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home » festivals » Download » Download Festival 2008
Saturday overviewDownload 2008Thursday 19th June 2008 After last night's set by KISS, it was clear that today would be an anticlimax with the bands that were on the main stage. However at least the organisers in their wisdom had the decency to arrange the smaller stages to have some real old school rock bands on. Names such as Saxon, Testament, and Ace Frehley would keep the older kids amongst us happy whilst the youngsters got jiggy with bands such as Job For a Cowboy, and Skindred. At times it felt like Download was on one big recycling mission with the bands, Alterbridge, who are practically Creed in disguise. Ace Frehley who is and always will be the brains behind KISS. Also taking their recycling seriously were the kids who'd clearly spent their budget on one burger, but found a means to an end with the cup collection point offering £1 per 5 cups...not a bad return if you don't mind digging the cups out of the left over noodles on the floor. Seeing as there weren't any bands that I particularly wanted to see on the main stage, I felt it would be a good time to explore the festival site, and see if it is possible to be entertained. -DownloadFestival08-LS11.jpg)
The first thing I stumbled across was the 'Balls of Steel' show which was a stunt show with motorbikes riding upside down in a small steel ball. Yes it was impressive to see, but its one of those shows that once you've seen it, you don't really fancy watching it again, so I found myself with a free Muller rice in hand wandering down the hill. There's an area put aside for stalls where you could buy essential items like a poncho, silly hat and suitably offensive T-shirts that you only ever wear at a festival. There were fair rides and lots of places to eat (at an extortionate price) best of all this year they had posh toilets, which you could pay to use, now that's really taking the piss. -DownloadFestival08-LS04.jpg)
There was plenty of alternative entertainment (some at a price) to keep you entertained should you wish to rest your ear drums for a while, one of the better one's being a relaxation village complete with spa and best of all a Guinness bus. Ace Frehley was one of the highlights for me during today, he belted out plenty of Kiss tracks, and why shouldn't he? A rare breed of super league guitarists. Then to keep me happier still Saxon played a storming set, which attracted most of the Donington crowd, the queues stretched outside the tent way back into the distance, leaving me pondering who’s idea it was to put them in the third stage tent. Vocalist Biff Byford has certainly aged over the years, sporting silver hair. However he still has the ability to hold an audience in the palm of his hand, and make them go wild. Their setlist was 'Attila The Hub' 'Motorcycle Man' 'Let Me feel Your Power' '747' 'Dogs Of War' 'Heavy Metal Thunder' 'Wheels Of Steels' 'Princess' 
After Saxon I thought I would go and give a band for the youngsters a listen, a band called The Offspring. They arrived on stage with no backdrop, wearing casual clothes (blue denim jeans etc) and just went through the motions. Leaving the crowd wondering why they were headliners. After they had finished, it was a long long walk back to the car and to be honest I started to wonder why I had wasted all of my energy trying to watch The Offspring, and more puzzling was the fact that I still cant work out why people like them?? review by Julie Weston photos by Luke Seagrave 
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