Black Water County on headlining The Takeover at Download: ‘We thought it was a scam’
Black Water County headline The Takeover on the Doghouse Stage at Download Festival 2026.
After 13 years of relentless gigging, questionable sleeping arrangements and shows attended by little more than the barman and his dog, the six-piece had finally been offered a place at one of the biggest rock festivals in the world.
There was just one problem. They didn’t believe the email was real.
“When we got the email through initially from Trish, we thought it was a scam,” the band told Festpod’s Neill Wilkinson and Arran Prime after leaving the Doghouse Stage.
“We got the email through, it was in our junk, and we were like, ‘This isn’t real. This is fake.’”
The message appeared to know too much about them to be dismissed completely, so Black Water County sent it to their agent for a second opinion.
“We were like, ‘Can you just check on this? Because they’re saying headline Download, and we don’t believe that.’”
Fortunately, somebody rescued the email from the junk folder.
A few months later, Black Water County were standing in front of a packed Doghouse, headlining The Takeover at Download Festival 2026.
Thirteen years in the making
For at least one member of Black Water County, the performance carried an additional significance.
“The first time I was here was 2004,” he said shortly after stepping off stage. “I never thought that would happen.”
The band itself began when its members were around 17 or 18 years old. They were sitting together at a house party, listening to the folk-punk bands that had shaped their musical tastes, including The Pogues, Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys. A Pogues song came on and prompted what seemed like an entirely reasonable thought at the time.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘We could do this.’”
Their first rehearsal suggested otherwise.
“The first song that we played was so bad, we nearly canned it there and then,” they admitted.
Instead of immediately abandoning the idea, the fledgling band tried another song. It was not exactly a triumph, but it was enough to keep them going.
“It wasn’t the worst thing we’d ever done, so we thought, ‘Maybe there’s legs to this.’
“And here we are 13 years later.”
Looking back at just how long that journey had taken, one member offered a rather less sentimental assessment.
“Could have been out with good behaviour by now.”
Black Water County official website
Gigs, floors and a lot of graft
Asked how Black Water County had progressed from that first rehearsal to headlining The Takeover, the answer was immediate.
“Graft.”
The years between the house party and Download were filled with the unglamorous work familiar to almost every developing band.
“Just gigging and gigging and gigging,” they said.
“We’ve played plenty of gigs where it’s us, the barman and his dog. You look at it as a paid practice.”
Those small shows allowed the band to become more comfortable, develop their own material and slowly discover what Black Water County was supposed to be.
Before long, a few years had passed. The band had original songs, a growing audience and a reason to keep pushing. There were also nights spent sleeping on floors in places they were reluctant to describe too precisely.
“I’m not going to say crack houses,” they joked, “but some of them were close enough.”
Through all of it, the band tried to hold on to the belief that the work might eventually lead somewhere.
“You work and you work really hard, and you just keep that belief that something good may happen.”
At Download, something finally had.
Walking out to a full Doghouse
Even after receiving the invitation, arriving at the festival and preparing to headline, Black Water County still did not know what would be waiting on the other side of the Doghouse Stage.
“You don’t know who’s going to be there and how many people are going to be there,” they said.
“There’s always that anxiety. Are people actually going to be here? We don’t know.”
Any concern disappeared as soon as they walked up the steps. The tent was full, and the audience responded with mosh pits, circle pits, crowd surfers, singing and clapping throughout the set.
“To walk up and there be so many people, and for them all to be up for it, was unbelievable.”
Watching from the back of the Doghouse, Arran found the crowd bouncing from front to back. He also compared the way the six members moved around one another on stage to a tightly rehearsed jazz band, with each musician instinctively creating room for the next.
“I can’t believe you said we’re like a jazz band,” the band replied. “That’s the nicest thing you could have said.”
For one of Black Water County’s newer members, the Download appearance was only his sixth performance with the band. He found some appropriately heavy-metal significance in the timing.
“My sixth gig, in the sixth month, in 2026. It’s the number of the beast. It was meant to be.”
‘You never know until you try’
Despite spending much of the interview joking about curses, mistakes and their inability to believe what had happened, Black Water County had a simple message for other bands considering applying for The Takeover.
“Just do it.”
“You never know until you try. That’s been our ethos for everything.”
The band praised the variety across the Doghouse Stage, which had featured everything from three-piece groups to six-member bands and covered a broad range of sounds.
“The variety on this stage today has been insane,” they said. “It’s so inspiring.
“The talent is insane. It makes me so excited for the next generation of musicians.”
That variety also helped maintain the crowd’s interest throughout the afternoon, rather than presenting them with a succession of bands all offering the same thing.
“No one could get bored because it wasn’t the same music over and over,” they explained.
“Any of the bands could have headlined. Any of the bands could have been the first band on. It was really well put together.”
Black Water County also thanked Trish and the wider Takeover team for giving them the opportunity.
“They literally have made a dream come true here for us,” they said. “I can’t believe it.”
What comes after Download?
Having finally ticked Download Festival off the list, Black Water County were preparing to return to considerably smaller and sweatier surroundings. At the time of the interview, the band were looking ahead to a UK tour in October, with shows planned across both the north and south.
“A good old-fashioned sweaty venue tour,” they said.
Current show details are available through the band’s website and social channels.
For now, though, Black Water County could enjoy what they had already achieved. Thirteen years after nearly giving up during their first rehearsal, they had headlined The Takeover at Download Festival.
Not bad for an email rescued from the junk folder.
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