Mad About Rock

  Hammerdown Festival returns to Brighton, UK, on Saturday, July 19th, and Sunday, July 20th, 2025, for two days of diverse rock and metal. We caught up with the festival director, Harry White, to learn more about the festival's origins, the 2025 edition, and its future. So, going back to the beginning, how did you come to form Hammerdown Festival in 2014 and what inspired you to do this? Is it something you always planned on doing? I had seen the big festival lineups like Download, Sonisphere and Bloodstock, and it all looked amazing. Not only did you get to basically go on a camping holiday for a week, but you also got excellent value for money… rather than spending £60 seeing your favourite band with 2 supports, you could spend £200 and see 30 or 40 bands! One year at Download, I pushed myself to see as many bands as possible. I saw 52! You can’t beat that. So for me, it seemed like the dream way to see all my favourite bands in one place. I’d always used online templates to “ma...