Hart Attack's Download Festival 2010 Experience

[Hart Attack]

It's hard to believe that it's already been a whole year since my first time at Download, and that the 2010 event has now come and gone. After having such an amazing time last year, I was looking forward to returning so much - there was not a single day that I hadn't been thinking about it, posting on the forums, searching for rumours or creating fake line-ups. Could Download 2010 live up to my expectations and match the previous year, though...?

I left home at about 11:00 on Wednesday, picked up my friend and headed to the M25, and then up the M1. After hitting some traffic and taking a detour into Loughborough to drop my friend off with another friend with whom he was staying (they weren't up for camping, but that wasn't going to stop me), I finally arrived at Donington at about 16:30. Unlike last year, when I stayed in the car park for several hours watching people arrive and soaking up the atmosphere, I headed to the campsite straight away this time, foolishly forgetting mistakes of the past and again loading myself up like a mule and bringing everything in at once.

After an exhausting journey from the car park, I managed to get a great spot in the green campsite – right where I had been aiming for, and also more or less the exact same place I was in last year (about halfway down on the right-hand side, on the edge next to the path). I was very tired by this point, and spent the rest of the day reading and relaxing in my tent. Thursday was pretty much more of the same, although I had a walk round the campsite in the evening to re-familiarise myself with the site and take in some atmosphere. Things seemed a little quiet and subdued, however – most people seemed to be sitting around talking rather than outright partying - so I didn't stay out for too long.

After a very bad night sleep-wise, I headed out to the arena on Friday to see some bands. The first I properly saw were 36 Crazyfists (***) with a solid performance, which included a welcome appearance from Howard Jones, to the delight of the crowd. Following this, I rushed over to the second stage to catch a bit of A Day To Remember (***) before returning to main for Killswitch Engage (****). This was a major turning point in the day for me, as I had been feeling tired and lethargic all day and therefore unable to really enjoy any bands, but between the excitement of the crowd, the strength of the performance and the stage antics of guitarist Adam Dutkiewicz, I was in a much better mood by the end of their set. It was pretty special when they played Holy Diver as well, given the recent passing of one Ronnie James Dio.

I hastily returned to the second stage and was fortunately in time to catch Coheed & Cambria (****) play Welcome Home to end what looked like it must have been a great show. Up next were second stage headliners Bullet For My Valentine (*****), who really surpassed my expectations and turned out to be one of the best bands of the weekend for me. An amazing performance, possibly one of my all-time top ten favourites. Closing the Friday were, of course, AC/DC (****). I caught their set from halfway up the hill, and I thought they were very good but not amazing. The hype was insane, the atmosphere was great and the performance itself was solid, however I thought a lot of their songs seemed to have a very similar sound, and after a while I found I was getting a bit bored. I also had some other issues with them (which I will explain later) that took away from the experience for me.

After a delicious pepperoni pizza for Dominoes and a desperately needed good night of sleep, I was ready to go again on Saturday. I got to the arena at about 12:30 and was very confused to find Atreyu (***) already playing. I was annoyed that I had missed the start, but enjoyed what was left of their set despite a small and somewhat tame crowd. I was very annoyed that I seemed to have missed Flyleaf, but decided to stick around just in case they ended up playing later than they were supposed to. I thought that was just wishful thinking, and that in reality they must have pulled out or played earlier for some reason, but was pleasantly surprised to find that they did indeed perform after Atreyu – although I still have no idea why. Flyleaf (***) were good, although again the crowd seemed a little lifeless and small, so the atmosphere was a bit disappointing.

