What happened when PRESIDENT played Download Festival 2025

Are PRESIDENT the new (or new-new) Sleep Token? Well, yes and no. They’re mysterious and masked, of course, with a hell of a crossover fanbase already – many Download-goers crammed at the front of the festival’s Dogtooth Stage are sporting the merch of last night’s headliners. But, as this first-ever live appearance – or inaugural presidential rally, as they call it – confirms, the band are very much their own proposition. More to the point, they’re already ace.

It helps that it’s incredibly easy to get caught up in all the buzz. Long before stage-time people start piling into the tent, holding up their camera phones and zooming over to the side entrance to wishfully catch a glimpse of PRESIDENT’s imminent arrival. Once Shavo Odadjian’s Seven Hours After Violet are done with their killer showing, a proper podium is brought out centre stage, to hundreds of screams. Meanwhile, a backdrop – sporting the band’s name – is actually too big for the whole space, and has to be hastily folded back up again and stored away. These are exciting, intriguing talking points in the build-up, though, and it makes the payoff even more special.

As a neon-pink logo lights up on the aforementioned podium, it’s finally time. This address is absolute pandemonium from the off, as PRESIDENT launch into the colossal, Bring Me The Horizon-esque metalcore sing-along of Fearless. Their anonymous frontman – who boasts one of the most impressive vocal ranges of the whole damn weekend – confidently paces the stage in a tailcoat suit, white gloves and that distinctive mask, very much looking and acting the part. His three bandmates are cool, calm and collected back-ups, sporting matching black masks and outfits, each with pink PRESIDENT-branded armbands.

Of course, they only have two songs out at this point, so what follows is a tantalising glimpse at everything else on the way – and the future’s looking bright. Three distinctive, unreleased tracks continue to showcase what they’re going to be about, from gut-wrenching screams and breakdowns to vibey alt.pop parts. It’s in final track In The Name Of The Father, however, where the band wield their full powers, as crowd-surfers fly over the barrier and its chorus of ‘Oh father, I can’t hear you yet…’ is sung like it’s been in fans’ lives for so much longer than just a month.

As they revealed to Kerrang! in a recent message, PRESIDENT “did not come to whisper” – they “came to build”. It’s a sentiment revealed at Download as well, via an unknown voice’s announcement that precedes In The Name Of The Father. This is the only way they communicate through their short-but-sweet set, and whatever it means, it’s taken as gospel. Get ready, then, for a whole new scene leader…

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