LET ME HEAR YOU SCREAM, DONINGTON!!!!
Well, what an epic weekend that was!! Many words could be used to describe how I feel about having been to my first festival for ten years, given the fact that during the ten years up to and including Download 2006, I'd been to 8 festivals: Madstock 96, V98, V99, V2000, V2001, Reading 2003, Download 2005 & Download 2006. Not to mention numerous stand alone gigs.
Thanks to coming into some money just before Christmas, my girlfriend (Fliss) and I decided to book tickets to this year's Download Festival, buying tickets for ourselves and Fliss's son (my step-son) George and announce to him that we've got him a ticket for his main Christmas present. That's when the excitement started, you should have seen George's face when he opened and read the card telling him that he'll be going to go to his (and his mum's) first music festival, I've never seen anyone so excited.
We knew a few of the acts that had been announced at the time, including the three headliners, Rammstein, Black Sabbath & Iron Maiden. It was my first time seeing Rammstein & Iron Maiden, so as an overgrown 36 year old child, I was pretty excited too. I loved every moment of the festival and didn't let the bad weather dampen my spirits at all. I also take full blame for the soggy & muddy weather, if I'd kept my thoughts to myself, it might have stayed dry, but I had to go jinx it on my friend, Kerry's status.
So yeah, my fault, sorry guys! But it didn't stop the fun times.
The bands that I went to see included Baby Metal, Killswitch Engage, Korn and Rammstein on Friday, Megadeth, Skindred & Black Sabbath on Saturday, then Shinedown, Disturbed, Nightwish and Iron Maiden on Sunday. That might not sound like a lot, but when you consider we camped, had the whole festival experience and saw bits of other bands too, it was well worth the money paid. Fliss & George went to see Skillet when I was at Killswitch, which they enjoyed before returning to the Lemmy Stage to see the end of Killswitch's set.
Obviously Motorhead were supposed to be at Download, between Killswitch and Korn, but after the sad passing of their lead singer, bassist and total legend, Lemmy, they pulled out of all booked gigs. In their place, the organisers organised a tribute video to be played on the screens. Stood near the front of the crowd, I'll admit, I had tears in my eyes when I was watching it. Lemmy and Motorhead influenced a lot of the bands that I like and it was sad that I never got to see them. Thankfully, the organisers renamed the Main Stage, the Lemmy Stage in his honour, which I think pleased a lot of the festival goers.
I honestly cannot pick a favourite band, I was too busy having a good time with Fliss & George, we met up with my mate Kerry and her mate Luke and made friends with a lot of people in the Gold Camp, around where we'd pitched up, so big thanks to the Katie's, Dave, Jack, Gemma, Josh, Matt, Georgia, Jessica & Warrior and to Kerry & Luke (hope I've not missed anyone out), you were all part of what made our festival a great one (and to everyone else who we bumped into but didn't get their names).
Was hoping to meet up with my mates, Jason & Nick Nack, but we always seemed to miss each other, but it sounded like they had a good festival too.
I had to buy some wellies on the Saturday as my trainers just weren't hacking the muddy conditions, but I have absolutely zero regrets (other than jinxing the weather). Great music, great company, great food from the various food stalls we went to and the cakes that Fliss baked and handed out. I cannot fault anyone or anything. Feel sorry for anyone who didn't have a good time, for whatever reason that might have been for, but I never had any issues, apart from the possible theft of toiletries and George's drinking horn, which just seems weird as we can't imagine why anyone would steal those but nothing else, but we didn't have them when we came home, sadly, so can't really explain it.
I won't end this blog on a negative note though, on the whole, the festival was epic, I think Fliss & George have got the bug for festivals & gigs now, and we're looking forward to seeing Forever Never later on this year. Hope everyone enjoyed themselves as best as they could. Catch the highlights on Sky Arts at 8pm on Saturday 25th & Sunday 26th June. May go again, so if we do, we'll see you all again, stay safe, enjoy yourselves and have fun!
