Download 2017

[AndrewSmith]

10 hours ago, Gozpot said:

Only going on the Saturday but my day will look something like this:

Hacktivist > Creeper > Trash Boat > Alestorm > Of Mice and Men > The LaFontaines > Casey > Max and Iggor Cavalera > ETID > ADTR > Biffy

Pretty much the same as my day although I might go and see AFI as I've seen a lot of ETID in the past couple of years.

[eFestivals]

just had a report from our man on site.

He says Security is very thorough. Full bag search on everyone. Checking wristbands thoroughly and asking for photo id with press guests. 

He reckons it'll add 90 minutes to queues when its peak times.

[AndrewSmith]

16 hours ago, eFestivals said:

just had a report from our man on site.

He says Security is very thorough. Full bag search on everyone. Checking wristbands thoroughly and asking for photo id with press guests. 

He reckons it'll add 90 minutes to queues when its peak times.

Thanks for the heads up

[DomDom1984]

Creeper tour confirmed.

[Andre91]

Weather is glorious this morning! Ground is pretty dry, no slop anywhere. Forecast looks decent for the rest of the weekend. Have a great one, dudes who are also here. 

System tonight 

[hfuhruhurr]

Security queues at least an hour (we joined at 1 got in at 2). Searches are perfunctory. Body pat down for bag people not for non bag. Bag search is a quick look. 

Bar queues are 45min. Loo queues look longer. Girls are going in the urinals. 

Weather's lovely though!

Edited June 10, 2017 by hfuhruhurr

[DomDom1984]

I take it none of the acts towards the top of the bill have tour posters kicking about?

[Red Day]

Lot essier getting in today. Walked straight in, bag search and quick pat down. Loyalty vouchers are a massive bonus. Free t shirt and can use the rest for beers. 

Surprised how quiet site was. Without being critical of biffy, they are not the riight headliner for this fesival. Crowd was way down today. They maybe a good band but not correct choice if you want to sell tickets

[Chavmeisterdeluxe]

14 hours ago, DomDom1984 said:

I take it none of the acts towards the top of the bill have tour posters kicking about?

Airbourne are the closest to the top with a tour poster about. There's supposedly a FFDP tour coming Tuesday with in flames and of mice and men if that floats your boat.

[DomDom1984]

That definitely floats my boat!

[Moey]

Who saw what then??

Friday

blackwater conspiracy 

motionless in white 

sabaton

FFDP - definitely had a farewell feel about it

Prophets of Rage

Sum 41

SOAD

Saturday

tax the heat

creeper

alestorm - awesome

of mice and men

biffy

Sunday

dead daises

The Cadillac three - loved them

airbourne

steel panther

alter bridge

Aerosmith

i thought Biffy did a great set. Find of the weekend for me was Alestorm. How have I not heard pirate metal before?! Really enjoyed PoR, Cadillac Three and Creeper. Credit to Steel Panther for getting that many women on stage!

[pryce]

Mastodon and Opeth tours!

might go for both

[Andre91]

What a lovely weekend! My first Download and it won't be my last. Everything about it was perfect for me. The weather was spot on, I met some awesome people and I saw all the bands I wanted to see. 

Having been to Leeds for the last 7 years, I found the whole atmosphere of DL to be so much better. It seems more grown up, the people seem friendlier, just the vibes of the place in general seemed more welcoming. 

Some excellent performances, too. 10/10 weekend. 

[coreyt409]

6 minutes ago, Andre91 said:

What a lovely weekend! My first Download and it won't be my last. Everything about it was perfect for me. The weather was spot on, I met some awesome people and I saw all the bands I wanted to see. 

Having been to Leeds for the last 7 years, I found the whole atmosphere of DL to be so much better. It seems more grown up, the people seem friendlier, just the vibes of the place in general seemed more welcoming. 

Some excellent performances, too. 10/10 weekend. 

Glad you enjoyed, I did too! Found it a lot quieter than last year, and I think they had less toilets (which seemed to be a thing lots of people noticed)! but overall it was a great weekend.  How did you enjoy Biffy? I was at the front so didn't notice how much of a crowd they drew, seemed like the smallest crowd for a headliner I've seen before they came on stage when people were sitting down! It was a great atmosphere where I was though, they were brilliant (as always)!

[AndrewSmith]

My first ever Download too, only had a day ticket for the Saturday (mainly for Biffy). Really enjoyed it, great atmosphere about the place and a much friendlier crowd than Reading. Quite a few of my friends were there for the whole weekend so I met up with them and managed to stay in the campsite at one of their tents. The one thing I'll say is that Download easily has the best after hours entertainment out of the UK festivals I've been too!

Following the advice above, I got there way too early. Arrived at the car park just before 8am on Saturday with no traffic and no queues for ticket exchange in site. I guess it must've been a different story on Friday and the days before.

Biffy smashed it, we stayed at the barrier from the beginning of ADTR who I wasn't really a fan of before that set but I think I'll be paying closer attention to now. So please to see Biffy play Jaggy Snake on a big stage.

I tried my luck on Sunday morning and got into the arena for Aerosmith too. Felt pretty tired so just sat in the sun on the main stage for most of the day except for when we went over to see Dinosaur Pile Up who were great. Steel Panther were a good laugh, shame that I missed Basement and Moose Blood though. Aerosmith aren't really my thing but they put on a good show. Unbelievable how cold that wind was on Sunday!

As long as the lineup has a few decent acts for next year, I think I'll be getting a weekend ticket!

Edited June 12, 2017 by AndrewSmith

[Red Day]

It was a great weekend and saw some really good stuff.  I'll be back next year.

[rivalschools.price]

Fantastic weekend.

Love the new set-up.

Weather fantastic, almost blew away the memory of last years downpour.

Now crashed out on the sofa suffering from physical exhaustion.

