40,000 Leagues make their Download dream a reality on the Takeover stage
40,000 Leagues performing on the Takeover stage at Download Festival 2026.
Greater Manchester metallers 40,000 Leagues opened Download Festival’s Takeover stage before joining Festpod moments later to talk about the crowd, the pyro and finally achieving one of the band’s biggest ambitions.
For 40,000 Leagues, playing Download Festival had always been one of those ambitions that sat somewhere near the top of the list. Actually doing it was another matter.
“It’s every band’s dream, isn’t it? Play Download,” the band told Festpod shortly after coming off stage. “It’s not something I kind of had on my 2026 bingo card.”
The opportunity came after the band spotted applications for the Takeover and decided there was only really one thing to do.
“We’ve always wanted to play Download and we kind of just saw the application. Simple as that. We just wanted to play Download.”
They didn’t just get the chance to play it. 40,000 Leagues were given the job of opening the Takeover at 4pm on Wednesday, making them the first band of this year’s event to take to the stage.
Any worries about playing while festivalgoers were still arriving and pitching tents quickly disappeared when they saw the crowd.
“I ran out and I was like, ‘Oh shit, there’s loads. Everyone’s here.’ It was packed back to front.”
The reaction clearly caught the band by surprise.
“Everyone was just so mad for it. It was incredible. The energy I was getting off the crowd, feeding off that, and just putting it back into the performance. I just did the best I could without crying. It was insane.”
Bringing the fire
There was another surprise waiting for them. Pyro. A lot of it. The flames became one of the talking points of the set, not least because the band discovered fairly quickly just how different standing next to festival pyro feels compared with watching it from the crowd.
“They told us it was only going to be one song,” they laughed. “Then we started and it’s, ‘Oh shit.’”
One member admitted he “nearly lost my beard”, and reckoned the performance may have cost him a few arm hairs. Worth it, apparently.
“It made so much energy.”
Making Chaka Khan metal
The set also featured something already familiar to regular followers of 40,000 Leagues - their metal version of ‘Ain’t Nobody’. It’s a cover the band have been playing for years, and one which gives unfamiliar festival crowds an immediate way into their set.
“You come to Download, not everyone’s going to know your songs. So if you can start off and give people something to sing along to…”
The best bit, they explained, is watching recognition spread through the crowd.
“It’s more when it clicks in their heads and they go, ‘We know this one. Are they doing Ain’t Nobody?’ It’s just incredible when it happens.”
And it might not be the last unlikely song to receive the 40,000 Leagues treatment.
“There’s a big list of potential ones.”
Listen to 40,000 Leagues on Bandcamp
So what comes after Download?
That was the difficult question.
“I’ve been asking myself that,” came the answer.
The ambition now is to make sure Download becomes another step forward rather than the destination itself, with the band hoping for more touring and a support slot alongside one of the acts they admire.
Festpod’s Arran Prime of Crushed By Waves and Rob Hemingway of Veiled, both previous Takeover performers, had similar advice - use the momentum, keep playing shows and take every opportunity that comes from the weekend.
And whatever comes next, there is one achievement 40,000 Leagues can never lose. They have played Download Festival.
As Arran put it to them at the end of the interview: “No matter what happens in your life, it’s not just your opinion that you’re all right. You fucking did Download.”
Download done. Now comes the bit where they find out just how far they can take it.
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