Well - 2009 - How was it for you?

[future_shock]

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

[spwan-of-the-devil]

I did enjoy it i must admit bar getting Heatstroke and fluey cold... come out other than that it was great..

Now for the music

My top 5 -Slipknot

Limp Bizkit

Severn Dust

Trivium

KSE

The let downs... For me Papa Roach - did enjoy last resort and scars though

Korn for me and as i missed opeth..

The walk was fine.. stewards wernt nice.. and glad we went when we did...

[Shinny]

The police were lovely!

[greekbird]

i had a brilliant time and generally loved it! But i'm a bit gutted i missed a few bands on friday and sunday that i 'd liked to 've seen for reasons explained below....

i don't know what the arena layout was like b4 as this my first download but the walk was just gruelling!

we arrived on friday around 4-5 and i don't know why as the carpark dude that spoke to us was really rude, we got directed to west car-park ie the day tickets car-park.... as we got there at that time, most of the campsites where full, which is to be expected, so we ended up in orange... had a really hard time finding a decent spot to pitch 2 tents (a 2man and a 4man), whilst lugging all our shit as we knew that doing it in two goes would take far too long (the boys have been to download b4)... But what makes this a valid grumble? There was another field which they refused to open on friday... they were gonna open it on saturday... WHY? most campers would be all there by friday eve so wtf was going on i don't know!

And why do the carparks have to be on the other end and soo far away from the campsites?? honestly, my shoulders are still aching from the friday lugging!

another grumble was the complete lack of shade in the arena aaaand the extortionate price for 500ml water bottles in that heat! like all trees are cordoned off and no canopies to speak of.... inspite of lots of sunblock we 're all quite badly burned and i think i had sun-stroke on sunday (with a hat on both days)... i felt so crap that we went for some food after blackstone cherry by which point i was really struggling in the sun so off we (b'friend and i) went to find shade which turned out to be a long walk again.... then my headache was so bad we went back to campsite to get tablets and it took so fookin long that we missed quite a lot of sunday's bands

toilets? not enough in the campsites were we were... the queues were ridiculous most of the time...

other than that and the sh*theads that burned a tent and other stuff really close to us, it was a really good weekend, the bands we did see were amazing, so thumbs up overall!

[Shinny]

The walk this year was a stroll compared to last year! Though the car park was a ridiculous way away, both campsites were really.

[Lithium05]

The police were lovely!

[oscar]

The only complaint I have is the 1 water supply in the arena really needed more.Otherwise spot on ticked all of the boxes.I have been going to festivals for over 20 years and they were by far the best security I have ever encountered had a laugh with them on several occasions.Even had a dance with 2 of them during the Prodigy.

[theramm]

What a weekend, best festival I've ever been to. The atmosphere was quality throughout the weekend, didn't spot any trouble or even anyone acting like a dick...all the people we met were super friendly so if you were one of those nice people...thanks for a brilliant weekend.

High Points :

The Arena layout was excellent

The que's for the bar tokens / bar were non-existent

Getting into the arena, getting wristbands etc was sooo easy

After all the stressing over the weather it turned out to be perfect

Security & Stewards - Friendly & helpful

Low Point

Ques for water taps

The bands I saw :

Friday

Hollywood Undead - Better than they had any right to be, great quote at the end of their set 'Thanks for not throwing piss at us'

Staind - Bit dull, singalong for Outside was pretty good

Billy Talent - Bit of a disappointing set list, pulled it back with the last few tracks

Killswitch Engage - Awesome performance, not a fan before seeing them but the rocked the shit.

Limp Bizkit - ROCKED THE HOUSE, an hour of hits that had the crowd going mental

Korn - I enjoyed them but again thought they left out a lot of their hits.

Motley Crue - Caught the last couple of songs, 2nd stage was jam packed

Faith No More - Saw the last hour & was massively underwhelmed, the hype on here prior to their performance had led me to expect something special...they were decent enough but nothing mind blowingly special.

