Creepier than your average "Download Festival 2026"

 It is that time of year again once more we have been we have seen and we have left the hallowed fields of Donington Park and survived another Download Festival, left with the infamous festival cough which you don't get in Drownload years. Wait it wasn't a Drownload! But the weather looked terrible it was totally going to be a washout! 

Wednesday we rock up at around 9am as always join a queue and get ready to go in, as always the gates open at 12:00 so we all started walking through about 10:30/11am I have no actual time stamp on this we were queuing all the way back into the North Car Park. 

Searches going in was, yeah. Wand waved over me and my cart that was it. No questions nothing just straight through, now I know I am wearing this bandana, but they didn't even ask me if I had anything I shouldn't! They used to do that at least. I'll be honest not being searched and having everything on display saves time and keeps the queue moving but sometimes you might want to just double check things, I did see a lot of rule breaking BBQs with solid fuel and gas, as well as heard someone got injured on broken glass, but cannot actually verify this at all. 

Any how tent but slightly off position but all was good. Fairly quick walk in, it feels like forever but when you time check it it is really fast. It is like thew walk to the arena we time this in beers, and as said in previous posts, old camp site was 3 to 4 beer walk, new camp site is a 1 beer walk, we take 2 if going in early as you have time to kick around in the queue before they open the gates but usually it is a 1 beer run!

Okay so didn't do anything Wednesday, just camp and chat, we did wander down to the merch stand but that was about it. Thursday rained all day though not heavy just constant drizzle, did have a few leaks in the tent but might just not had it tight enough, am planning to give it a once over with the waterproofing in a couple of days. But generally Thursday was fine. We did wander into the Village in the evening for food and also to see Bat Sabbath (Cancer Bats) with their Black Sabbath Tribute act, was a good show. Enjoyed it and sang along with the rest of the crowd that was gathered. I did not hang around for Five really not my thing.

Friday went down for P.O.D did catch some of Scene Queen, still not sure what I make of her, slightly contradicting narrative. One moment it is Girl Power and Feminism, another breathe it is get you slut on to get what you want. Oddly mixed messages, but also probably not aimed at me. I think I have said this before, but can sing is entertaining can't fault the performance at all. 

P.O.D was of course great to see after so many years, for me this year was the fun of seeing bands i haven't seen in forever and new bands, and this is what Download always used to be to me and I am going to try and make it like that again. 

Hollywood Undead. Was fun, I am not a fan never have been I can remember the masked days. But they got the crowd going and nothing wrong with the set, I know reading this so far it looks like a why did you go if you don't like, but it isn't that I enjoy music, I found them entertaining, am I going to promote them? Nope am I going to bash them? Nope. They preformed they did their thing they entertained the crowd. They have catchy songs and people like them so no complaint just not my thing. If I want guys in masks I will watch Slipknot. 

So had to meet friends, as they came today and needed guiding to the camp, ended up missing Feeder. Which is a shame as the last time I saw Feeder they headlined the mainstage. An this time they were in a tent and I would have liked to have seen them but this one was a little outside my control. On my way down to Limp Biscuit though I did get chance to hear some of Halestorm, and they were playing as well as always, just a shame they always seem to end up on the 2nd Stage and not headlining the main Stage. Sorry I know this is controversial but I don't believe that Linkin Park as a Female Fronted Band, They have a female singer but Mike is their front now as he was with Hybrid Theory. I'll get to this on the Sunday section. 

I forgot I did catch the start of Creeper's set before having to wander, well I caught them on the wander really. This is the reason Sunday Happened. I'll let that wait. 

I guess we go to LimpBizkit. You know we are. So Limp, well I reviewed this set 2 years ago. It was the same set it was Limps usual festival set, start Break Stuff play things from 3 dollar bill and starfish, get people up to do Full Nelson end with Break Stuff. My Generation got cut short due to someone going down in the pit. Stretchered out did not see it was not shown on the screen, while Behind Blue Eyes was dedicated to Sam, and also the bands lorry Driver, see news reports on that as I do not have the details to hand. 

