Festival: Download Paris

June 15 sees Paris hosting some of the biggest names in rock and metal with the Download Paris festival taking place just outside the city.

The four-day-long event features a total of 72 acts, including headliners Ozzy Osbourne, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters and Guns 'n' Roses.

Also on the bill are Ghost, Opeth, The Offspring and Scotland's Alestorm. There's not a whole lot of French presence on the bill, you'll have to look at the small print acts for any evidence of those. Swiss folk metal giants Eluveitie, are about as close as it gets in the major acts.

But such is the nature of a large multinational festival brand.

Download may have its spiritual home at Donington in the English Midlands, but its gradually expanded to other countries. There was a one off Download festival in Glasgow in 2004, but since 2016 it's also been held in France, 2017 saw Spain added, and this year sees four events, Donington, France, Spain and Australia.

The Download Paris event takes place the weekend after the Donington event. In previous years it has been held the same weekend, giving bands the opportunity to play two major events over the weekend and no doubt cutting down on overheads for the organisers.

It's a slightly different bill from last weekend's UK event, but still a line up that would attract a wide variety of rock fans. From those old enough to have seen Ozzy in the 80s and remember when Guns 'n' Roses were good, fans of more underground acts like Opeth, to those keener on more mainstream acts like the Foos.

In its review of last weekend's Donington, the Guardian gave honourable mentions to Ozzy, Manson and Avenged Sevenfold but suggested the three hour set by G 'n' R was a bit much, but awarded four stars out of five to 'metal's biggest party.'

The NME described G 'n' R 's set as 'needlessly lengthy' , with too much needless padding filling up what could have been an incendiary set featuring 'high water marks of hard rock.'

Maybe you need to see it for yourself to judge. Maybe you also need to savour the party atmosphere in a French setting. If so, get to Download France this weekend.