twenty twenty twenty oh look three twenties.

So, I haven't done this for years. Mainly because I'd kind of lost my reasons to do it.
Or had I?

I still have some memory issues, though the head injury of 2021 seemed to kind of adjust the way it works and things got interesting. Actually they didn't this is just a word that is used when we need to find a way to make things sound more exciting than they actually are. 

What did happen though? Well 2023 I finally had enough of the crap that was being piled on me and I changed jobs. It was all new and exciting and it didn't go to well. Which I am also now realising that even if I had managed to stay where I was I would have soon been leaving anyway as my body can't keep running at maximum speed all the time any more. I have taken way too much damage and after all this time my body decided just can't keep up the kind of physical activity I used to be able to. So no more running around after kids in play centres no more being on my feet all day. Do I miss it? Of course I do, do I miss the pain and tiredness at the end of the day? Nope not at all. 

So I now hunt the office job, though you know what I probably got no issue with retail. 

But you have your own thing why not work for yourself?
I don't want to. The stress level would be insane and I don't want the stress.

So yeah 2023 has not been a good year. That and I am applying for every single job I think I can do and I get overlooked by them all, all I want to do is work. 
An when you get to the interview I am of course too damn honest which results in well no getting the job  guess. 

So this is my 2023 Download was too hot, work comes and goes, my health is hopefully starting to balance out. I actually thought i was going to write far more than this, you know really go off on some long tangent or rant about something but I am not. I know that come tomorrow it is a new day and a new year but it isn't like everything really changes once the clock strikes midnight. We just change some numbers at the end of the way we explain the day which we do every day anyway. I do know this I need to get myself a nicer keyboard, this one is not good to type on needs way too much force. But then this is what happens when you move from laptops back to towers and don't really have the money I guess. 

Happy new year one and all. Short coherent ramble over.

Burn MF "Download 2023" (5FDP were missing)

So. Yeah. Heat stroke, 30c Temperatures, lack of water points and shade. 
Need I say more?

Well yes so I am going to but generally we will be talking about the above statement this year. 
There will be some music news I did see some bands I also did see old friends and new friends but as I type these things will become apparent. 

These all start on Tuesdays now. Why well as the group is so spread across the UK and I am presently the closest person to Donington Park (90 minute drive) away everyone comes here we have a few drinks catch up on the previous year and head out early Wednesday morning. 

First group turn up we go do beer run, second group appear we chill and order pizza. Where is the 3rd group? Van broke down on the West side of the country..... Midnight the last member of the party gets here. Quick catch up and a pint and bed. I am going to stop there we gave him enough grief over the weekend for his minor mishaps with direction, But we will say this ext year he comes here, his car stays here and he rides with someone else. 

Righ Wednesday, takes 4 hours to do a 90 minute journey. Actually we got to Donington in under 2 hours. We just got stuck in the neverending miles of traffic that was building up. Thankfully though we were rather near the goal so we slipped through and were parked up before 11. All of us had loaded our tickets in to which ever wallet app we were using, we had also opened the web page ticket view before we left so we were ready. We parked, we just grabbed the tents and we went, straight in minimal issue actually no issues at all, unlike last year where tickets started vanishing and phones started having issues as the wifi disappeared for us but that was last year. (In another tale my day ticket friend forgot to load their ticket and had to walk back down the hill to get signal my fault  I forgot to warn them about mobile signal.)

All in and set up by 11:30. Back to the car now have bands to get the beer and packs. All down and done by 13:00. Was amazingly swift. Though we are about to learn that the crew on he buses were in for a shock as they were now running really far behind (They turned up about 9pm) The sat navs were saying 30 minutes away from about 12:00, an yeah the traffic really was that bad, you might have seen it on the news. 

Moving on as at the moment the weather's nice beer is flowing it is a really nice Download we are in the camps up having a few drinks enjoying the time as we wait for Thursday. 

Who Ever Though Putting Bands On On The Thursday Was a Good Idea Needs Help. 