 

Saturday!
So this is an early start. Why? Simple answer. The Wildhearts are opening and as such I am not missing possibly one of the last times I get to see them. The Wildhearts hold a special place in my soul hence why their are so many videos on my channel of them. Seeing Ginger on stage was both a blessing and a curse as I know one day he will no longer be up there doing what he does. I'm just going to let the videos talk for themselves here I don't have the words, this is why we have The Wildhearts to speak for me.
 

So who is next on this list for Saturday?
SNOT. Okay so this was more I am standing inline for the merch store at 2nd stage (I will never use the names for these stages they will always be numbered). Was nice to see them been a while any way and with the new singer as well was well SNOT. 

So was really kicking my heals waiting for Drowning Pool as its been FOREVER since i saw them last but they are still in Texas. So swapping bands around and they are playing now on the 4th stage at some time that clashes with something else so I didn't get to see Drowning Pool. They were replaced with As Everything Unfolds who seemed to be rather good, but I was enjoying them but I had other places to be and people to see so off I travel.
(I had a gap I took my merch back to the tent checked on friends who were unwell and had a couple of beers) I am though heading back in for Bush, Black Veil Brides, Baby Metal, Self Deception and The All American Rejects as well as Guns and Ro.... Yeah we will talk about that too maybe. 

I'll do this in this order though this might not be the order I saw them in but was the order I remember them in. 

Bush, I like Bush have been a fan of them since the 90's was great to see them played a blinder and here is a random song and video for you off their set as I forgot to film a lot this year. (Phone is getting old battery does not last)

Black Veil Brides, still amaze me that I enjoy them live, I think this is a coming with age thing still as I have said before never used to be interested now a days they make me go Oh and I do enjoy watching them. 

Baby Metal, so my plan was here watch some of Baby Metal, then go catch Self Deception but I got so lost in the set and it is amazing to watch them, the story the design the choreography and timing everything is just a phenomenal thing to watch. Would I buy their albums? Probably not, would I go watch them at a festival? Every time.
But as I was lost in that and dancing away I missed the clock and so yeah.

Right TAAR. (The All American Rejects) I managed to catch some of Hot Milk, who are on my list of must find out more about them later though I did only catch the back end of the set from outside the tent on the video wall but sounds interesting and I will try and look into them more when I have time.
Rejects though was a great fun set, really enjoyed it even the engagement announcement in the middle from some random downloaders was well it all worked. Though stick! if you were there you will know what I am on about. Right does that end Saturday? Oh no wait I got to yeah okay I have. 

Wandered round via the back and Architects, still meh not my thing really don't get them. 

On to Guns and Roses....

So I managed to Turn up at the end of Knocking On Havens Door, my brain is going well Axel sounds a little high (tune wise) but you know I can let this go it is GnR this is the band that made me find my love of Alternative music, this is where I became a Metalhead. An then they decide to do Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and it is like listening to Mikey Mouse on Helium. An I am GONE. I let my last time watching Ozzy spoil my memories of Sabbath and Ozzy and I was not letting this happen again. So I bailed back to camp and an evening of drinking and conversation. 

Sunday:
Okay manic day but starting late and when I say manic it is one song here move. Really was, and this is where I remembered why I do this, where I remembered why I started once all the way back in 2004.
The ability to wander alone through different tents different stages find new music listen to bands see their shows and enjoy my time and finding new and interesting acts and bands so we are going to do this rapid fire style!

Firstly in passing on the way to 3rd stage I caught some of Rory. Might rub some people the wrong way but not a fan of the music. Understanding of their message with the tiktok/youtube/facebook stuff, but music does nothing for me. Not bad mouthing here have nothing against what she does on stage just not my thing. 