Saturday

5 Finger Death Punch - Quality set, did their job very well & got a hungover crowd pumped & rocking early in the day.

Devildriver - Couldn't really get into them, they got a decent pit going though.

In Case of Fire - Shit

Fightstar - Mixed opinions on them from our group, I thought they were OK...seemed popular but a bit contrived.

Down - average at best

The Answer - Quality, rock by numbers but done very well....rifftastic

Pendulum - Surprised how well they went down, nice change for 20 minutes but then got bored with them.

Marilyn Manson - Gutted, pretty average performance & a shite set list

Slipknot - Band of the weekend, best I've seen them by far. They really looked like it was a special show for them. The footage of 'spit it out' is awesome...a true 'headline' performance.

Sunday

Tesla - Never heard of them before but really enjoyed their set, perfect for the Sunday

Skin - see Tesla

Black Stone Cherry - Absolute quality, I was a fan already but they belted out a quality set that surely would've won them some more.

Journey - Wasn't really feeling Journey, I didn't know they'd got a new singer which led to the stupid comment when they came out 'he's had a lot of f**king surgery'

Dream Theatre - Thought they were pretty dull

ZZ Top - 2nd most disappointing behind Manson, didn't think they connected with the audience very well.

Whitesnake - Quality! The singalong to 'Here I Go Again' was one of my highlights

Def Leppard - Brilliant performance, trotted out all the hits & looked to be really enjoying themselves, nice tribute to the drummer too, perfect ending to a brilliant weekend.

Roll on 2010

[deadrobot]

Best Download I think I have been to (out of.. 6 I think it is now) but that probably has something to do with the almighty Limp Bizkit - it was effing aweeesome!

Good points: Security were much friendlier, you walked right in to the campsite on first entry and no arena queues, the toilets were really clean! Not always stocked up but that's to be expected, was quite impressed! Arena layout was really good, it seemed much bigger than the old arena layout. Lots of food options too, not just chips and burgers

Bad points: it literally took us 1hr 20 mins to get from car to campsite, my back is killing! But I think we went into the farest away car park, doh! Not enought toilets in the campsites, we were up in ornage/brown and there were only 20 for both of those campsites, in the morning there was a 45 minute wait, boo! And not enough water points in the arena, also they didn't work very well, just trickling water really.

Good bands:

Limp Bizkit were the highlight of my weekend. And Wes' get-up - outstanding!

Slipknot were the best headliners out of the 3 I thought, really got the crowd wild, Spit it out was immense!!

Bad bands:

Pendulum were super boring, and they stole public domain's shit, not cool.

The Blackout throwing in LB, Korn and FNM I thought was just plain ruude.

Manson was illegible, what a dissapointment.

The above is all in my opinion btw...

[Spengs Muck]

A scorching sunday afternoon singing with 80,000 people

brought a shiver to my spine watching this back.

I expected a huge crowd for this song and wasnt disapointed

[Spengs Muck]

the whole festival to me was a big 'effing top that sonisphere!' - the ammount of people who are saying it was the best festivalthey have been too is a huge testament to the fact they tried something different this year and it paid off big.

so one last time, until next year...

AOOF! AOOF! AOOF!

[deadrobot]

I've just been watching back the you tube videos of LB and Slipknot and it was so effing good! They would be out of their minds not to bring them back next year!

The amount of people I seen in LB t-shirts was unreal!

[Lithium05]

The amount of people I seen in LB t-shirts was unreal!

[deadrobot]

I wish I had bought one, I assumed they would be for sale on the Download online merch store but they're not! Grrr!

Freddy D says they are opening up an LB merch store tho, yay! I want his windbreaker he was wearing!

