

The following year, rock and metal returned to the site when Ozzfest came to the UK, suitably under the tagline “Rock Comes Home”. However, 2001 saw the location used for the Rock And Blues Festival and a widely acclaimed STEREOPHONICS concert as part of their A Day At The Races tour. Monsters Of Rock was dead for the rest of the decade – and indeed, into the new millennium – there would be no major music gatherings at Donington.

Struggling to find suitable headliners, the 1997 edition was cancelled subsequently, so was the event itself. What started as a one-off mega show to complete RAINBOW’s Down To Earth tour in 1980 had developed into a British institution the location of Donington Park in Derbyshire became a mecca for rock and metal fans in the UK and, for the best part of sixteen years, those with a penchant for heavy music had an annual getaway to enjoy…not for much longer. As Rock and Roll All Nite ended KISS’ explosive set at Monsters Of Rock in 1996, nobody could have foreseen it would mark the end of an era.