So Thursday, right from the off we are all a little apprehensive about this. 
Thursday is not a normal music day. It is the recovery from the getting to this point day, we sit we chat, no today we have to deal with bands.
(I have not checked this and probably won't but adding the extra day and starting the days later it has been said we got the same amount of bands in 4 days we have in 3)
Let's get walking the weather's nice the temperatures not to high its a bit over cast nice to walk and drink. So we do, all the way into the arena for Punk Rock Factory (though we did leave in plans to see Mammoth) We did hear the ending couple of tracks from Mammoth I say hear we were heading to the 3rd stage (I know it has a name but we have always just used numbers) We also completely forgot we was going to see Jinjer... Yeah my bad I was already a little disoriented by the extra day and not alcohol as we hadn't really had time to drink. Managed to hear PRF from outside the tent you could not get in there. See Photos!
Oh and of course the photo that was taken as we entered the Arena before that shall we!
 
Main Stage

  3rd Stage. (Didn't the 3rd stage use to be blue?)

So as you can see that is a tiny bit crazy for a Download, but we will muddle through. 

Of course now that Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) have had to pull out of their present touring schedule due to injury. We had now for the 11th time in Download History got Skindred and I do love Skindred, always a good show but before we get there their will be drinking and friends and maybe seeing bits of Halestorm, maybe seeing bits of Alter Bridge. Now I have seen these two bands so many times, I am also losing interest in them a little I know this might rile a few of you up but there's been nothing new from them in forever (I know they have put out new albums but it is their sound it is just their sound again and again if it's not broke don't fix it but still, maybe change something occasionally) Even Vol 4 by Slash and Myles was a little underwhelming. 

Right let's go see Skindred and if this thing will ever up load we should have a video....

Oh no hang on, Just remembered this was out View of Metallica. Yeah this resulted in us just going back to camp. Seen them so many times. . . . Mixed reports from people about their ability to play. Also mixed reports from friends who were not actually at the festival and commenting on their ability to play. All I know is from the campsite they mumbled well. 

Friday... WHAT THE HELL! Why are we Knackered!

So yeah turns out that if you don't use Thursday as a rest day you get to Friday and go bleh no thanks. 

So Friday starts late as always first band is 13:00 not 12:00 like normal. See bands are starting later days are running shorter, we had noticed this. Once more back to the extra day but same amount of performances. It is getting warmer but we are okay at the moment nothing too much we are muddling on, we will find out later what happened to some of the group though! (Not till Sunday) So we are in rocktail cocktail as we are taking it easy (Raspberry & Peach Collins this year) Generally chatting to folks learning stuff this is my duck of a day really, Everything is Second stage and everything can be watched from a bench. With in walking distance of the cocktail bar. So I am chatting to a couple of people in the crowd and I get oh we didn't get tickets we mocked these up over night and just waved our hands at the gate and they let us straight in! The more I thought about this the more I realised they weren't joking I hadn't see that wrist band again all weekend. Which will bring me on to security but we will do that at the end. (This happened some time after Elvana) 

Elvana over ran and got the plug pulled. I enjoyed them the last time I saw them but this time I don't know just wasn't feeling it neither were any of the guys that came with, we all felt we should have gone to As December Falls. But the general thought was that Elvana as a gimmick may not last. As December Falls should and we hope to see them on a higher stage another year. 

I went to see Neck Deep. I do remember them and I am really surprised I actually don't own anything by them I really enjoyed them. I have now lost count of how many times I have seen them I am also confused as why I don't have any photos of them! Might be as I was having battery issues. (This was my only main stage band all day)

Okay let us bang through these shall we.

Asking Alexandria....

I remember watching them.... I don't think they impressed me but they did all those other people. 

Within Temptation

As always they were Within Temptation, what can I say they are amazing but for some reason I still can't name any of their songs and I own many of their albums! Yeah I know I know I need to pay more attention.

Evanescence...........

It's not even a good photo. They used to be amazing and yeah I lost interest very quickly in this set. 
I used to like Fallen, was a great album, but that all my knowledge of them. Also we are starting to cook. All of us are starting to cook and as such we bail back to the tent. 

