Download Festival, one of the UK's premier rock festivals, is set to take place at Donington Park from 13–15 June 2025, featuring headliners such as Green Day, Sleep Token, and Korn. In 2024, more than 75,000 people attended the annual event.
However, the festival has faced backlash from artists and fans due to changes to its policy on the provision of services.
Following the For Women Scotland case, interim guidance by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) stated that whilst it is not compulsory for services that are open to the public to have single-sex facilities such as toilets, these can be single-sex if it is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
According to the Supreme Court, this could include protecting the privacy, safety and dignity of women.
However, the guidance goes on to state that if the services provided were mixed-sex only, this could be indirect sex discrimination against women and could lead to claims in the civil courts.
In response to the guidance, the festival made the following announcement:
"We will be following the interim guidance issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on 25 April 2025 here. The guidance states that 'trans women (biological men) should not be permitted to use the women's facilities and trans men (biological women) should not be permitted to use the men's facilities' and that 'trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use.'"
This policy has been met with criticism from artists like Noahfinnce, a transgender singer-songwriter and YouTuber, who has been vocal about the importance of inclusive spaces for all attendees and that the change in policy creates an unsafe environment for transgender people.
The controversy surrounding the Download Festival underscores the challenges that hospitality and leisure venues face in balancing legal compliance with inclusivity.
