Going to Download has become an essential part of my Summer. Each year Peter Aird and I set up camp at this huge(120,000 people) event and meet up with James, Chris C and their posse for good music, good beer and good conversation.
James,Chris C and Peter
Because the festival only attracts people who like Metal rock, there is no fighting that you get at other festivals as various factions fight, and in fact the number of “Excuse me’s”, “Please’s”, “Thankyou’s”, “Sorry mate’s” is way more than you would get in a high street.The other thing that tied the crowd together – as always – was black t-shirts. Everyone wears black, grey or grunge colour shirts – end of chat. We were all back in black.
Any event of this size needing policing and this is generally done by wristbands. Depending on where you want to go or do, you have a wristband. So within a few moments of being there you accumulate quite a collection.
So, I’m allowed to see the bands, camp in the orange area,buy beer(Yep, someone actually thought that I might be mistaken for being under 18-what a nice person!),and pick up my phone after charging. Peter and I also had “Comfy Crappers” wristbands for a superior pooing experience!
But, of course the reason that we were there was the music. The line-up was immense!
I can only cover the highlights, with 4 stages and music that was non-stop from around mid-day to 11 there was just too much to cover. These are some of my thoughts from Day 1
Killswitch Engage
were superb. Great stage presence, great music, Howard Jones ability to go from growling to melody was superb
Adam Dutkiewicz in superman stylee and Howard Jones belting it out
What doesn’t come over in any of my shots was just how big the stages were – they are HUGE, and the sound systems are equivalently ENORMOUS. To make sure that everyone could see they also had incredibly large, very hi-res screens
AC/DC
Were just absolutely amazing! They had there own stage – even bigger and louder than the main stage. and there is nothing that I can say that gives any real indication about how brilliant they were – there aren’t enough superlatives!
The main stage and the AC/DC stage on the left
The opening
The band made the crowd go mental as they went through all the good ‘ol favourites. Brian Johnson’s voice cut through Malcolm and Angus’ amazing guitar work. Angus was a complete and utter nutter, and Phil Rudd and Cliff Williams were beat and note perfect in the backline.
Angus before he strips off and Rosie sitting on the train – her tits alone were at least 50ft across – big girl – big set!
A brilliant start to day 1
Big Smile!
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