Following a return to the campsite for a few hours to rest up, I came back out to see The Blackout (***). I really like them, but I was in a bit of a weird mood and couldn't really get into the show. The number of crowd-surfers getting launched into the back of my head didn't help things either. Deftones (****) were next for me, and although they were very good I was again unable to become as absorbed as I wanted to. It seemed I wasn't the only one as well – the crowd generally seemed to be lacking in energy again for the most part. It was reminiscent of Nine Inch Nails at Sonisphere last year – a great performance, but a somewhat uninterested crowd and therefore slightly lacking atmosphere. I was left impressed, but wondering if it was worth missing HIM for. I had no such doubts about missing Thirty Seconds To Mars, however – Rage Against The Machine (*****) were simply amazing, despite what was for me a slow start. I joined my friends, who were further back in the crowd, for the beginning of their set, but after becoming frustrated with the lack of enthusiasm from the crowd in that area I decided to move forward after a few songs to get to where the action was. From that point on the show was much more enjoyable to me, and it quickly became my highlight of the festival.

Saturday night in the campsite was cool – I met up with a guy I know and his friends and was hanging out with them for a while. Drank lots of Jagermeister and Red Bull, taped cans to myself because my pockets were full only to suffer great pain when ripping the tape off, repeatedly hit myself in the head with empty cans, had random strangers repeatedly hit me in the head with empty cans... just general dicking around really, but it was a fun night. I paid for it heavily on Sunday though, as I didn't get much sleep in the end and felt terrible for most of the day.

After meeting up with my friends and eventually managing to find my car to load some stuff into, we went and caught the end of Switchfoot (***) on the second stage. We only got there in time to see two songs, however one of them was fortunately the only song of theirs I know and one I really wanted to see, Meant To Live, so I was satisfied. We then went over to the main stage and saw Slash (****), who was very impressive. Myles Kennedy did a great job as the vocalist – he may have one of the best voices in rock music today. After this I was feeling so awful though that I just had to go back to my tent and sleep for a bit, or else I wouldn't have been able to enjoy what was left of the weekend.

I emerged from my tent two hours or so later feeling very refreshed and ready to go, but was shocked to see that the weather had changed drastically. The weather gods must have really hated Billy Idol, because when I went to sleep it was hot and sunny, but I woke up to freezing, torrential rain. I was in a much better mood though, and the rain wasn't going to change that. Not immediately, anyway. I arrived back at the arena and saw the second half of Steel Panther (****), who were very entertaining. Had I known any of their songs beforehand and been there for the whole thing, it seems like it could have been a five-star performance for me. I will definitely be listening to this band from now on, and hopefully they will return to Download in the near future.

I met up with my friends again to see Stone Temple Pilots (***), but the rain started to get to me and I was soon too cold to stay out there, so I went over to the third stage to see Zebrahead (***) put on a fun, energetic show. Feeling a little better, I ventured back outside and over to the second stage to watch headliners Stone Sour (****). Although I was too cold and tired to fully enjoy their performance, it did seem exceptionally good – very moving and powerful at one point, as Corey Taylor became visibly emotional over the recent death of his friend and bandmate Paul Gray. As with Steel Panther, this could have definitely been a five-star performance to me had I known more songs and not been freezing cold and half-asleep, and from now on I will be making an effort to listen to more of their music.

I quite wanted to catch the end of Aerosmith, but I couldn't stand the cold any longer so I headed back to the campsite, changed into a warm, dry t-shirt and hoody and packed up my stuff. I would have liked to have stayed for the final night to prolong the weekend as much as possible and have some more fun before it all ended, but my friend needed to get home quickly as he had an exam to prepare for. Besides, a lot of other people were leaving too, and those who stayed would probably not be partying too much anyway because of the weather and ground conditions. I'd had enough of sleeping in a tent anyway, and driving at night was much easier than it would have been to come back during the day when the roads are busy, so it was probably for the best. So, after dragging my gear through the swamp that the campsite had become, loading up the car, changing into some clean clothes and shoes and finding my friend (who was supposed to meet me at my car, but couldn't find it and had apparently been wandering around for ages), we headed home. The queue to get out was a bit nasty, but once we hit the motorway it was a smooth journey, and we got back by about 03:30.

