Summer festival season kicks off in the coming weeks with the first major metal-fest, the now well-established Download Festival, taking part at British heavy metal’s spiritual home, Castle Donington, on Thursday 7th through to Sunday 10th June.

If you like metal, and fancy yourself as something of a (Guitar Hero II on Xbox 360) rock god then you need to get involved in the RedOctane promotion taking place on Download’s Third Stage between 10pm and midnight each evening.

Like, it's a "golden opportunity to perform in front of up to 3,000 moshing fans, and genuinely experience what it’s like to be a rock star", except without the drugs, the groupies, the helicopters and the self-serving sermonising about global warming and coffee-slavery.

It certainly beats playing Guitar Hero II in the privacy of your own bedsit on your own in your threadbare pants.

“Donington Park has been home to some of the greatest rock performances of all time, and we’re delighted to be able to offer Guitar Hero players the greatest stage of them all at Download 2007,” says Simon Byron, organiser, Guitar Hero at Download. “Guitar Hero has always been about becoming a rock star – those attending Download Festival have the opportunity to take that to another level and perform in front of up to 3,000 fans.”

The best (Guitar Hero II performance of the night – including duos - will be rewarded with a genuine Epiphone Les Paul guitar.