Wholesome photos of goths at Download 2023

Down­load: home to more bat­tle jack­ets than Cam­den Mar­ket, more Carls­berg than Copen­hagen and more camp­ing chairs than Moun­tain Ware­house. Every year thou­sands make their way to Don­ing­ton Park for the mam­moth British rock fes­ti­val, which cel­e­brat­ed its 20^th anniver­sary this year with a spe­cial four-day week­ender fea­tur­ing a dou­ble per­for­mance from Metal­li­ca and a line-up so enor­mous that tick­ets sold out for the first time ever.

It’s also a fes­ti­val that, arguably, pulls the nicest crowd of any event in the UK – nay, the world. Those unfa­mil­iar with the cul­ture might assume that the kind of per­son rock­ing up to see a load of bands with names like ​‘Pupil Slicer’ and ​‘Smash Into Pieces’ would be, shall we say, a ​“gloomy” indi­vid­ual. But far from the stereo­types ped­dled by Wood­stock ​‘99 or The Purge vibes of Sun­day night at Read­ing and Leeds, Down­load feels more like a knee-slap­ping gig down your local pub – except it’s attend­ed by 130,000 peo­ple. Mot­ley crews of vet­er­an rock­ers, young lovers and chil­dren in Slip­knot masks pile in to share piz­za, throw down and pick each oth­er up again.

Pho­tog­ra­ph­er Chris Bethell was there to cap­ture all the whole­some fun at Down­load 2023, includ­ing every­thing from mosh­ers on the dodgems to a man offer­ing hugs to any­one in need of emo­tion­al sup­port. Put your hands in the air and pre­pare to smile!

See more of Chris Bethel­l’s work on Insta­gram.

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