I was actually heading towards The Pretty Wild. These and Hot Milk where my honest discoveries of the weekend well there was also the last band of the day for me but we will get to that. 
Here is some rather shaky footage of The Pretty Wild. 

Hung about to catch some of TX2 but I'll be honest did not enjoy them. Once more they got up there and played their hearts out but just not for me.

Stayed where I was for Dinosaur Pile up, Awesome set, never seen them before loved it would highly recommend checking them out. I know I said earlier about it being Hot Milk and Pretty Wild when writting that I honestly forgot about Dinosaur Pile up. 

Ash. That was a walk down memory lane and a worthwhile one loved every second of the set, missed the start as was else where but from about 1/3 in was just a great set loved it.

Tom Morello, was a partial watch as so much overlapping going on and not enough time, enjoyed what I saw would have watched more but was moving around between acts to try and see as many people as I could. 

Mastodon, I always forget how much I enjoy watching these guys after I see them and mean to go and buy their back catalogue and always forget, maybe this year that will change?

The Pretty Reckless, once more another amazing set, lots of classic tracks in their really enjoyed seeing them again, seen them 3 times 2 hits 1 miss and this was not a miss.

Ice Nine Kills. Amazingly intricate stage show and as always perfection through and through, want to give them more time but as said too much over lapping. Stage show should come with a horror warning for none fans but so so worth watching it with many interesting elements to their performance. 

Bad Omens, can't fault them it is odd that I do and don't enjoy them it is a weird mix of I should like them but they seem to just not quiet press the right buttons for me while also being really good as a band. Yeah I know I don't understand it either. 

Creeper: Yeah they replaced Static X on 4th Stage and pulled a whole 60 minute set (Maybe a couple of minutes over) Just yeah this was a great performance, I have never seen them before had no idea what they were but I just seemed to be incredibly interested in them, I am going to try and back catalogue them for sure, the entire concept of a Vampire band singing is very much an interesting design concept, the aesthetic and the presentation was great the lyrics and the music was so well put together I need to know more. (There 2025 blood stock set is on YouTube go find it) Over all I really enjoyed discovering Creeper. 

Oh I forgot I promised my thoughts on Linkin Park. (This is an edit later on)
I have nothing against the new stuff. I have nothing against her. She seems fine when performing the stuff she has worked with Mike to create. When singing the older song's you can hear she is nor comfortable singing them she can't reach the notes Chester could reach and as such it just feels wrong. My thoughts are I have no issue with her or the band but like Hybrid Theory to Linkin Park, I do think maybe they could have come back with a new name and new music, though we would have known them as the band that was formally known as we would have still accepted them and watched, with the issues of her past I don't care that don't bother me, as an artist I have no issue, but she just can't seem to do the old songs that she did not create. Also is she part of the band? Or is she a hired singer to replace Chester as that is how it feels, and as such it is Mike's band she is just a singer, We went from Hybrid Theory, to Linkin Park, to this incarnation and maybe this incarnation needs it's own name. 
Maybe that is the problem, I know this might be a controversial idea and you might not like it, once more don't feel they are bad, don't feel she is not a good singer. Just kind of want them to make it without that cloud and comparison always being there. 

So that is the music covered, shall we now look at the changes to the site?

Well the moving of the 3rd Stage was a great reposition, the bleed from mainstage and second stage appeared to be gone, where they placed the stage just lost the over lap from the other stages and allowed for a lot cleaner sound. While there is still some bleed from 2nd to main if you are far enough back and from main to 4th (this needs to be addressed next) it made for a nice change and was a little odd knowing that GnR were on main stage playing and I Was standing at 3rd and could not heat them. 

Food choices all over the arena were great so many different things for so many different people, in the camps was a bit of a trek, Purple at the bottom had nothing more than a Smoothie bar, and to get food we had to wander up to the cross roads, while the other points had actual food. the toilet situation as well within purple was a bit of a trek all in the back corner, now they were clean they were maintained but the walk was a bit meh for us all. 

