Download Festival Founder Responds to Sleep Token Criticism

Obtain pageant founder Andy Copping has responded to criticism over the occasion’s 2025 lineup, which options Sleep Token as one in every of its headliners.

The pageant shared their first lineup announcement earlier this week, revealing that Sleep Token will headline alongside Korn and Inexperienced Day. Whereas many Sleep Token followers had been ecstatic to see the rising band get one of many high spots on the pageant, others felt that they weren’t as deserving as a number of the different artists on the invoice.

“I like Sleep Token, however I feel they don’t seem to be able to headline obtain; I feel Bullets ought to as a substitute,” one fan wrote on X, referring to Bullet for My Valentine, who’re additionally a part of the lineup.

Talking with NME, Copping defended the pageant’s choice to e book a comparatively newer band as a headliner, and famous that Sleep Token’s “meteoric rise over the past two years” made them deserving of the slot.

“I feel it’s necessary for the pageant to convey new bands by to headline. Again within the day, I did it with Slipknot. I did it with Avenged Sevenfold and Biffy Clyro. In 2023 we did it with Carry Me The Horizon. Now, each a type of bands internationally is perceived as a pageant headliner,” he advised the publication.

“That’s what I felt this time with Sleep Token. It looks like we’re the primary main pageant that’s taken the bull by the horns and gone, ‘Okay, it’s time. Its Sleep Token’s second’. I do know it’s going to be superb for them, superb for the pageant and superb for the followers.”

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Copping additional emphasised the significance of evolving with the instances and maintaining with which bands are gaining momentum on social media, particularly on platforms resembling TikTok. That platform, particularly, is the place bands like Sleep Token and Unhealthy Omens generated a lot buzz.

The pageant introduced a complete of 92 artists up to now for 2025, and teased that extra might be revealed at a later date, possible in January or February. Keep tuned for additional bulletins.