Download Festival issues statement about gender neutral toilets

Download Festival has responded to criticism regarding their policies on transgender individuals accessing on-site restrooms. UK singer/songwriter Noahfinnce came to X (previously Twitter) on May 27th to voice his opposition to an email received by the Donington weekender’s organizers that advised transgender people not to use the restrooms of the gender they had transitioned to.

Hey @DownloadFest what the fuck are you doing. How have you got the gall to invite trans people like me to play your festival and then ban them from using the toilet? If the only way we can piss is by outing ourselves then you’ve created an unsafe environment… pic.twitter.com/W0oLIa5P4U— NOAHFINNCE👹 (@noahfinnadams) May 27, 2025

Other artists, such as Witch Fever and Pinkshift, criticized the June festival online after seeing the article, calling the guidelines “crazy and so unsafe.” In the midst of the criticism, Download commented to NME. The statement highlights that there will be unisex restrooms available for everyone to use throughout the festival, without reversing the festival’s apparent position on trans women using the facilities of “biological men” and trans men using the facilities of “biological women.”

A follow-up X post has been published by Noahfinnce.

In direct communication with download about this.

They wanted to make clear that they will NOT be policing the bathrooms at all and that the customer service person who sent out this email should NEVER have used that wording in the email. https://t.co/A1rf2CXa0M— NOAHFINNCE👹 (@noahfinnadams) May 28, 2025

Judges of the UK Supreme Court unanimously decided on April 16 that biological sex, not gender, is the basis for the legal definition of a woman. This implies that “a ‘woman’ is a biological woman or girl (a person born female)” and “a’man’ is a biological man or boy (a person born male),” according to the EHRC website, and that people should use restrooms that correspond to their birth sex rather than their gender. The verdict has been denounced as transphobic, despite the UK government applauding it “and the clarity it brings for women.” The ruling’s enforcement has also been unclear; according to a May 26 article in The Guardian, a deal on how businesses should apply it “may not be fully signed off for months.”