Witch Fever have encouraged Download Festival to clarify their statement published earlier over concerns that the festival is “implementing ambiguous and transphobic EHRC guidelines”.
The rock and metal festival is set to return to its home of Donington Park, Leicestershire, next month – running between June 13-15. Green Day, Sleep Token and KoRn will all be first-time headliners, and other names on the bill include Weezer, Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter, Jimmy Eat World, Poppy, Loathe, Jerry Cantrell and more.
Controversy arose over screenshots of an email query relating to the festival’s policy on what toilets trans attendees should use. “We will be following the interim guidance issued by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on 25 April 2025 here,” the email read. “Their 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’”.
Numerous artists including NOAHFINNCE, Zand and Pinkshift called the festival out online and Witch Fever was among them, calling the policy “a complete fuckin’ tragedy”. Meanwhile, Harpy – who is playing the festival this year – said she had reached out to the festival’s team encouraging them to “connect with someone who can represent the trans community and educate them on better solutions moving forward”.
In response, Download issued a statement in which they clarified that the majority of their toilets would be gender neutral.
We stand with all members of our community and want everyone to feel safe, supported and welcome at Download pic.twitter.com/TSMIhZFLJZ
— Download Festival (@DownloadFest) May 28, 2025
“At the heart of Download is acceptance – we stand with all members of our community and want everyone to feel safe, supported and welcome at the festival,” the statement began. “We want to reassure all of our customers that at Download, the majority of toilets will be gender neutral and available to all. There will also be single sex toilets provided. Download Festival has always been and remains for everyone.”
“We sincerely apologise that a previous communication on this was not clear. We are looking forward to seeing you at Download this year.”
Now, Witch Fever have shared a new message expressing concern over the statement, questioning if the festival will continue to follow the “ambiguous and transphobic” EHRC guidelines or not.
“If the single sex toilets still follow the EHRC guidelines this is not good enough,” they said.
“The guidelines define biological sex by a person’s chromosomal makeup. We ask you t6 confirm how you plan to enforce these guidelines. Will chromosome tests be conducted outside the toilet facilities? On what grounds will a test be administered? Will a judgment simply be made on how masculine/feminine a person looks? Who will decide this? Will trans men be allowed in the ladies facilities following this guidance?
“This is a dangerous rhetoric to take and not only harmful to all GNC people but all women, regardless of their gender assigned at birth.
“How do you plan to keep queer people safe at your festival while implementing transphobic guidelines? Are you at all aware of the unsafe position you put a trans woman in by not letting her rightfully use women’s facilities?
The band continued: “We implore you not to follow guidelines set by our ever right wing leaning governing and statutory bodies, which ultimately amount to segregation.
“We assure you that this ‘clarification’ does not provide any queer, GNC and trans people with peace of mind.
“We ask you to question the credibility of these guidelines before alienating your queer audience, before adding to the growing policing of women’s bodies and, ironically, before causing a hindrance to women’s safety.
“Please don’t jump on the culture war against trans people. Please make Download an inclusive and safe environment for all. We have loved playing your festival and want it to continue being a safe place for all to attend.”
Witch Fever’s call for clarity – and more transparency on their stance on trans inclusivity – has been echoed by other artists. NOAHFINNCE said he had been in “direct contact” with Download over their policy but later said on X that once he had seen the original statement, he felt that the issue needed to be addressed more directly.
“i and as I’m sure a lot of others still don’t feel like the issue at hand has ACTUALLY been addressed…” he wrote.
(Btw I hadnt seen their “statement” at the time of writing this tweet, i and as I’m sure a lot of others still don’t feel like the issue at hand has ACTUALLY been addressed… on a family holiday right now but will try getting in contact again)
— NOAHFINNCE👹 (@noahfinnadams) May 28, 2025
Zand also criticised the statement on their Instagram story. “This still doesn’t address the issue brought to attention in the first place.. we already know most of the toilets are gender neutral as the portaloos tend to be at any festival but to say single sex toilets will be available, without clarifying if trans people are welcome to use whichever aligns with their identity the most feels redundant and vague on purpose.
“There is nothing clear about this. As a trans artist who have loved your festival please can you confirm transparently whether your festival will adhere to the previous statement that said the festival will adhere to EHRC guidelines?
“It’s important now to state more than ever to state clearly and concisely that transphobic guidelines will NOT be enforced at your festival if you want your trans customers to feel safe attending, with the direction our society has gone with transphobia being normalised increasingly – yes, it really does warrant spelling out for people I’m afraid.”
NME has reached out to Download Festival for comment.
The reference to the EHRC in the original Download document related to the UK Supreme Court ruling on April 16, in which judges unanimously ruled that the legal definition of a woman is based on biological sex under the Equality Act. The Equality Human Rights Commission explains that the ruling from the Supreme Court means that, in places open to the public, trans women shouldn’t use women’s facilities such as toilets.
Many have been reluctant to uphold the anti-trans regulations, and BBC has reported that many leaders across the UK’s cultural sector were “unwilling” to police which toilets people choose to use.
Numerous figures in the music world have shared their support for the trans community too, including Scissor Sisters, Perfume Genius, Garbage, Rachel Chinouriri, JADE, Lambrini Girls and Billy Bragg. As well as that, huge names like Charli XCX, Self Esteem and Wolf Alice are among the many artists to have also signed an open letter of solidarity to the trans community from the UK music industry.
