! Digital Editor Luke Morton on our Facebook and IGTV.

Tickets for next year's Download Festival are on sale now.

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