Roll in next year, which will be my 30th anniversary of my first visit to Donnington.

[Andre91]

I've put together my top ten performances of the festival: 

1. The Story So Far - Absolutely incredible. The tent was packed and the atmosphere was amazing. The setlist was brilliant and me and my best mate had the best time jumping around singing our hearts out. Nerve was my highlight. I was singing I FEEL DARK BLUE all weekend. My friends were sick of it  

2. Four Year Strong- Much like the above. Just such a great atmosphere. Everybody was super into it. FYS are one of the most criminally underrated bands going. They have such a strong back catalogue now that I walk away every time I see them with so many songs I wish they had also played. They are so great live. 

3. The One Hundred - Surprise of the weekend for me. I've never listened to them before, but my friend dragged me along and I am so glad he did. What a performance. They were so impressive. That frontman is something special. He has got IT. Couldn't take my eyes off him for a moment. He can sing, rap, scream, growl. Everything. I don't think I've ever seen such an all round impressive vocalist. Definitely a band I'm going to listen to from now on. Thoroughly impressive. 

4. System Of A Down - Smashed it. Massive crowd. Great setlist. I was smashed by this point and had the best time. Loved that they had a proper stage show too instead of the old banner. 

5. Code Orange - Put the whole rock/metal world on notice with this one performance. They destroyed that tent. Absolute chaos from the get go. Crowd was huge for them. This band are going places and going there fast. 

6. AFI - Pitiful crowd, really. But those of us that were there went mad. Leaving Song Part II into I Hope You Suffer was the best 1-2 of the festival for me. Felt great to finally see them. 

7. Aerosmith - What a show. It felt like a real special event seeing such a legendary band. If this really is their last UK show, they made sure they went out in style. 

8. Good Charlotte - Planned to watch the second half of their set but left Prophets of Rage in time to make the beginning of GC and I stayed for the duration. Banger after banger for an hour solid. Didn't expect them to play Predictable and it was great. It was great to have such a massive singalong for a full hour. Really fun set. 

9. Biffy Clyro - Biffy did a Biffy and smashed it. The most consistently amazing live band I've ever seen. Crowd was a decent size, but up against Rob Zombie I don't think it was ever going to be massive. Everyone down the front was loving it. Decent setlist and I'm SO glad they brought out Jaggy Snake. The fireworks at the end gave it that big show feel. I think Biffy at Download can be considered a success. 

10. Creeper - After seeing this band in Peterborough only 16 months ago in front of 80 people, seeing them on the Main Stage absolutely command thousand was incredible. Such a strong performance and they will have picked up so many new fans. I saw so much Creeper merch on site across the weekend. 

Disappointments include: 

Mastodon - I found really dull. Setlist was poor, too. Shame. 

Prophets of Rage - I also found these to be quite dull. The sound seemed dodgy at the beginning so I didn't hang around past the third song. 

SikTh - I don't think they should be playing the main stage at a festival. They sounded great but their music isn't very accessible and nobody apart from the hardcore fans seemed to get it. 

Clutch - I've tried so hard to get into them and I went along on Sunday and I found it really boring. I've concluded that Clutch aren't really for me. 

Edited June 12, 2017 by Andre91

[devilman]

I am too tired to write about the bands I saw yet. That was an absolutely amazing 5 days. Anyone else get dragged into the "sing pit" for many of horrors? A properly emotional moment. Not as emotional as when the PoR played Like a Stone as an instrumental tribute to Chris Cornell. I blubbed like a baby under my shades. System were off the fucking scale and LaFontaines absolutely smashed it despite not really feeling like a proper fit for the festival beforehand. I'm hearing next year will be massive so I'll be getting my tickets next week.

[DomDom1984]

Good to see that GC smashed it. Underrated live band for sure. No doubt Sum 41 tore it down after them.

[Andre91]

45 minutes ago, DomDom1984 said:

Good to see that GC smashed it. Underrated live band for sure. No doubt Sum 41 tore it down after them.

It was the perfect festival set, dude. Just bangers for an hour solid. Everyone was having a great time. 

I opted for SOAD over Sum 41 but I've heard nothing but praise for Sum 41, too. That was a perfect top two on that stage. 

I'd love to see Rise Against into Rancid next year. 

Edited June 13, 2017 by Andre91

[Moey]

56 minutes ago, DomDom1984 said:

Good to see that GC smashed it. Underrated live band for sure. No doubt Sum 41 tore it down after them.

Confirmed. Sum 41 were fantastic.

10 hours ago, devilman said:

I am too tired to write about the bands I saw yet. That was an absolutely amazing 5 days. Anyone else get dragged into the "sing pit" for many of horrors? A properly emotional moment. Not as emotional as when the PoR played Like a Stone as an instrumental tribute to Chris Cornell. I blubbed like a baby under my shades. System were off the fucking scale and LaFontaines absolutely smashed it despite not really feeling like a proper fit for the festival beforehand. I'm hearing next year will be massive so I'll be getting my tickets next week.

Like a stone. Man doesn't need that after a day on the ale! Hallelujah for shades!

Are tickets available yet??

[BeddingatReading]

@eFestivals am I missing something, why has Download been moved to the old forums, isn't that just for the festivals which aren't coming back? I know the festival is over for the year but surely shouldn't be in this forum, unless you've heard something we haven't...

[Gozpot]

9 hours ago, BeddingatReading said:

@eFestivals am I missing something, why has Download been moved to the old forums, isn't that just for the festivals which aren't coming back? I know the festival is over for the year but surely shouldn't be in this forum, unless you've heard something we haven't...

I wouldn't worry about Download not coming back, saw Andy tweet a couple days ago he has all headliner offers out for 2018 and one for 2019

[Andre91]

BMTH for 2019, I reckon.