Babymetal added to Download 2016 bill

Babymetal
Babymetal (Image credit: Getty)

Babymetal have been added to the lineup of this year’s Download festival.

The Japanese band will perform on the main stage at Donington on Friday, June 10. Last year they made a guest appearance with Dragonforce for an airing of Gimme Chocolate, but this year marks their first appearance at the festival under their own steam.

Babymetal broke merchandise sales records when they played a sold-out show at London’s Wembley Arena last month.

Babymetal say: “We’re so excited to come back to the UK next month. We will play the main stage at Download Festival. We are looking forward to seeing you all there.”

The band’s second album Metal Resistance was released on April 1 – which Babymetal rebranded as ‘Fox Day.’

Download takes places from June 10 to 12, with Rammstein, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden lined up as headliners.

Babymetal kicked off their 2016 world tour in New York this week.

Babymetal World Tour 2016 remaining dates

May 07: Philadelphia Electric Factory, PA
May 08: Concord Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion, MC
May 10: Silver Spring The Fillmore, MD
May 11: Detroit The Fillmore, MI
May 13: Chicago House Of Blues, IL
May 14: Somerset Northern Invasion, WI
Jun 02: Pratteln Z7, Switzerland
Jun 03: Vienna Rock In Vienna, Austria
Jun 05: Nijmegen Forta Rock, Netherlands
Jun 07: Cologne Live Music Hall, Germany
Jun 08: Stuttgart Longhorn, Germany
Jun 11: Paris Download Festival, France
Jul 12: Seattle Showbox Soho, WA
Jul 14: San Francisco Regency Ballroom, CA
Jul 15: Los Angeles The Wiltern, CA
Jul 17: Bridgeview Chicago Open Air Festival, IL
Jul 24: Niigata Fuji Rock, Japan
Aug 6-7: Rock In Japan, Japan
Aug 12-13: Rising Sun Rock Festival, Japan
Aug 13-14: Rock In Japan, Japan
Aug 21: Osaka Summer Sonic, Japan
Sep 19: Tokyo Dome, Japan

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Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.