[Salt_On_Everything]

weather, line-up, and layout shitted all over last year, was onto a winner from the off! I saw: Billy Talent, Killswitch (but fell asleep during them!), Limp Bizkit, Opeth, Faith No More, Devildriver, Hatebreed, Down, Marilyn Manson, Prodigy, some of Clutch, some of Steel Panther, Therapy?, and Trivium. plus few others here n there.

highlights were definitely Down, Prodigy, Therapy?, and Trivium (who have SO improved on the other times i've seen 'em!). FNM and Opeth were both enjoyable too, everything else was all alright. Gutted I missed Karma To Burn but saw most of the ones I planned to.

our campsite was ace, very far corner of blue, was all good. met loads of cool random folks who were friends of friends who camped with us, had a good atmosphere. thought the whole place had a good atmosphere!

lowest point was getting up and leaving yesterday. i felt SO f**king bad. but hell, still a vintage year!

and - Do YOU know who Carl Weathers is?

[(sic)muthafuka]

weather was awesome, thought motley crue, hatebreed, sliknot, journey and def leppard were all good, got into black campsite which made it quite a trek thru to the arena, security were spot on i thought, never saw any trouble, the toilets situation was alot better too imo didnt get a nasty loo once and plenty of shit roll

[CopperBlue]

weather was awesome, thought motley crue, hatebreed, sliknot, journey and def leppard were all good, got into black campsite which made it quite a trek thru to the arena, security were spot on i thought, never saw any trouble, the toilets situation was alot better too imo didnt get a nasty loo once and plenty of shit roll

[Spiral_Low]

Great weekend, 7th Download on the trot for me and it still kicks ass.

KoRn, Slipknot, Devildriver, Dream Theater, Therapy?, Steel Panther, Lacuna Coil and Static X the main highlights.

The water point situation sucked, they need about 15x as many taps in the arena!

Glad there was hardly any trouble on the sun night, someone blew up a gas canister near us and then had to deal with me and 2 mates screaming at them that they were c**ts for about 10 minutes. They didn't try it again which just goes to show how cowardly most of those types of people are, as soon as they get confronted they go hide!

Edited June 16, 2009 by Spiral_Low

[Salt_On_Everything]

Great weekend, 7th Download on the trot for me and it still kicks ass.

KoRn, Slipknot, Devildriver, Dream Theater, Therapy?, Steel Panther, Lacuna Coil and Static X the main highlights.

The water point situation sucked, they need about 15x as many taps in the arena!

Glad there was hardly any trouble on the sun night, someone blew up a gas canister near us and then had to deal with me and 2 mates screaming at them that they were c**ts for about 10 minutes. They didn't try it again which just goes to show how cowardly most of those types of people are, as soon as they get confronted they go hide!

[bekimo]

I had soo much fun and I can't believe it's over. And a week ago today was just the beginning! It's quite depressing.

Slipknot were by far the highlight of my weekend. And I would like to thank Marilyn Manson for being so shockingly pants and thus allowing me to literally walk right to the front of the stage (this didnt turn out too well in the end as I got knocked over and kicked in the head before some lovely man picked me up!!)

Sunday was just amazingly chilled. I think having a snooze to some ZZ Top was much called for!!!

[Bad Girl]

ok, highlights in no order:

1. weather

2. the company (don't get too big headed phil!!)

3. zz top - melting on sunday afternoon they were the perfect band to chill to

4. prodigy - no reason necessary other than they rule

5. trivium - seen em loads but they deffo upped their game here

6. down - brutal as always

7. faith no more - although they didn't play falling to pieces, they still kicked ass

8. korn - mint

9. papa roach - purely for the fun factor

10. dream theater - better than i thought

shite in no order:

1. manson - see all reasons above..

2. the fact i was too hungover in the mornings and missed devildriver or god forbid

3. the static x / down clash

4. the epic walk from car to campsite - yeah i know it's shite every year, but when you're parked in Y6 and have to walk all the way to orange, and miss the efests meet up, it makes me wonder whether it was just as bad a walk as last year!

but all in all as u can see, the pros well outweigh the cons so no real complaints from me

Edited June 17, 2009 by Bad Girl

[Salt_On_Everything]

well look at YOU with yer fancy-smanchy green arrows!!!

and missing Devildriver, ouch, that's gotta sting i probably shouldn't tell you that they were freakin' sweet.

oops, too late!

[oscar]

I missed Opeth completly forgot they was on.

Fri

Sylosis I thought were quite good.