So, that was my festival. On the whole I felt it was pretty good, but still vastly inferior to last year. I was in a bit of a weird mood for a lot of the time and I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, so this was partially my own fault in all fairness, but it just didn't seem to have as good an atmosphere, or that intangible magic feeling to it this year. Last year just felt special somehow - a true landmark event - whereas this time round it seemed a bit hollow, as if it was just going through the motions. I'm not entirely sure why this is, but it might have something to do with some of the following problems I felt this years festival suffered from.

I felt the line-up was relatively weak. In my opinion, some bands got higher slots than they really ought to have done – Flyleaf and Atreyu for example, although they're two bands that I like and that I enjoyed, I feel they should have really been down on the second stage or a couple of slots lower on main. Them Crooked Vultures, a band with only one album that received only a lukewarm reception and didn't spawn any particularly successful singles, shouldn't have been as high as they were either. I don't think Taking Dawn even have an album out yet, so they probably shouldn't have been on the main stage. We also had Unearth and 36 Crazyfists fourth and fifth from the top respectively, slots way too big for either of them (I know they only played there because they were bumped up from second, but the point still stands). Five Finger Death Punch jumping up three slots to fifth-from-top on the main stage since last year is another questionable move considering they haven't done much since then besides release one moderately successful album.

The line-up was also lacking in diversity this year, with some genres being under-represented or entirely absent. Almost every main stage band can be placed into the category of metal and/or classic, or at least a sub-genre of one of those two. The only real exception was Them Crooked Vultures. Why was there so little modern alternative rock (along the lines of Funeral For A Friend, Biffy Clyro, Brand New, Jimmy Eat World, AFI etc.)? Where was all the punk, from hardcore to pop-punk (stuff like Rise Against, Alexisonfire, New Found Glory, Anti-Flag etc.)? A crossover act or two would have been nice (something dancey like Enter Shikari, or maybe Frank Turner for some folk-punk?). Last year we had a great mix of different types of bands, but sadly this was not the case this time round.

Another thing I had a problem with was the way AC/DC were handled. I really didn't like the way that they had to be treated as more important than the whole of the rest of the line-up, and bigger than the festival itself – it just seemed arrogant on their part, and diminished the status of the other bands. While their stage show (and performance, for that matter) was impressive, I really don't think it was necessary for them to have their own stage. I felt that it stole focus from the main stage, it forced the main stage to be positioned more off to the side meaning you couldn't see it so well from up on the hill and it also didn't really add anything that couldn't have been pulled off on the main stage – certainly nothing good enough to outweigh all the negatives, anyway.

Not only did AC/DC have to have their own stage though, but they also made the effort to distance themselves from the festival as much as possible. They didn't acknowledge that they were playing Download at all – there was no branding on their stage, I don't think they mentioned the fact that they were headlining a festival rather than merely playing a show at Donington at any point, they didn't appear on the official festival merchandise or programmes – I suppose that's why they had to have their own stage as well, because they think they're too good to play on the festival stage. That just seems so disrespectful to me, as if they're somehow above everyone else playing and they don't want to lower themselves by associating with them. But anyway, enough about that.

So, in conclusion... Download Festival 2010 was good despite several major problems, however it was unable to meet the high standards set after last year and therefore came off as somewhat disappointing.

Edited June 15, 2010 by Hart Attack

[t8yman]

this needed a new thread?

[meosl]

ACDC were there to celebrate thirty years of rock at Donnington. They obviously didn't request superior treatment to other bands, I think you'll find it was given to them because of their unique place in Monsters of Rock history, not to mention metal history in general. As for diminishing the status of other bands, is there any self-respecting metal band out there who would lay claim to equal billing with ACDC?

The reason they required their own stage is fairly self-evident - to provide the full stage show would have been impossible on a shared stage. The locomotive, Rosie, the cannons, the bell and so on are all integral to the current show but they couldn't have been used on a shared stage for reasons of space and time. Although the music speaks for itself, the stage show elements have long been a part of the ACDC live experience and why would they offer up anything less to their British fans? I agree that the positioning of the main stage may have been compromised, but unfortunately thats the price paid for having a band of ACDC's calibre on a festival bill.

