I got hooked up with some Download tickets for myself and Scott through work, and a subsequent friend of Danny’s cancelling meant that I could get tickets for Luke and Alex too. I was pretty excited, having never been before and oh my days it did not disappoint. Mainly for the entertainment factor of all the weird goths walking around. The above picture, this was the FIRST tent we saw. What an entrance. Wow.
The crew. We arrived late and only caught AC/DC on the Friday night.
This looked to be the best idea ever until we found it was £15 for a 13″ pizza. Fuck that.
I swear people who sell this sort of shit only ever make money at festivals when drunken idiots like Scott think that buying a hat shaped like an elephant is a good idea.
This is just one example of the breed of reveler at Download. This odd fellow not only had those snake contact lens, but had also come with his middle aged full track suit wearing italian gay companion.
Yes that’s right, AC/DC’s tech rider said ‘Main Stage to ourselves’. Yes, they had a WHOLE STAGE for JUST THEM!!! WTF? How rock and roll? For the rest of the weekend it just laid there dormant, the stage to the right is the actual main stage. Their stage decor was a huge steam train being straddled by a massive inflatable whore. They even requested that no other band was playing while they were on, so the headliners of all the other stages finished at about 8:30pm.
This is Lyndsey from Drop Dead Clothing, I met her last time I was in London. We hung out in the Drop Dead tent again on the Sunday and she came and hung out with Alex and I, until she realised we were hammered, had no craic whatsoever and were talking absolute shit. So she left and hung out with guys with tattoos in bands who are way cooler than me.
AC/DC
Drunk horrid veggie pitta eating Scott
It’s worth mentioning that drunk Scott does not see the need to pay for fake Metallica t-shirts at festivals. He stole this one.
Day 2, and spirits were high. We sanke some beers and walked what seemed like a million miles to the arena, got there just in time to see Rolo Tomassi, who killed it! I can’t believe that that noise comes out of that small girl.
Luke was sick of being ID’d cos he looks about 12, so he got ‘age verified’.
This appears to be the norm at Download?
Lyndsey gave me this Drop Dead ‘Murse’ (Man-purse) and I promptly drunkenly stuffed all the things from my wallet in it and threw my wallet away. A decision I instantly regretted when I realised my cards didn’t really fit properly and I nearly broke the zip trying to get to my drinks tokens. Fail.
One the bands I was most ‘excited’ to see were ‘Glamour Of The Kill’. The three dudes on stage you see are in fact three kids I went to high school with, and when I was was in sixth form they certainly did not look like the poor man’s Motley Crue they look like now. Still, congrats to them, they’re doing what they love, and judging by the numerous ‘GOTK’ t shirts I saw around the festival on an assortment of puny emo kids, they’re pretty popular too!
Then it was Deftones o’clock. I was so excited to see these guys, wanted to for years and by god they didn’t disappoint. Highlight of the weekend for sure.
10 minutes after I took this Rage Against The Machine came on and Scott got his glasses knocked off and the sides snapped off, rendering him blind for the rest of the weekend. Scott even wears contacts.. why wasn’t he wearing them?
RATM. Wow.
I probably would have voted Rage Against the Machine as my favourite band of the festival, if I hadn’t already caught their triumphant return two years ago at Leeds festival. They were good, but Deftones were better.
Day 3. Hangover central.
Day three we still had all this to drink. A frat boy style shotgunning session got rid of most, cue being idiots in the campsite.
After this my phone died. It then rained, and everyone got drunker. On the way home Scott hit a personal drunken low-point in a service station MacDonalds, but I’m not going into that.
Download was awesome. Next year? Yes please.