Walk in lack of searches, wrist band checks seemed non excitants. No Dog Squad wandering the camp site, no one seeming to be manning the watch towers, the security that was covering the camp site did not appear to speak much English at all. Every one from Security to Dog squad generally found between Arena and Camp site just yeah was not interested the amount of times I saw them just scrolling their phones and being as unhelpful as possible! Thankfully ShowSec in the arena they are always good. But the new company hired for everything else was a waste of money time and effort. 

This brings us to parking. Got into my car at 8:45am, got to the gate at 3pm. Who ever was meant ot be running the parking told us we should sort it ourselves instead of doing their job. Had no interest in trying to workout how to get the cars out and I am quoting here from the security that talked to me at 12. "I want to go home too if you guys dont leave me don't leave so get back in your car and wait we have too many people here." From what I understand someone lower down eventually took over and managed to get us moving, after we had been told not to. Someone said a car had broken down and instead of rerouting us just left them their blocking the main route our while letting all the side routes out. Never been so unimpressed in my life, in the 23 years of going to Download I have never been more than 45 minutes getting out the car park and this years it was nearly 7 hours. I got home just after 5pm. My Scottish friends arrived home just after midnight we left together they got out the car park about 15 minutes before I did. 

I know Download Festival Organisers aren't going to read this, but I will say this if they do, you had the right companies doing this for years, you cranked up the parking cost to unholy levels and yet you managed to give us the worst parking experience in 2 decades. It wasn't even wet! An yes they can blame it on the increased people due to no Glastonbury but having EXIT signs in the car park directing people to the edges and not trying to force everyone down the middle would have made sense, there used to be EXIT signage in the car park what every happened to that? 

Any way that's my rant I will stop there, this didn't ruin my enjoyment or seeing my friends or reminding myself why I do this that I do it for the music to discover new bands and to find new ideas. But it did mean this is late being posted. Here are a few photos, hopefully next year I will have a new phone or a better battery and I will get more videos... Wait no I might not be there next year as it is starting to price me out of being able to go I will be honest, I know cost of living is rising and so festivals cost more but wages are not keeping up and I am not 100% if I can honestly afford to go in general camping for 5 days,  let alone the price of the parking tickets or food, I don't drink in the arena and as the walk is now fairly short I can head back to camp to drink if I want too between bands and get them steps in to counter the weight gain. So money allowing, and health allowing I might see you next year, but at the moment it is looking like a maybe not moment.

This is me signing off for 2026. Dave.

Tears Don't Fall, But Shinedown can bring me to my knees. "Download Festival 2025" in review.

 So we did it again, we set up we rocked up and we hit the home land once more.

This year the heat was just on that cusp of causing harm, some people did get the heat stroke due to that giant gas ball in the sky, but as always stayed hydrated and the hat on my head keeping it at bay.

After last year I was a little worried about the food issue and while it hurt I will say this year all food was up to spec and keeping us all fed and hydrated, tiny price increases but generally still within a decent tolerance for another year. No MASSIVE price hikes anywhere.

So Campsite, no real change, they removed Green and expanded ECO and Plus in that area. Which really makes more sense. 

District X (Village it will always be) no major changes new toilets, with suction and water and hand washing stations. Minor issues with them when they clog or fill up they turn off.  

So this is probably going to be a lot shorter blog on the festival this year as not a lot happened yeah I went and saw a lot of bands, no I can't recall all of them, yes I talked to a few people, but all in all the year felt a little more peaceful.

There was this weird calm all the way through the festival. Green Day headlining Friday were awesome but the energy after the set was not there, every one wandered back to camp and went to bed. The camp site was quiet and peaceful over night. Wasn't the crazy noise and partying until the dawn light. 

Saturday Shinedown where awesome. I didn't see Sleep Token, I saw them in the tent the other year and they didn't do a thing for me, wasn't impressed live found them rather dull so called it a day after Shinedown. And once more the night was quiet, we sat up talking and drinking until the early hours but the camp site itself was generally quiet. 

