Well - 2009 - How was it for you?

[the_frame]

Well I thought I might as well kick this off.

The new layout is f**king awesome IMHO. The arena layout is excellent. The walking is HUGE, but that is to be expected. I have been in and out of the car park and surrounding area on friday morn and sat morn and had no issues with traffic.

The campsites are massive now - almost as big as reading i reckon.

Banding was straightforward, stewards so far have been friendly and helpful.

I saw

Bleed From Within - not my cup of tea, but the guy's voice was incredibly powerful.

Staind - me mates wanted to watch them, I wasnt keen, and didnt pay attention

MC Rut - f**king amazing, didnt realise they were a 2 piece.

Limp Bizkit - great set

Korn - Awesome

Faith No More - words fail me. it was amazing, they floored me.

[scudetto_boy]

Eh, you seem a bit early for this, it's only the 2nd day of the festival!

[the_frame]

Eh, you seem a bit early for this, it's only the 2nd day of the festival!

[Greeny_Musicchild]

Slipknot were sick.

Wish id seen Chris Cornell from the look of the set list.

[hyper music]

Only had a friday day ticket. First time at Download been to other festivals just not Download and I loved the place. The bands were great some, going from Limp Bizkit to Korn to Faith No More was just great. For sure getting a full weekend ticket for next year.

[6t6o6m]

Got back last night.

There were a few idiots there but thats whats to expect. Thursday night was funny. Pogo you made me laugh.

I didn't like the arena set up. Not enough space for the amount of people.

Limp Bizkit, Billy Talent, Hollywood Undead, Korn, Fightstar were the best bands of the weekend.

The Sound quality of the Second stage was poor in my opinion.

I missed sunday as we got too exhausted so left late afternoon. Only missed 2 bands I wanted to see though.

[MetalDave]

Had an awesome weekend and thought the new layout of the arena was spot on. As for band of the weekend it has to be Slipknot for me. That show was just unreal. Also, for me Down were amazing, as were Black Stone Cherry, Limpbizkit & Killswitch Engage. Biggest disappointment? Billy Talent. I really love the songs on CD, but he was screaming "1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4" all the time and it was really doing my head in!!

I am now a massive fan of Sacred Mother Tongue. Kicked off the second stage on the Sunday and honeslty blew me away. Chem them out:

http://www.myspace.com/sacredmothertongue

[Spengs Muck]

steel f'ing panthe!

had an awesome weekend, fried to bits in the sun - not sure on mthe new layout as it does seem a lot smaller in the arena

Motley Crue, Steel Panther, Prodigy, Slipknot, Faith No More, Journey, ZZ TOP and even Def Leppard were very very good

Bully Talent irritated the hell out of me for the same reason as above - his voice....oh my god his voice.

The sound issues for prodigy were horrific but i moved further into the crowd and had a good time with it anyway.

My discovery of the weekend is probably Volbeat who id never heard before but though really rocked it out.

[MetalDave]

I'm fully prepared for the flaming i might receive from this comment but am i really the only one who doesn't see the big deal with Faith No More???........

Don't get me wrong, their show was thoroughly enjoyable, but i just dont get the whole hype!!!

[Shinny]

It was FANTASTIC... got back late last night.

JOURNEY - wow! I thought they were ace! The sing-along to Don't Stop Believin was fantastic! I also REALLY enjoyed Lauren Harris, Acid Drop (the battle of the bands winners) and No Americana!

The new layout is brilliant, though the trek to and from car-park to camping sucked.

The village was almost EXACTLY the same as last year, anyone else notice that?

[Shinny]

I'm fully prepared for the flaming i might receive from this comment but am i really the only one who doesn't see the big deal with Faith No More???........

Don't get me wrong, their show was thoroughly enjoyable, but i just dont get the whole hype!!!

[6t6o6m]

I listened to them from the tent too as I was hungover/exhausted

Don't put the pics up Shinny

[Shinny]

I listened to them from the tent too as I was hungover/exhausted

Don't put the pics up Shinny

[Matticus]

my main gripe with the weekend was the lack of urinals in the campsite, ment there was massive ques for everyone in the portaloo's.

Slipknot were brilliant, as were korn, there performance was unreal and showed much more enthusiasm and hunger then the last few years.

Faith No More put on a good show, i watched from the back with a beer, had a good sound.

Limp Bizkit was mental down the front, but so so hot.

Down were awesome, as were hatebreed, although everytime i see hatebreed, the singers mic is too low in the mix.

Def Leppard were awesome, couldnt of thought of a better way to end things. Journey were good, sweet new singer.

ZZ Top bored me a bit which was dissapointing as i was really looking forward to them.

Billy Talent wernt too great and marilyn manson looked bored/fudged of his face and hogged the camera the whole time

[Shinny]

What campsite were you on! There were loads of urinals at the back of Blue (near Green) and the queues even at 8 in a morning were never longer than 10 minutes.

Had no problem with the loos this year, they were kept cleaner than last year too!

[oscar]

I'm fully prepared for the flaming i might receive from this comment but am i really the only one who doesn't see the big deal with Faith No More???........

Don't get me wrong, their show was thoroughly enjoyable, but i just dont get the whole hype!!!

[Lithium05]

Got back around midnight last night. Awesome weekend.

Top bands for me were (in no particular order)

ZZ Top

Faith No More

Slipknot

Limp Bizkit

Journey

Korn

[thejimbola]

Manson was the only bad thing about the weekend I can think of, but he was obviously so wasted that he didn't know where he was and had to be carried off the stage at the end.

Other than that an easier route from 2nd to 3rd stage would have helped and I'm gutted I missed Here I Go Again, but Papa Roach were brilliant.

