DONE IN BY DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL

Having returned from this year’s Download Festival, my thoughts are with the folks of Nottingham who have been left reeling after the murder tragedy that recently took place in the city centre.  Whatever is this world coming to?  I’m sure that back in the day, ye olde Sheriff of Nottingham would have had that bad’un strung from the gallows before you could say ‘Robin Hood – Men In Tights’.  Our sincerest condolences to all families.

 

Our thoughts are with you

If you’ve just returned from this year’s head banging extravaganza at Donny Park, you’ll no doubt have already received the offer of discounted early bird tickets from the festival organisers who are keen to strike whilst the iron is hot.  And boy was it hot.  Soooooo hot, the river of sweat flowing from my face and other body parts could easily have watered the county six times over.

 

Frying tonight at Download Festival

Unprecedented as this is (they don’t call it the Downpour Festival for nothing), no extra precautions were taken by the festival organisers to provide shelter from the blazing sun even though hot temperatures had been forecast for weeks.  Sunday was particularly bad as the wind that normally sweeps across the arena had also died away.  Most festival punters spent the day hugging the shady hoardings, wishing they could be teleported to Antarctica or sitting in the shadow of fast-food vans instead of cheering on their favourite bands.  I even saw one bloke squeezed behind a giant dumpster bin in a desperate bid to hide from the sun.  The tented space behind the Taphouse was the most popular spot around.

 

Not a cloud in sight

By mid-afternoon, queues for the drinking fountains exceeded those of the merchandise stalls and as everyone who’s been to Download knows, you can age 10 years waiting in line just to buy a T-shirt because in all the years I’ve been going to this event, buying merch has never gotten any better.  And whose great idea was it to just have one tiny kiosk point dishing out the lanyard programmes?  Just in the spot where signal reception is the patchiest too.  Please post these to us BEFORE the event so we can plan ahead for a great day out.

 

Waited so long for merch I forgot what I came for

No sun shelters, queues a mile long, and not a lot of merch available by Sunday – if you thought this was bad then what about the extra 30,000 punters milling around making everyone’s life a misery by continually moving from place to place whilst your favourite band is on?  Or having to walk miles to the Transport Hub after a sweaty day of moshing?  Or running out of beer?  What do you mean no beer?  Nooooooooo!!!

 

Amazing Mongolian metal band - The Hu

Yep, I’m done in by Download.  A festival is not just about having the greatest line up, certainly Download cannot be faulted in that respect but for me what would have made it better is having some ‘chill out gazebos’ dotted around, buses closer to the entry gates and all festival merch available to buy online and delivered at least 2 weeks before your visit including lanyards.  Festival Republic I hope you’re reading this and take note.

 

Download 20 line up

Now I’ve got all that off my chest, I do have to say that the best band on the screamo Sunday line up were Ghost.  Well worth all the other aggro you had to endure to see them but only just!

Forgive me Papa for I haven't sinned enough