Sunday! Well Sunday ended with Korn and that was a full on full power high energy ending to the weekend and you could feel it in the camp site, though as Sunday people bail after the headliners you could hear the excitement and energy after in the campsite, which was annoying as I had to drive in the morning but even myself I had the energy to want to go and do stuff from the adrenaline rush that was Korn. Even through the heat of the day. 

I think this might have been the issue, the fact while we had bands headlining and they should have been there as said. (We will talk about Sleep Token later) they weren't the bands that pump up the blood and make you go crazy resulting in the camp site being a frenzy of high jinks and noise afterwards. 

Here are some photos of the camp site: While Setting up:

Well that's the camp site area, as always since the redesign we manage to end up in Purple Camp site which is a nice enough distance from every where and only 30 minutes walk to the arena if that. It did get busier within the camp site and while normally I Would have take more photos I Was having a lazy year. I'd had a bit of a bad few weeks and part of me didn't really feel like being there. It did change I did get my arse into gear but it did take a few days. 

Okay this should be Friday but there is a thing and it appears to be that a lot of bands on all at once, very little overlap and clash's and a lot of nothing going on at the same time all over. This is noticeable across the whole of the weekend. Though it looks like we have a fairly constant wave of music going on we actually don't. An while this little questionable bit here is not just part of Friday it is generally the feel of the whole thing. Annoyingly you can't then go back and check the app as soon as Monday lunch hits the app is cleared and we await the next year. I think it might get cleared as soon as the last act in the village happens on Monday morning.

So I am unable to show my examples of these gaps.

Right shall we talk about Friday?

Due the heat I remember very little of it. Actually that's the same about most of the weekend. 

We did have rain but due to the heat it was evaporating so quickly. 

AGHATS! With myself I did not take no where near as many photos or videos as I normally do but my phone is in that beginning of a downward spiral or battery death. So What did I see?

Boston Manor. Yeah I saw them they were okay.

Rise Against. Yeah saw them also all good.

Jimmy Eat World. Yep sat and watched all of that set as well was fine. 

Weezer. Did get a couple f videos and photos first time seeing them enjoyed., 

Green Day, Did get a couple of videos, only sharing one as I was more interested in watching them and enjoying them myself over filming this year, trying to hold the moment in my mind without needing the record of them playing. Also I was positioned further back and the filming is not great it was to warm to want to go flying deep into the crowd like normal to get better shots. 

I have done that for years and now a day it is more about me enjoying myself at the festival than just using it to write or promote. 

 Here be picks and videos for Friday:

Saturday, Saturday Saturday!

Still warm but later start, wanted to go down for Hatebreed, went down for Poppy. 
Now this is a thing that was being banded around by the group about Poppy, Jinjer and Spiritbox. All saying Spirit Box was better than the previous 2 and yeah okay I will admit they have slightly more well thought out and constructed songs but in general I struggled to tell the difference. I don't know if it is my age or my mind and growing up on story based songs and less repetition within songs but that is just my thoughts. I have zero negative about any of them enjoyed all 3 but I just don't see a difference. 

Anyway who did I see well.

Poppy of course was enjoyable enough nothing ground breaking but still a perfectly find set.

Palaye royal caught a bit of them, didn't really stand out. 

Don Bronco. Never been a fan, still aren't but they did what they do and I can't hold anything against them. 

Mothica, caught the back end of this in the tent and WOW one to watch out for down the road.

I saw some of Smash into piece, potential is there but you know needed to be at main stage for Shinedown. An as always Shinedown blew me away. 