Billy Talent Had a lookas peeps on here rated them.Have to say was not impressed.

Killswitch Engage Really enjoyed.

Limp Bizkit Loved every minute of it.

Korn Wow really blew me away.

Motley Crue Really was disapointed with them so left to watch.

Faith no More Thought they was ok for a few songs then just had enough.

Sat

5 Finger Death punch Really enjoyed these.

Devildriver Ditto

Hatebreed Ditto.

Lawnmower Deth I thought they were hillarious.

Down Loved them.

Marilyn Manson What the f**k happened?Right down the front only reason I didn`t leave because I couldn`t move.

Prodigy Really blown away by these was f**ked when they finished.

Sun

My Missus and bro both had heatstroke so on my own Sun promised I wouldn`t stay long.

ZZ Top Got bored to be honest.

Sabbat Loved them as good as before.

ZZ Top Watch the last 15 20 mins thought they had improved.

Got a call from my Missus really unwell so left only missed Therapy? who I wanted to see so not to bad.

Edited June 17, 2009 by oscar

[LethalLegacy]

Had a great weekend, with a few surprises and disappointments:

Reviews of each band below:

Friday: Hollywood Undead - 6/10 - got roped into seeing these. Hated them before I went, but eventually enjoyed it, despite how delightfully dumbass their lyrics are.

Parkway Drive - 5/10 - OK at first, very repetitive.

Killswitch Engage - 7/10 - Solid set, better than '07, but not as good as 2005.

Limp Bizkit - 6/10 - saw a couple of songs, weren't bad

Voivod - 8/10 - excellent set, thoroughly enjoyed it.

Korn - 10/10 - awesome set that got better and better as it went along.

Faith No More - 10/10 - best set of the weekend, everything I expected and more.

Saturday: Tim 'Ripper' Owens - 7.5/10 - solid set and impressive vocal range!

Black Spiders - 9.5/10 - awesome band, def. one to watch

Devildriver - 8/10 - caught the last few songs, did some serious headbanging to this band.

Hatebreed - 7/10 - first half of set was great, second half not so.

Down - 8/10 - great performance, though middle of set wasn't too cracking.

Dragonforce - 6/10 - started well, kind of lost interest later on.

Lawnmower Deth - 9.5/10 - can't argue with one-legged Mexican waves, metal snails, the biggest fishdance in Donington history, and a half-hour of pure comedy thrash.

Chris Cornell - 10/10 - the biggest surprise of the weekend. Even the 'Scream' material was top drawer.

The Prodigy - 8/10 - very enjoyable, missed IMD and Out of Space though.

Slipknot - 6/10 - too far away to really enjoy, not as good as many are making them out to be.

Sunday: Sacred Mother Tongue - 8/10 - this band can really go places. Awesome stuff.

Tesla - 7/10 - solid, hard rocking set

Skin - 8/10 - triumphant comeback set, really enjoyable

Black Stone Cherry - 7.5/10 - great set but too tired to fully enjoy.

Journey - 9.5/10 - Arnel Pineda is immense! Fantastic set and a great choice of songs too.

Volbeat - 7/10 - the songs were alright, best remembered though for the 'Wall of Love' - hilarious

ZZ Top - 6/10 - some great songs but ultimately, boring. And I missed Sabbat for these guys...

Clutch - 6/10 - caught a couple of songs, couldn't get into, but certainly a great live band

Buckcherry - 7/10 - again, 2 songs, sounded great.

Whitesnake - 9.5/10 - amazing set, was completely blown away from start to finish

Def Leppard - 7.5/10 - set got better towards the end, was like a party atmosphere where I was stood!

Didn't think the walk to/from the arena was a problem at all, then again I'm one of those who likes walking!

Also got to do Guitar Hero on Thursday afternoon - I was the guy doing 'Sabotage' by Beastie Boys, wearing the denim jacket and red bandana, if anyone was there. Didn't fancy tackling anything much harder!

[Bad Girl]

well look at YOU with yer fancy-smanchy green arrows!!!