Saturday 15th June 2013 by Michael Baggs | Photos by WENN.com

Tags: Slipknot

14 June, 2013: This weekend, the British festival season gets underway, with one of the biggest rock events in the festival calendar kicking off in Donington. Download Festival has begun, and US shock rockers Slipknot kicked off proceedings last night in typically horrific style with a headline slot on Friday night.

Masked, mysterious and seriously unhinged, the rockers closed day one of Download, which also saw performances from Korn, Bullet For My Valentine, Papa Roach, Rise To Remain, Black Stone Cherry, Gogol Bordello, Dragonforce and HIM.

More artists performing across the weekend include  Iron Maiden, Queens Of The Stone Age, Rammstein, 30 Seconds To Mars, Motorhead, The Gaslight Anthem, Alice In Chains, Mastodon, Enter Shikari, Limp Bizkit, Jimmy Eat World and many more big names of the rock and metal world.

Check out 15 photos of Slipknot's headline slot below - if you've got the stomach for it... 

 

 

 Below: even MORE photos from day one of Download festival, 2013