Download The Festival: Family of rock fans complete an epic 7,300 mile road trip

A family of heavy metal fans traveled 7,300 miles (11,765 km) from Indonesia by plane, train and armored bus to reach the Download Festival.

Daniel and Carina began their rock odyssey at home, 6,000 feet (1,828 m) up a mountain in the Indonesian gold mining town of Tembagapura on Monday.

They arrived tired but excited with their sons Leroy, nine, and Darcy, two, ready to join 75,000 other metalheads at the festival at Leicestershire’s Donington Park.

“We’re happy to be here, but we’re devastated,” Australian miner Daniel said.

“We live in the middle of nowhere. It’s a fenced off place.

“There’s all kinds of tribal fighting going on, so the first three or four hours was a ride up the mountain in an armored vehicle.”

From there, the family flew to Indonesia’s capital Jakarta and connected to Doha, Qatar, before a 10-hour flight to Gatwick.

Daniel, 35, added: “It was a bit of a blur. For some reason we thought it was a good idea to take a train from London (to Nottingham) during rush hour.

“It was crazy. Luckily there was a plainclothes policeman who was kind enough to direct us where we needed to go.

“We always wanted to do a European festival and it lined up with Leroy’s school holidays – so we thought why not?”

Carina, 35, said: “It’s been quite a journey but I’m a big heavy metal fan so it was an easy sell for me.”

The family, who spent two nights sightseeing in London, are staying in Nottingham and plan to go to the festival later on Friday.

They said they were looking forward to seeing Silverstein and Corey Taylor perform.

Nine-year-old Leroy said he had been looking forward to seeing US metalcore band Bad Omens, even though they pulled out of the event last month.

“I’m a little disappointed about it,” he said. – But I’m still looking forward to it.