Lets talk about the elephant in the room. Sleep Token as already said they bored me to tears the first time I saw them, I have tried to listen to them I do not think they are any thing exciting. They are actually quiet dull. They come across to me as a boy band that would be fine as a boy band but hiding behind the masks gives them edge. An just becasue you are wearing a mask don't mean you have to be a metal band. They are a gateway band, like busted, like mc fly, They play their instruments, write their songs and perform on a stage that takes bottle and they do it and for that hats off. Are they my thing no not at all and I tried. The biggest put off was hearing the use of Autotune in one of their tracks and the fact they added this 30 second screamer piece towards the end of the song that didn't need to be there and ruined the song. Also the fact the scream was autotuned! Yeah just made me go not for me. 

Here come the photos and the vids. 

Sunday, we should talk about Sunday!

Well yeah we should but we are only here for Bullet and Korn right? Right!
yes but I did also go see...

Nothing more. Was an in passing thing but they need to be looked into more. 

The Ghost Inside. Yeah They seemed okay I don't remember they didn't stand out that much to me.

Municipal Waste. Was in the merch tents shopping could hear them sounded like they always do.

Alien Ant Farm. Could not get near the stage. Seriously total sea of humans was awesome to see.

Jinjer: Completely missed them.

Meshuggah, I used to like them they played well, but yeah the heat is really getting to me. 

Spiritbox... So what makes them better than Poppy and Jinjer? 

Bullet For My Valentine. Doing Venom, due to early morning rain everyone had started late today and all times had been moved but we will talk about that at the end. Still awesome set should be headlining look forward to the day they do.

Korn, once more should have headlined years ago were tremendous as always wish they had played coming undone but bah that awesome set so much energy and that fed back into the camp siter after the show. 

Photos and video time. 

All in all was happy to see new headliners and new bands being given the chance to do it even if I do not agree with all said bands I do still think new blood is what keeps festivals alive. So lets talk about what we think should have happened.

Green Day was always the Friday this is how it was always was and was always going to be. 

Saturday. That was meant to be Maiden. How do we know this? Well Bruce let it slip a few days after 2024 that they would be headlining Download 2025. Shinedown are the Top Support. Yet no Maiden!

Sunday. That was meant to be Slipknot. Korn have been underneath Slipknot on all the tours and festival shows. Clown let it slip that Slipknot would be headlining Download in 2025 for the 25 years tour and the delay on the Sunday left a time slot for Korn that was exactly the same amount of Time as Slipknot had been playing  for on the 25 years tour. 

So don't get me wrong I am glad we got the different bands and someone else got to shine and we weren't in the revolving acts of maiden, tallica, lilnkin park, slipknot, soad, muse. It was great seeing fresh, I say fresh I mean new no no most of these bands should have been headlining years ago. But still was nice to have new headliners. 

Roll on 2026. Let us see if we can have something new on the top. I heard rumour it might be Blink. I can live with that, but how about we start rolling on a whole new run of main stage headliners, and really shake up the applecart.There are a fair few bands out there that could have headlined should have headlined and need to headling. Will be ever see the Foos, Blink, Nickleback, to name but a few?

See you in 2026.

Dave.

Rusted From The Rain "Download 2024" Save me.

 Please excuse me, while I try to find the words and the energy to write this, I like so many am rather sick from eating something that disagreed with us and spending many hours in the medical tent from very early Monday morning till nearly lunch time. I have never had food poisoning before and I never want it again.

I'd spent 45 years happily avoiding it. It is so rare I vomit that no one I know has ever seen me do it. I can keep down most things. But this oh my word, I am going to stop here I think you get the picture. 
Enough to say when I got home on the Monday I slept till the Tuesday. 

So please accept my apologise for this one being a little later than normal, I still feel rough now and I am fairly sure someone will shout at me for doing it later anyway. 

Lets just get into the Wednesday, we got out on time we got to the car park for 9:30am and we were in and set up by 11:30am. Can't fault this well happy got nearly the same spot as the previous year.
Purple camp for us always just because well we like it there. 