We had a wander around the camp site in the evening but the heat had started to sap everyone's energy and it was a very quiet night after the sun went down through out Red, Orange and Purple camps. 

Saturday. 

I am meeting a friend on a day ticket today and I haven't seen them in about a decade. So early down to the arena. 
Lets hit the tent and watch Rituals. This is where things will get messed up as we are sat on the edge of the tent and enjoying the shade because it is damn hot already its only just 12:45 an some one standing in front of where I am sat has a joint and are waving it around in my face without even realising I'm sat behind them. This in turn causes me issues as due to the way my brain works things start to go a little wrong and I have to move so I do. I now feel sick and as such really don't recall a lot about the band and for that I am sorry. Here is a photo though taken after I moved. 

Next up 2nd Stage.
Municipal Waste. 
Thrash Band, Good Thrash Band, Really Really Good Thrash band, never seen them before watched the whole set really enjoyed it reminded me what a real thrash band can be when they can play at that speed (Looking at you Tallica hang it up already you're too slow now) 

Carcass.

I saw bits and once more another thrash band I enjoyed what I saw. But was hungry and finding food so didn't get too see as much as I might have liked, didn't know who they were hadn't herd of them before. So this was a nice little find. No photos unfortunately. 

Motionless In White. 
As alway a cracking set would have loved to see it through to the end but we were dying in the heat. Would not regulate body temperature at all so after they played Werewolf we bail back to the camp we will be back once more have cooled and rehydrated. 

So we are back for Disturbed, we have rehydrated with many liters of water, we have reapplied suncream and swapped out for a dry bandana. 
My friend looks like a lobster as they forgot to sun cream before leaving the house or brining any with them for the day. We will get it through to them that skin health is important one day.

Disturbed was as always awesome. 
From Sound of Silence to inside the fire. Just amazing, if you get time to see them on tour go see them, this tour does carry a strong mental health and anti suicide message but these are things Dramen is passionate about after losing so many friends. An nearly himself. So please remember if your are struggling there will always be a shoulder or an ear to listen and try to help out there somewhere. 
Sorry back to yeah Disturbed were awesome. (Really couldn't get close)

Placebo. 
I have waited 30 years to see Placebo.

They played Nancy Boy and there should be a video here, they also did running up that hill no idea if they were going to play Special K or not but there seemed to be technical difficulties at the start and the screens had started to fail due to the heat so we will say they had called it early due to technicals but I got to see them play Nancy Boy and I have been waiting a long time for that, so teenage me is happy as is my day tripping friend as it is the time when we both grew up and Placebo was one of our alternative loves back in the 90's.

Any way they are off to see Metallica and I am going back to camp. As this heat is is killing us. 

Sunday.
Sorry guys not happening, we are exhausted we got back to Camp saturday night and were falling to sleep in the chairs and this was only 22:00. By 23:00 we were all out like lights. The heat had won. 

We are going to sit here until we need to head in for slipknot. So as the temperature drops and we have dropped a few gallons of water over our heads and in to our bellies we begin the slow walk down to the Arena is is 19:45 and we are going to get food. An maybe catch Ghost. 

We got to see Ghost from the food vendor of choice. Which as it is Sunday and though stupidly hot was a Yorkshire Pudding filled with mash and meats. It is Sunday after all. So we watch Ghost from the que and then watch Ghost from the back of the crowd and they were really good even though one of their props failed to work, they did say it should have but there had been issues, once more probably heat related. (Oh side note get the Ghost EP: Phantomime it is rather good) 

Shall we do this? 

SLIPKNOT!
Snuff they played Snuff Slipknot Played SNUFF LIVE! Slipknot Never Play Snuff.
We were all taken by surprise on this one, there is more but Holy Fuck they played SNUFF.
Been waiting too long to hear that live. Loved every moment of this set was just the right highlight of my weekend did the right thing saving energy for it and I am so glad we did and I am thankful as the adrenaline kept me going until 2am and I got to see other friends that had been missing. Still Slipknot played Snuff! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ARGH so cool so so awesome. Oh and Clown was back!

