Act of the Weekend?

[Whittick]

For me it had go be Megadeth.

[Proper Job]

Slash with Myles and co for me. Great set list with a bit of everything. Biffy also excellent

[jammy2211]

Prodigy. Will never forget that experience.

Chase & Status were a good er... warm up... too.

[Greg_I]

Metallica, followed by Ugly Kid Joe. Slash and Steel Panther were awesome too

Chase & Status were the best surprise, I'm not normally into that sorta stuff but they were good.

[Innana]

Sabbath, followed by Anti Nowhere League, Black Label Society, Metallica

[thegremlin_1999]

Great : Metallica, Slash, skindred, kyuss lives, soundgarden.

Surprisingly enjoyable : steel panther , nightwish.

Bloody boring as ever : Megadeth!

[Old Mosher]

For me it had go be Megadeth.

[gjammer]

Machine Head....and totally agree on Biffy...this was my third or fourth time to see them at a festival. Having not botherd in the past I left stage 2 and gave them a go. As you said....dull!

Edited June 11, 2012 by gjammer

[mrtourette]

What were Soundgarden like? A couple of reports I've heard suggests they were a bit flat. Setlist looks like it could have been better as well.

[BTK1609]

I agree about Biffy, they just bore me. I watched Corey Taylor instead who was fantastic. Best act I saw was Metallica though. I have waited 14 years to see them and they didn't disappoint.

[pjadnoo]

For me it was definitely Refused. They were the main reason I went and definitely didn't dissappoint. Crowd were pretty sparse and mostly didn't seem to get into it, but the band were great.

[t8yman]

Refused for me. Biffy played a good set, but it wasn't their crowd at all, uphill struggle really. And the shitty conditions really hampered the crowds response to a lot of what I saw.

[t8yman]

Also, that was my last download festival, nothing against it per se but it's just too big now. 3 years of shit weather, and all that brings, too many people, too much walking ( or trudging through slurry) and repeat headliners again and again. We are looking for a smaller festival next year, with 2000 trees looking favourite at the moment. Met some great people over the weekend too, nice to meet biffoire (however briefly) metallikris and gard. Gareth really was a trooper, not dissuaded by the weather and going at it hardcore for the full duration.

[gazza_20]

Sabbath, Chase and Status, The Prodigy and Black Veil Brides surprisingly. I missed Nightwish in the end for Chase and it was a good decision.

I enjoyed Biffy but as said, not their crowd but more my type of thing. Kinda of the reason I have previously said, they are a R&L band all over.

But as t8yman said, last download for me, happy to go out on sabbath I enjoyed it but the long walks compared to other fests i do is very off putting.

[gjammer]

The unnecessary trudging did it for me too. That was my first and is likely to be my last Download; the other half will definitely not go again. Most other festivals I have been to have car park next to camping and camping next to stages, so I was surprised by the lengthy walks involved over the weekend with management only seeming to try and make it worse, rather than better at times. Should have done my research maybe but it looks better set up for day tickets. Still, security were friendly, toilets generally clean, crowd and music great (although sound quality not the best imo) and I thoroughly enjoyed the "experience"

Edited June 11, 2012 by gjammer

[t8yman]

I thought security were great, there if you needed them, but otherwise very unintrusive.

[insideaway]

First and most likely last download for me. Had many factors go against it that they couldn't control, shitty weather, rows in camp and to many dickheads near by (woke up to 2 pissing on my tent on friday). But the amount of trudging around you had to do in what was basically clay was ridiculous. The sound as said above was not always great and sometimes the dead time between bands seemed pointless long, early on the second stage the gaps were sometimes bigger than the bands set times. Between that and camping from wednesday and getting very little sleep which ment i was just wiped by the end of sat i was to tired to enjoy sunday properly. Like t8yman says will be doing a smaller fest next year.

However getting back to topic thought biffy where dull as hell, not there crowd but they did a poor job of trying to win people over imo. On the other hand anti-nowhere league where fantastic and my find of the fest. The D and Metallica where awesome tho.

