Rock festivals are, as much as anything, about planning what you want to get, and then doing it. This is particularly true of the Donnington site where everything -The campsites, “The Village”, the Arena, the Car park, - are all at least 30 minutes walk away from each other Leave something in the wrong place and you waste an hour. The same is true about your tactics whilst watching the bands. Do you want to be laid back near the beer tents and food, but can’t see what’s going on on the stage, in the mosh pit getting your teeth knocked out , or somewhere in between?
Peter and I decided that the best plan was for us to be next to the aluminium crowd control barriers, a third of the way back. No one is in front of you, you can lean on them whilst standing up, and slump with your back to them when there is an intermission. Also, the walk to the bars was only 15 minutes, so beer re-fills were easy. Because of this strategy we were able to see band after band without the normal back/foot ache. This worked out really well as excellent band after band did their stuff on the main stage.
Cinderella were just a good, old fashioned rock act that had energy, verve, melody, and skill. Five Finger Death punch were, umm, OK. I don’t like formulaic growling, that’s what they did. Lamb of God and Megadeath, however, were really good.
But, of course, the stars of the show were the recipients of the most unlikely award ever – the Christmas number 1 single. Rage Against the Machine, were superb. They made lots of mistakes(But covered them up well), and to be honest, I don’t agree with their politics and their rants, but Tom Morello (who isn’t political) did an amazing job getting sounds out of his guitar that I never knew you could. He really can play inventively, with passion and with great skill.
You’ll notice from the pictures that the skies were clouding over – more on that in day 3’s write-up
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