Random good sets were Steadlur, Volbeat, Shinedown and Forever Never.

Also, Pendulum are really dull. It's entertaining for about 10 minutes, mainly due to the size of the crowd which was surprisingly massive, but then it gets so repetitive and dull.

Great weekend! Bring on next year!

....I forgot to say SKIN were incredible and Corey Taylor singing It's So Easy with Duff made my weekend!

Edited June 15, 2009 by thejimbola

[tohellweride]

Download was amazing this year, one of the best ever. Arena was well-laid out, weather was great, camping was good, even the toilets were mostly clean enough!. Walking from the car park was hard with all our stuff but worth it in the end! NEED MORE WATER TAPS IN THE ARENA!!!

Heard there were quite a few thieving bastards at the fest this year too...shame on them. Apparently blue camp got the worst of it???

Highlights:

Limp Bizkit - I got exactly what i expected: brainless rap/metal that went down amazing in a festival atmosphere. Anywhere else and it would have been a bit laughable.

Korn - really held their own sandwiched inbetween the two comeback bands. Heavy as f**k.

Killswitch Engage - Always good. Always on form.

A Day to Remember - awesome emo/metal jumpy mosh music that was really fun after a few beers early in the day.

Trivium - been a while since I'd seen em, blew me away to be honest. Have a metallica-type stage show about them.

Papa Roach - cheesy and amazing in equal measure. One of the best I've seen them.

Hatebreed - Brutal pits, a band really on form, even if they look like they'd probably vote for BNP!

Slipknot - probably one of the performances of the weekend. One of the best Download headliners ever.

Faith No More - was really good to finally see them. you can tell in their music just how many bands they have influenced, whether they like it or not!!

Other random good sets were Hollywood Undead, Parkway Drive, Dir En Grey, Five Finger Death Punch and Volbeat.

Disappointed with:

Marilyn Manson - I haven't seen a good performance from him since 2001.

Pendulum - I usually like them but they just didn't have the power this time are were a bit boring. Sorry!

Gutted I missed Prodigy, Steel Panther, Enter Shikari, Billy Talent, and most of fightstar though

Bring on 2010!!

Edited June 15, 2009 by tohellweride

[luckysalt]

Got back this afternoon

camped in blue and it was a good crack, bit too loud well into the night though for me, was still f**king well loud after 4am and I like to get me head down at some point ha ha, but that was a minor issue, Blue camp kicked off last night too, loads of fires everywhere and this included lots of gas canisters being blew up, toilets turned over, the lighting rigs above the campsite being pulled down, this was all happening between 11pm until about 1am so its wasn't that bad at all, and no-one I saw were causing harm to each other or destroying anyones stuff that wasn't their own, so can't complain about that

Plus the security and fires marshalls were excellent I thought, as soon as a fire started it was out within minutes, so well done for having it so well staffed

The Village was ok, that tiny red bull thing, the music was too quiet and kinda pointless I thought, the wrestling sucked ass too in the tent

Anyway onto the music, Friday was easily the best day, and Faith No More the best act, Im not a huge fan but they were mindblowingly good, I was putty in their hands the entire set, Korn and Limp Bizkit were also excellent, Killswitch and Hollywood Undead were great too, I missed Staind, but saw Billy Talewnt and yeah, he was a bit annoying, but I still enjoyed them, didn't seem anywhere as good as their Rock AM Ring performance though

The Second stage, the sound was pretty poor a lot of the time, far too quiet, and the killer swarm of bees that kept appearing madness!

All in all a great festival, well staffed and lots to do, and great bands on who gave a damn over their performance, apart from Marilyn Manosn who was just shockingly bad, Id recommend Dowmnload to anyone

[dan666]

Just got back aswell.

Loving the new arena. Love it. Only problem is they need more than 1 water taps. The ques where insane.

Loved all the bands i saw only if it was a dozen or so. Slipknot FNM, Limp and Korn where all mindblowingly good. Manson and Billy Talent was a massive let down but meh.

It's a shame cos i told all my friends to watch FNM and most of them did not like them. I thought they where f**king excellent!

Had an awesome festival again, and i think the success they have had this year will make the festie even bigger.

[Lithium05]

My only grumbles were to do with the fact that:

When we got there most of the campsites were shut and we were stuck in a weird cul-de-sac that wasnt on the map between blue and yellow.

When we went to tesco we came back to find the car park shut, and we got shepherded to a car park that was miles away.

[Hazz]

I have to say I was absolutely blown away by the folllowing:

Limp Bizkit- expected them to be arrogant as hell, but they set out like they had something to prove. You could see in their eyes the passion for their music was back. They tore up the main stage and I hope to see them back with a new album, soon.

Slipknot- OMFG Corey Taylor had total control over the crowd. Just so much as a hint to do something and we did it. You could see how greatful they were to be there and I think its a headling spot truly earnt.

Very Disappointed with the following:

dragonforce- dont get me wrong I love these guys, own every album seen em 3 times. But something wasnt quite right on stage. i dont know whether it was their hectice schedule but their usual antics werent present it was just one song after another, something wasnt there.

Marilyn Manson- come on everyone expects a show from him. I was thoroughly disappointed with him. Little contact with the crowd, he seemed offf his face and had no concern for anything apart from the camera.

[kill50cent]

still buzzing from the best festival i have ever attended. this was my 7th and best fest.

2 bands of the fest

slipknot- incredible, so engaging and memorable.

Opeth- not a great setlist, but still very funny banter, so perfect live pure awesomeness.

[problematique.]

I didn't go, but was just wondering how come Manson was so bad, as in what happened!?