So camping wise some moving around of things like the total removal of the loo's from the Green camp so every one was piling into the purple loos in the morning. While they had the Camping Plus in Green and the Eco in Green if you were not part of these camps (Paid extra) you couldn't use the loos.

The weather we should talk about this as well, and this is a bit of an iffy one as the weather leading up to download was all over the shop and even to the point of changing hourly, I wish I had taken wellies, I didn't as the weather before we left was mild shower, what we got on Saturday was thunder storms and heavy rain. Well we got a lot of rain from Thursday onwards which of course as always turns the arena and the village into a mud bath, which in turn saps your strength and stops you slogging backwards and forwards for bands. This resulted in my only going to see bands I wanted to see and while I Planned to check out newer bands I didn't, not that it mattered as a few of them dropped out due to Barclay Card, or because they were ill. 

Thursday night we did wander into the village to see Halocene

Friday, well who did i check out on the Friday?
Well we planned to go down for Halocenes actual set but due to the que getting in we got this for 45 minutes as we were scanned searched and prodded.

Yep that's the que to get through the gates. As a friend of mine said when they came on the Sunday on a Day Ticket they had to get through the entrance, walk across the track and then go through this again. This year they lumbered the day tickets in with the campers and it caused chaos. Well it did on the Friday. 

First band without photo was Scene Queen, Yeah I barely managed to get through the opening song before walking off, and from those I know watched the whole set they declared that it was very mixed signals and contradictions with everything she did. I didn't  watch it as I have zero interest in listening to someone sing about masturbation. And as such I can't really comment on this more but I won't be looking into this group at all.

Here have some photos of us wandering in on the first day instead.

So what is next? Well as I said only bands I wanted to see this year as well you can see the mud already forming plus I am not that interested in the actual headliners today so off I wander to Black Stone Cherry, as always an amazing set, can not fault them all these years down the line they have been knocking it out of the park. Enjoy watching these guys play from seeing them at Downloads past or supporting Whitesnake and Def leppard. Just a good all round sing along band with some very good albums under their belts. I know they have been around for decades.

So, I want to see Mr Bungle so shall take a wander over to the second stage. (I am never going to call them by the names they were given they will always be first and second) Now as always I am going to rock up and I don't know a lot about Mr Bungle I just know it is a Mike Patton thing and I do like Faith No More so lets go see what this nut job is up to here. Yep still nuts, and as always a blinder of a show can't fault it some fun some piss taking, such a good set, total surreal and if you check out there wiki page you can work out why. Just looked like they were having a lot of fun on stage together. 

I would like to see Wheatus. I say this as as close as I got to the tent all I could hear was bad bass and nothing else. All the busted fans had rushed the stage and so there was no chance in getting in to see either, so with this I went back to camp, as I was wet, and tired and the drinks in camp were far cheaper than the ones in the area. 

 

Evening in camp as it is wet and cold so no wandering no meeting new people this year all very dull group stays together. Shall we get on to Saturday?

Up and at them! Due to the rain and the cold it was a nice little lay in for the Saturday. Though we did decide to change the breakfast haunt this morning and it wasn't worth it. I miss the All day breakfast / Chinese that used to be in the village. We would wander up every morning get a full English sit have a coffee plan the day and wander back before heading out it was one of the things we had done for years until the new lay out came into existence. Did set you up for a decent day of drinking and wandering, now a days well the last 3 years it's an English in a bap and not great, or as this year a slightly under cooked English in a box with out the egg or tomato's. 

Lets hit bands who do I want to see today and who will I get too see?
So I want to see Baby Metal. Have never seen them and as such I thought I should as well the songs are catchy, although I am also interested in what everyone else see's in this J-Metal group. They are after all Idols and as such. So annoyingly we have a thunder storm and they get pulled after a song and a half, with a lot of frustration, now I don't know the name of the song that I am about to put here, but the following song the second song I do know the name of, though this don't really go to plan as Electric Callboy are ill. So yeah,  don't actually get them either but that's just me I guess. 