And as for not acknowledging that they were playing Donington, may I direct you to the remastered Live at Donington dvd (Monsters of Rock, 1991, where they headlined above a Metallica at the peak of their powers) for a reminder of why ACDC are so special for the festival and vice versa. Just because it isn't said doesn't mean it isn't felt.

Also, Taking Dawn do have an album out, and having supported Airbourne and Kiss at large venues and arenas around the country this last year (like them or not, that's a lot of people they've played to) I feel they were very suitable to open the main stage.

I agree with you on many points you made. The weakening of the bill was inevitable, due to the excess of rock festivals taking place in the UK and Europe this year, especially notable if you look at the Sonisphere line-up. For me this is an opportunity to give same acts a chance you wouldn't normally have given time up for. Them Crooked Vultures don't do it for me either, I think their high billing was more out of respect for band member's previous achievements which is a questionable ploy at best.

[Dave_Aber]

I reckon you do far too much thinking.

I just turned up, got pished, listened to some great music, got more pished, went home on Monday. Had a brilliant weekend. Simples.

[bekimo]

ACDC were there to celebrate thirty years of rock at Donnington. They obviously didn't request superior treatment to other bands, I think you'll find it was given to them because of their unique place in Monsters of Rock history, not to mention metal history in general. As for diminishing the status of other bands, is there any self-respecting metal band out there who would lay claim to equal billing with ACDC?

....

[t8yman]

spot on beki.

[cornucopia]

Obviously!!!

I wish people wouldn't make comments like that. Unless you were personally involved with the contract you don't KNOW that they didn't ask that. And in actual fact all of the evidence points at the management of the band actually requesting a lot of things granting them what would be classed as "superior treatment".

In my humble opinion, I think AC/DC were more hassle than they were worth. Of all the people I have heard talking about them only very few actually rate them as the best band of the weekend! My dad's friend went and he's a big AC/DC fan and he thought RAGE were the best band of the weekend! And my friends and I actually left their set early because we were bored!

[bekimo]

I also left early and I am a fan of AC/DC, I do have to say though that for me StoneSour were the best band of the weekend

[duggie20]

for me ac/dc were on top form reminded me of 1991

[kyle s]

ACDC were there to celebrate thirty years of rock at Donnington. They obviously didn't request superior treatment to other bands, I think you'll find it was given to them because of their unique place in Monsters of Rock history, not to mention metal history in general. As for diminishing the status of other bands, is there any self-respecting metal band out there who would lay claim to equal billing with ACDC?

The reason they required their own stage is fairly self-evident - to provide the full stage show would have been impossible on a shared stage. The locomotive, Rosie, the cannons, the bell and so on are all integral to the current show but they couldn't have been used on a shared stage for reasons of space and time. Although the music speaks for itself, the stage show elements have long been a part of the ACDC live experience and why would they offer up anything less to their British fans? I agree that the positioning of the main stage may have been compromised, but unfortunately thats the price paid for having a band of ACDC's calibre on a festival bill.

And as for not acknowledging that they were playing Donington, may I direct you to the remastered Live at Donington dvd (Monsters of Rock, 1991, where they headlined above a Metallica at the peak of their powers) for a reminder of why ACDC are so special for the festival and vice versa. Just because it isn't said doesn't mean it isn't felt.

Also, Taking Dawn do have an album out, and having supported Airbourne and Kiss at large venues and arenas around the country this last year (like them or not, that's a lot of people they've played to) I feel they were very suitable to open the main stage.

I agree with you on many points you made. The weakening of the bill was inevitable, due to the excess of rock festivals taking place in the UK and Europe this year, especially notable if you look at the Sonisphere line-up. For me this is an opportunity to give same acts a chance you wouldn't normally have given time up for. Them Crooked Vultures don't do it for me either, I think their high billing was more out of respect for band member's previous achievements which is a questionable ploy at best.