Download Festival 2009
Friday 12th to Sunday 14th June 2009Donington Park, Leics, England MAP
£135 weekend, £65 any day, camping is an extra £25
Once again we managed to drive straight onto site without being stuck in any traffic, which may have just been luck with timing.
Temperature check, HOT!
I decided to have a walk around the market stalls this morning as I didn't get much chance yesterday, do the straw hat men sell wellies if they turn up to a festival and it's muddy? I'd like to congratulate the T-shirt designers this year as I think the Download ones are the best I've seen in a while, whether any men were lucky enough to find anyone to 'Suck Their Rock' remains to be seen. The site seems a lot busier today and the queues for bar tokens and beer are already building.
The UV body paint stall seems to be going down a storm, I'm just wondering how the topless guy with 'I heart black' written across his chest is going to look tomorrow when it washes off and he has sunburn.. if you're out there, let us know.
It amazes me how many pink people there are today, the sun is so strong and instead of putting extra sun cream on one guy has his friends taping calippos from the ice cream van to his arms to cool down his sunburn, unreal.
I head up to the Red Bull stage to catch some shade, and catch a band called None The Less, an up and coming band from Watford, I can actually sit down in the tent and chill for a few minutes whilst lead singer Ant Giannaccini uses every last bit of energy bouncing around the stage.
I slowly drift towards the Tuborg Stage as Pendulum finish their set as Thunder have been announced this week, and are playing their farewell gig so I want to make sure I can squeeze under the canvas somehow. I've grown up with Thunder and can't believe after splitting up breifly before they are finally leaving us this time, as soon as I hear their now infamous AC/DC 'Thunderstuck' intro I get goosebumps on my arms, and sing my way through their 40 minute set, I'm going to miss them.
What hasn't already been said about Slipknot? They give their fans exactly what they wanted and bring Day 2 to a rubber masked and super duper close.
Time to get out the Car Park... 14 minutes.
review by: Julie Weston
photos by: Luke Seagrave
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