So that is over after some technical issues we will wander over to second and catch Tom Morello, interesting rendition of killing in the name of also known as we sing it they play it which was fun.

Right I was going to catch Enter: Shikari but I have seen them several times before and watched from a distance while also wandering and I picked up merch while they were playing. As the first band I was really waiting for where about to hit the stage and that was The Offspring. 

I can not fault this at all, was a great set with some amazing old songs but would have been nice to have heard let the bad times roll be played, even though we got keep them separated, your going to go far kid and pretty fly for a white guy. 

Shall we go see Billy Talent? Yes yes we shall this time though we are eventually going to get into the tent and yeah I was happy with that by a long shot so happy i nearly forgot to get the video below. I have been waiting a while to see these guys and I was happy I finally got too, yes I only got in the tent for the last three songs but it was worth it and the sound outside was spot on. 

Right then, shall we move on to Sunday? No of course not we need to talk about Fallout Boy! I really enjoyed this and you can tell because it is just photos. Was like a history of Fallout Boy playing through in albums as they went using different parts of the stage show from different tours over the years and I did really enjoy it, that is the thing with me I do enjoy a good performance and a catchy tune and that is what Fallout Boy are. 

Now we will do Sunday. Firstly delays in order to get the arena a little drier so the first hour is cut. Meaning sets are cut and every band is pushing to be finished on schedule or ahead of it. I keep hearing people saying it was Seven Fold that was forcing this as they wouldn't give up their own set time. But unless someone from live nation comes out and says this is fact then I am taking a grain of salt. I'll be honest Seven Fold don't interest me so didn't watch them. 

While wandering though I did catch some of 311, sounded alright, but as said it was while wandering, I also caught the first few tracks of Royal Republic as I was waiting for Bowling for Soup to start. I also wanted to see Zebra Head but the issue was that now they had changed the time I had to bail on tem before the end for Bowling For Soup. 

I am a big Bowling for soup fan and it was nice to be stood in a crowd of people all singing along word for word on every song. Shame Chris was rushed back to the states for medical reasons and I hope he recovers and is back on the road with the rest of the band soon it was good but would have been better with him there.

Lets jump to Sum 41. As I went to get a drink and forgot about other bands. Once more no video for this one as was just enjoying the set, shame it was the end of their time before I ever got to see them but I am glad I did get too.

It might be time to limp with the Bizkit. Seriously amazing set, I wanted to see Corey and Limp but as they were now on at the same time I picked Limp. I was in a high energy mood and that is what Limp always bring to the table. Was such a good set was like being 20 again and back in the pits of old. To old and to broken for that now a days. Was an amazing set and it is a shame they were rushed through for seven fold as well. Seven fold meh.

I did go to see Machine Head, but after the massive up from Bizkit they were mellowing me out, so I went and got food and wandered back to camp and we all know what happened at 1am so lets not go through that again. 

Right let us look at the issues. So didn't really have a parking issue this year the new route in seemed to work for the camping. Toilet issues not enough though neither in the arena or in the camp site, and the green camp site being segregated as it was this was an issue. The camp site lay out as always was good I do like the new layout for the camp site and the solid standing for the village we just need to wort out the toilet issues in these areas. 

Arena got shrunk a little due to the numbers being lowered, seating would be nice they shrunk this down as well, Rocktail Cocktail got flooded out so that was closed on Saturday I don't know if it reopened on Sunday as it was too damn muddy to get over there. Though the rain thing in general allowed me to actually get the merch I wanted and in my size and even in the mid afternoon I was able to walk straight up and get what I wanted! 

All in all the event wasn't terrible, I didn't get to wander because of the weather I would have liked to have Sunday but I'll be honest I was feeling a little rough when I got into bed. 

Anyone else in Purple camp never want to hear Celine Dion ever again after the Sunday!

Right going to go sit in the bathroom for a while and hope this passes soon. 

See you in 2025 Download Festival.