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ALTERNATIVE ENGAGEMENT IDEA: GETTING ENGAGED AT DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL
- lilykerbeymusic
- Jun 22
- 7 min read
Picture this, your favourite band is playing live, you’re in a field surrounded by dirty moshers at your fave rock musical festival, the sun is setting and your partner has just got down on one knee to surprise you with a proposal! You say YES, everyone around you is buzzing for you and you enjoy the last moments of the song through blurry eyes and hugging strangers.
You may have been lucky enough to witness a proposal before but if you haven’t, they are super magical moments. Some people are even lucky enough to experience them first hand and we got to chat to some of the alternative couples from this year’s Download Festival and previous years…
CHELSEA AND SCOT
(2025 DOWNLOAD PROPOSAL)
"It was completely unexpected, apparently he'd been planning it on the Wednesday with a few of our friends in our camp (who we met in 2022 at Download), I knew the idea of it was there but had no idea it would be happening when it did, I mentioned to him on the Thursday, as my very good friend, Paige, had her jewellery stall at Download, Mysticumluna, if he wanted to go shop for a potential ring as it'd be more sentimental to me being from her brand, he agreed, little did I know that I'd saved him the stress of picking out a ring on his own, I sent him three options that I liked and on the Friday we went to visit Paige and the gang at the stall, I helped my friend pick out some other bits whilst Scot and a friend went to pick the ring.
Saturday there was no sign or giveaway what was going to happen, me and our friends were dancing away to Sleep Token, then they started playing Emergence, and Scot walks over to me, and drops to one knee, and I instantly started happy crying haha! All our friends around us were cheering, and Scot manages to get out 'I love you so much, will you marry me?' Of course I said yes! As we hug, they get to the part in Emergence 'go-ahead and wrap your arms around me' it was honestly the best moment of my life so far.
Ironically, in 2022, I had to leave halfway through sleep tokens set as Scot damaged his ankle during Skindred, and I always joked how he had to make it up to me, well I can safely say he has now :)! And he chose the best place to do it, our home away from home and just before our 6 year anniversary."
JACK AND MARTHA
(2025 DOWNLOAD PROPOSAL)
“This proposal came as a shock to everyone, especially to myself and my partner Jack! We were just going to Download Festival with our close friends, ready for a great weekend. Neither of us knew we'd be leaving Donington Park as fiancés!
Friday (13th June) was the day we were most excited for - Green Day were headlining! We've seen them twice before with my brother and father (the man who's responsible for my impeccable music taste), they've been one of my favourite bands since I was a child, I have the American Idiot logo tattooed on my leg, we scream their lyrics till' our throats are sore, we just LOVE Green Day!
The weather on Friday was scorching hot, without a cloud in the sky. We joked throughout the day about clouds forming and rain falling during ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, because that would never happen... Right?
During Green Day's set, as Billie Joe Armstrong sang out "Here comes the rain again...", clouds had formed and rain began to fall. This was definitely fate.
I turned to Jack and whispered: "I want to ask you something, but I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
"What is it?" he replied (he told me later on he knew exactly what I wanted to ask)
"I wanted to ask you to marry me."
I babbled about not wanting to go on one knee, as that wasn't our style. I know he doesn't like grand gestures, and this was also how we became a couple in the first place; a quiet conversation, expressing our feelings.
"Let's do it" Jack replies
"Seriously?"
"Yeah" he's smiling at me as he confirms.
"Say it to me then!" I reply, as I needed to hear it from him.
"Yes, I do want to marry you!"
We embrace as Green Day crescendo. While we're enjoying the music, the only thing that mattered in that moment was us. I say we should tell our friends next to us when Green Day have finished their set but not even 2 minutes later I was bubbling away with excitement and ran over to my best friends, Rhiannon and Charlotte.
"Girls, I need to tell you something!" I say as I drag them away from the boys. "We've just got engaged!"
Charlotte and Rhiannon burst into tears. I begin crying again, and tell them I want them both to be my Maids of Honour. We come together for a hug, and as I turn around, our friend Samie is wiping tears from his eyes after Jack shared the news with the boys. "I'm not going to have any tears left for Sleep Token!" he joked as he gave congratulations. I hugged our friends Jake and Kieran, and we all turned to enjoy the rest of Green Day's set, glowing with euphoria.
Charlotte also managed to capture a photo and video of us dancing along to Green Day! We hadn't noticed that everyone had stepped back to let us have a moment.
As this was spontaneous, we didn't have any rings or anything to commemorate the engagement! We decided to buy a Green Day merch top each, and Jack suggested we get rings from one of the jewellery stands as a placeholder before we go shopping for a "proper" engagement ring.
This was definitely, the best Download Festival I had ever been to"
DANIELLA AND SAM
(DOWNLOAD 2025 PROPOSAL)
“So this was Sam's 10th year at Download and was my first. He got me into Lastelle and my favourite song is ‘Breathe Me In’. He has been speaking to the band for a few months now and they had been helping him, meeting up with him and organising the proposal.
The date was Saturday 14th June 2025, he told me he was playing on stage which has been planned for months so left the tent at 11am for band practice. He said he got nervous about going on stage so wanted to enjoy the song with me to create memories.
He had all our friends there, including Robyn (Download Mammy) all in on the plan. It was such a pinch me and magical moment. Still is a pinch me moment to be honest haha!
The song now means more than anything to me and that evening we got back to the tent. Popped the song on and both hugged and cried happy tears together. He absolutely nailed the proposal and I'm so lucky he's my partner for life!”
NIAMH AND TOM
(DOWNLOAD 2023 PROPOSAL)
“I had camped with some friends but my partner joined me for the last day of Download 2023 and we were so excited to see Lorna Shore as we're both big fans of the band. As they played through their set, we were having the best time.
My partner, Tom, turned to me towards the end of Pain Remains - Part 1 and as "a world without you isn't meant for me" was sung, he pulled out a ring. I remember a woman behind us noticing jumping around with excitement for us! It was such an emotional moment.
Fast forward to Download 2025, we saw them again and both got so emotional, knowing that the day before Halloween, this year, we will become husband and wife!
Download has always become a big part of our lives, even before our paths crossed. Next year, we're going back to camping after a few years off and will be treating ourselves whilst there like a mini honeymoon.”
SAM AND LAURA
(DOWNLOAD 2022 PROPOSAL)
“My boyfriend Sam proposed to me during the song machines by biffy clyro, biffy where the closing act of the festival, I was shocked when I turned around to look at Sam and he was down on one knee asking him to marry me ?!?!
Even though we had been together 5 years I didn’t expect it!
Fast forward to now and we are getting married on this Halloween
Download is our favourite place on earth and we have been attending since 2017 together. Although we did both go to 2016 we didn’t actually know each other then. We have matching tattoos on the day before the proposal.
It was very in the moment so after the arena closed we went up to the village to pick out a ring :)
Here at Alt Wedding Fair, we LOVE love. After seeing lots of engagement stories pop up on socials after Download Festival, we just knew we had to share some of these stories. All super unique in their own ways. So if you're here to read the stories, or get some ideas... welcome!
Did you know we run an Alternative Wedding Directory, which is full of badass alternative wedding suppliers. Perfect for the Download alternative couples.
OR if you prefer a more face to face option, we also run Alternative Wedding Fairs and our next one is at Hockley Social Club on 16th Novemeber 2025. Tickets are available here.
If you have a proposal story from a festival, we would love to hear it below
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