Who knew the heaviest set of Download 2025 would come courtesy of four Dutch Eurodance lunatics in platform boots? Not me quite frankly.
Vengaboys rolled the Vengabus straight into Donington this weekend and pulled what might’ve been the wildest, loosest crowd of the entire festival. Forget blast beats and breakdowns, Thursday night belonged to bubblegum basslines, inflatable palm trees, and thousands of metalheads absolutely losing their minds to “Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!!”
It all went down on the District X stage in the Download Village, which is technically a warm-up slot before the main arena opened, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from the carnage. With no pyro, no guitars, and barely a shirt in sight, Vengaboys had the place bouncing like Parkway Drive just detonated a breakdown in a trampoline park.
Tracks like “We Like To Party!” and “We’re Going To Ibiza!” sent pints flying and bodies surging, with the crowd forming conga lines, circle pits and—this is not a joke—a wall of death to “Shalala Lala.”
You could call it ironic, but there was nothing half-hearted about the turnout or the chaos. I mean, the tent was completely rammed. This wasn’t a novelty act, this was a band crashing the gates of a legacy metal fest and taking the entire place hostage with nothing but camp and confidence. And people loved it. YouTube commenters have already declared it “heavier than 90% of the weekend,” and honestly, they’re not wrong.
Download boss Andy Copping has taken some heat for shaking up the bill this year, but if this is what evolving looks like, we’re in. As he told the UK’s NME recently: “The festival will die if we don’t move with the times.” Based on the sheer joy erupting from that tent, the times are very much moving.
So yeah, the Vengabus came. It saw. It kicked a hole in the pit. And for one glorious night, Download belonged to the party people.
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