Download Festival 2010
Friday 11th to Sunday 13th June 2010Donington Park, Leics, England MAP
£140 weekend (with 5 nights camping + £40)
Daily capacity: 111,000
Picking just one band per day as my favourite proved much harder than I originally thought in hindsight. I love it when you arrive at a festival armed with a highlighted stage planner and within half an hour it's gone out the window as you pass a tent, pop in for a look and leave 2 hours later. So do I pick bands that of course are going to be amazing or do I go with the bands that I've never heard before Download but will definitely be investigated further, maybe a bit of both.
AC/DC are obviously going to be my pick of the day for Friday, with no other bands playing on site at the same time their audience was huge, just like their purpose built stage and runway but you'll know all about how awesome they were so I'll mention Danny Vaughn, he kicked off proceedings on the Jagermeister Acoustic Stage. The crowd was pretty good for the first act, but that may have been more to do with the close proximity to the Guinness Bar, but later in the day Vaughn returned in the Pepsi Max Tent (which was a right trek across site) in all his glory along with the rest of Tyketto. Kicking of their set with 'Lay Your Body Down' I was instantly took back to the old Friday rock nights at Rock City in Nottingham and several of the faces in the crowd I recognise from those days too.
I love bands like Tyketto as they drift in and out of the music scene, but are always consistent with what they deliver. Vaughn has good presence on stage and still manages to belt out a tune some 20 years after their release still sounding fresh as a daisy. The set ends with probably their most famous hit 'Forever Young' which I can relate to seeing as their set has taken me back to my youth of crimped hair, spandex and snakebites. Obviously having two main stages set up in the arena and a greater capacity than in previous years the site felt just too big for me this year, and a lot more crowded.
I'm lucky in the fact that this festival is on my doorstep so I got the luxury of going home every night to my comfy bed, and by all accounts of my friends camping on site I got home in under half the time than it took then to make the 40 minute trek back to their tent. This might be the reason there are so many pink bodies about today, nipping back to your tent for your sun cream just wasn't a viable option unless you had a two hour gap in your schedule.
review by: Julie Weston
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