Review
Review
McFly take on Download Festival and win
Taking the baton from Busted at last year's festival, McFly bring pop back to a packed tent at Download
A festival historically reserved for riffs and pummelling breakdowns, the last few years have seen Download Festival shuffle a few wildcards into their deck.
With 2000s pop heartthrobs Busted making their debut last year as part of a line-up topped by pop-punk legends Fall Out Boy, the gates have well and truly been opened for a new era of Donington Park’s summer spectacular, celebrating the entire breadth of alternative music past and present.
This year, McFly certainly weren’t the biggest eyebrow-raiser on this year’s bill – 90s dance-pop party-starters Vengaboys can take that crown – but there’s no doubt that they’ve sparked a nostalgic curiosity in the thousands descending upon Donington Park for the weekend. The majority of the festival seemingly making a mad dash over to the Avalanche Stage towards the end of Weezer’s set on main, any hopes of making it inside the tent are swiftly dashed upon arrival. Packed to bursting, luckily a lesson has been learnt from the madness of last year’s Busted set, a screen now situated outside for the sea of fans stretched out across the surrounding area to get a taste of the action.
Striding out in front of backdrop that sees their logo reworked in a distinctly Metallica-esque style, to say there’s a buzz in the air upon the quartet’s arrival would be a wild understatement. Wasting no time in flexing their rock credentials with cuts from 2023’s Power To Play – a love letter to guitars, riffs and rock ‘n’ roll energy – ‘Where Did All the Guitars Go?’ and ‘Land Of The Bees’ start out the evening with a reminder – McFly aren’t here to be Friday night’s token pop act, heavy music is and always has been in their DNA.
Still, it’s not long before they pivot to the hits, and that’s when things go nuclear. ‘Star Girl’ detonates a singalong of “ooo’s” so thunderous it can likely be heard from the other side of the arena. A slice of pop-rock perfection that sees beers fly as they’re abandoned in favour of dancing, at its close Danny Jones leads the crowd in a gleeful, shouty rendition of Rage Against The Machine’s ‘Killing In The Name’ before joking, “If you liked that, we’re McFly. If you didn’t… we’re Busted!”
It’s a cheeky nod to their longtime frenenemy status with the trio – a rivalry soon to be battled out via a hue UK arena tour – but more than anything, it’s proof McFly know exactly how to work a festival crowd. As the evening goes on, their stage banter is razor-sharp – from Danny encouraging fans to flip off bandmate Tom Fletcher (“F*ck you, Tom!”) to Dougie Poynter fake-calling for a wall of death ahead of sickly-sweet acoustic ballad ‘All About You’ – the further into the silliness they lean, the better it gets.
As silly as they may be though, McFly have clearly thought long and hard about how to initiate themselves at a festival that historically would have bottled and booed bands like theirs. Rattling through a quickfire mash-up of covers – including Bon Jovi’s ‘Livin’ On A Prayer’, Queen’s ‘Radio Ga Ga’, and Jimmy Eat World’s ‘Sweetness’ – there doesn’t seem to be a single voice box in the vicinity not being utilised to the max. Capitalising on the energy created with an anthemic double whammy of 2008’s ‘One For The Radio’ and the softer title track from the band’s debut album ‘Room On The 3rd Floor’, for fifty glorious minutes, they hold the crowd firmly in the palm of their hands.
Closing the night out where it all began 21 years ago, the groovy intro of breakthrough hit ‘5 Colours in Her Hair’ gives way to a deafening chant of “doo-doo-doo-doo-doo”. A nostalgia hit that takes a sharp detour into the galloping riff of ‘Master Of Puppets’ during the song’s middle eight, the quartet’s reign over the Avalanche Stage climaxes in roaring cheers. It’s absurd. It’s brilliant. It’s McFly at Download Festival – and they’ve well and truly earned their place among rock royalty tonight.
McFly play UK shows and festivals throughout the summer. Find tickets here
Tickets for Download 2026 are on sale now here
Top image credit: Joseph Okpako / Getty