Edited June 11, 2012 by insideaway

[Calzum]

Killed it: Refused, La Dispute, Don Broco, Lower Than Atlantis, Four Year Strong

Surprisingly good: Strangle Kojak, Trivium

Poor Effort lads: Chase And Status( love the band to bits but they were missing something) Biffy Clyro ( No Jaggy Snake, not impressed) Got dragged to Black veil brides and oh lord they were awful, the lead singers so weak

Edited June 11, 2012 by Calzum

[biffoire]

For me the highlights were (other then meeting T8tman and Gard ) were.....

Metallica: Best live show I've ever seen. Incredible.

Soundgarden: Close to Metallica and fuck me, what great sound.

and Biffy, triv and Sabbath were all great.

[biffoire]

Also, that was my last download festival.

[neilloggie]

I had a top weekend as always-Family camping with usual crowd.

My hi-lite has to be Metallica followed by Slash then Anthrax 9as someone said don't underestimate them)

Biffy i thought the set list choices were good but they did not give a gutsy enough performance(Simon was too nervous and it showed by coming on stage and leaving the stage still wearing his shirt)

[biffoire]

I thought soundgarden had a suprisingly muted and down beat ending. They should have stopped after black hole sun IMO.

[luckysalt]

For me Sabbath and Refused. Both were excellent, totally blew me away.

Metallica, Steel Panther, Killswitch Engage, Skindred, Prodigy, Billy Talent, Nofx, Soundgarden, MachineHead all excellent.

Chase N Status.

The crowd loved them, but I was right at the front and it was chav central, young blokes absolutely fucked out their heads, being sick, fighting anyone they could, totally didn't feel like a download crowd, you watch Billy Talent earlier in the day they kept saying look after each other etc, Chase N Status was aggressive as fuck, Badman track, show how you're a warrior, fists flying everywhere, it just seemed an act that little boys who've had a WKD listen to and think they're hard, plus the stage show was fucking boring, Chase N Status gave no emotion, not one smile, just that dude playing guitar looking into the camera trying to look hard, the MC guy was decent, he was proper trying, but t was always a guest vocal every track and just had the person singing on big screen on stage same production every song, fucking boring!

Black Label Society

Disappointment of the weekend, didn't seem tight at all, and Zack going on a 10 minute jam session that wasn't even very good in a short set made it all the worse. Love them on record, but waited to see them for a long time and didn't live up to the hype.

Again Sabbath and Refused blew me away, both oldies, but kicked fucking ass

[gazza_20]

For me Sabbath and Refused. Both were excellent, totally blew me away.

Metallica, Steel Panther, Killswitch Engage, Skindred, Prodigy, Billy Talent, Nofx, Soundgarden, MachineHead all excellent.

Chase N Status.

The crowd loved them, but I was right at the front and it was chav central, young blokes absolutely fucked out their heads, being sick, fighting anyone they could, totally didn't feel like a download crowd, you watch Billy Talent earlier in the day they kept saying look after each other etc, Chase N Status was aggressive as fuck, Badman track, show how you're a warrior, fists flying everywhere, it just seemed an act that little boys who've had a WKD listen to and think they're hard, plus the stage show was fucking boring, Chase N Status gave no emotion, not one smile, just that dude playing guitar looking into the camera trying to look hard, the MC guy was decent, he was proper trying, but t was always a guest vocal every track and just had the person singing on big screen on stage same production every song, fucking boring!

Black Label Society

Disappointment of the weekend, didn't seem tight at all, and Zack going on a 10 minute jam session that wasn't even very good in a short set made it all the worse. Love them on record, but waited to see them for a long time and didn't live up to the hype.

Again Sabbath and Refused blew me away, both oldies, but kicked fucking ass

[PastCaring]

Interesting to see how many people here are complaining about the long treks and saying this will be their last year. We could see the main stage from our van but we were forced to trek for 40 minutes each way to actually get close to it and we were parked virtually next door to the redbull tent but we never actually found our way there, seeing as all the most straight forward routes seemed to be reserved for VIPs only! I can really understand why people who have to travel a long distance would think twice about going again We live 10 minutes drive away but it would have to be a mega lineup for us to consider going for the weekend again!

On the plus side, best acts for us were Sabbath, Anti-Nowhere League, Lawnmower Death and NoFX.