Okay so firstly there should be 3 videos in this I will edit it them in later once I have uploaded them to youtube. 
Secondly Heat.
So once I discovered what had happened to other friends on Sunday evening around 1am they had heat stroke, so Saturday for them was spent in total mess's toilets and tents alike. 

Other friends who had had knee surgery 3 weeks before was struggling with heat and security / welfare were rarely helpful. 

So as for heat, it has been 20 years. Every year we have asked for more water points we have asked for more shelter and every year we get it is coming and it never appears. 

Like many things more and more corners are being cut. If you pay extra you an use this exclusive bar with parasols in the tables. Or you can collapse in the tented stages. Water Points....... Never enough.

The ridiculousness of canned water. Liquid Death I believe is Metallica's own water was all the water you could buy and guess what a bottle is far better than a can. You can't take in a water carrier over 500 ml which is fine but they were taking bottles of water off people. 

Let's talk security, I got searched thoroughly every time I tried to go into the arena. No one ever looked at my wrist band though or even asked to see it if it was covered. 
Which leads back to the people I was on about earlier that were walking around with fake bands on. 

I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes which hadn't been drinking at this point. Due to the heat, hell this is the first time we have ever returned with Beer. That's how hot it was there was so much left over we decided to bring it home which becomes more complicated as outside of Download I don't drink. 

So Live Nation, I know you don't read my reviews, I know you just do your own thing and that is fine but we need more shelter in the arena we need more water points I believe they ran dry on Sunday, we need more reliable food / drink vendors and less price gouging. You have a captive audience and when the event has sold out you are going to need to have more supplies. 120,000 people want to eat and drink A LOT.
I say 120,000 as the last time I looked this was roughly Donington Parks Maximum capacity.
I heard rumours it was over sold but this is all speculation and I am unsure about that. 

The camp site wasn't as crammed as you'd think it was more a case of people just not looking, I don't know if they went out into the walkways all over they did in places but yet again you know the limit and you also know that the average tent is a 7' square. I say average as not everyone is crammed into the little 2 man pop ups. I know being 6'2" I can't fit in one with all my kit. An some large groups use the giant 10 man tents so we have to say an average tnt is 7'.

Security were shocking this year with helping with dehydrated people, helping with heat stroke. I heard several time the words "Oh their just pissed" when you could clearly see they were not they we really struggling with the heat. I know this is a freak year and it hit 30c but this is the way it is going to be longer hotter summers colder shorter winters. he sun issue and water issue needs to be addressed. 

I have already ordered my 2024 ticket as I know you will get it right. For some of us older Downloaders is isn't all about the music any more it is about seeing our friends our "Families" the people we have only seen there every year and it is the only place we are together. 

You use our line of is being a Giant Family when promoting the camping and the place in general and we are, everyone of us in there is part of the Alternative Scene everyone of us stands with the other, we would even defend the delinquent cousin that is only there for the odd Dance act you decided to put on. (Even when they try to threaten us)

We are what makes Download Download the customers.
We are the Family that makes this festival the best in the world and the reason that people like Corey Taylor uses our festival as what he believes a festival should be. 

We are your biggest fans and your biggest critics. But we do it with love as you give us the place we can be us. 

As many of your video packages say when talking to the public, we get to be who we are at this event for five days we are free to be who we are inside. An we will be forever grateful for that. 

Even at 44 and for next year 45 I still follow this dream of what is Download. So please just a little more planning (I am not even going to start on the road issues we avoided that by leaving really early)

I know the weather is not your fault. It is just maybe a little forward thinking. Download is a fantastic Festival and we would be lost without it. Every one of us that are able to be us when we are within the grounds of Donington Park the home of Rock, Metal, and Punk in festival form since the 1980s.

Oh videos coming as soon as I get them on youtube. 
Also heard that S.O.P.H.I.E stall totally sold out and closed on Sunday Early. 
Well done to everyone that managed to get them back into the Arena it is nice when they listen. 

Also I forgot this when I did the first run of this but the other Dave will be running his Post Download Radio Show on Wednesday (14/06/23) over on Endeavour FM 9pm. 

This is the long haired half of the Two Daves signing out...

ARE YA READY KIDs!