I have been assigned some summer holiday homework to record what happened to me at the download festival, from which I have recently returned / recovered. So here it is! Mostly for the benefit of me, and possibly a couple of people who may be vaguely interested. It is completely unabridged, apart from the bits that my brain chemically abridged without my consent.
Friday: Everyone was in high spirits and looking forward to the weekend. We would all be sat beneath (at least) a tent and a bag each on the way up, and given our positive mood this would prove fairly amusing. However despite being a comparatively fast journey, as we would be arriving very late, it would still be taking over 4 hours. Here is a diagram demonstrating the logistical dilemma:
Having 10 odd kilograms on our cramped knees would soon loose its novelty value, I thought. So the cunning solution to consume beer soon presented itself. We travelled north into the night and the weather steadily worsened, and we steadily drunkened.
Arriving in the middle of the night had the benefit of having nobody else arriving so getting to the site was more relaxing, however there was also the downside that nobody else was arriving which meant we weren’t entirely sure on which way to go. This lead to about an extra hour of lost time wandering about in a car park in the rain, slightly tipsy with horrendous amounts of luggage tied to ourselves.
I made a map of how to get to the site should i go again and they adopt a similar layout:
Thursday (midnight): The site itself, thankfully, was much quieter than one might expect of a festival. Partly due to the rain, and partly as it had only been open for 12 hours, but in any case we made contact with some friends who had already arrived so we could all pitch together. From then until Friday our area filled with friends and acquaintances until it was unusually expansive little ‘love in’ given how busy the site quickly became. The next day we had a barbeque which was lovely aside from that we had NO FUCKING TOMATOE SAUCE. I anger quickly when deprived of condiments.
Friday: the first day of music had arrived! Up at about 7 for a delicious liquid breakfast, and after a short while took a stroll* down to the arena. The weather had become much finer, and it really stayed bloody sunny the whole weekend. We festival goers were enjoying it all in our droves:
download 2009 crowd
Once there I had a bit of an explore* of the various tents seeing a few interesting new bands I may be checking out more of, particularly sylosis. However for the most part I was having a wander*, or drinking on a hill watching such acts as Opeth, Limp Bizkit and Faith No More. Limb Bizkit were surprisingly entertaining. Fred invited one fan near the front to join him on stage and dance about with him, even singing some of one song (arguably better than Fred himself). The evening was a standard affair of heavy alcohol consumption. I remember taking a walk* through the shouting crowds and was seeing folks being carried, vomiting through the throng to the nearest bush, and passing grimy cubicle blocks that already reeked of excrement and I wondered: This might be a little bit what hell is like. But I was drunk, and had become lost so found the whole experience quite amusing in a “well, it’s all a part of the rich tapestry of life” kind of a way you may get when you cease to care about things.
Saturday: Started out fairly quietly with a few pints at dawn, then once again off to the metal. Very happy to see static x who did an excellent set, and devil driver who once again (apparently) attempted to break the record for the world’s largest mosh pit. Here is a video of their attempt.
I didn’t go down to join in, and looked like a wise decision as a friend who did go in for it later came back with a cracked rib, but a part of me wished I had. After this there was an extended ‘vague time’ of which I remember little. However I lost my t-shirt I had been instructed not forget to bring on pain of death. This was during my time crushed to the front row of the prodigy (who I think I enjoyed immensely). Here is a picture from earlier happily sporting the garment in a very heterosexual way:
humor thsirts
Obviously I was a little upset by my careless loss, but this was not captured at the time. Here is a picture of someone else we were with looking upset on my behalf (possibly):
Sunday: was comparatively quiet. Actually that is a lie, everyone was still hitting the booze hard. It had been dubbed ‘whiskey sunday’ so proceeded with most of us drinking copious amounts of whiskey to chase our beer. As the day became more blurry, it seemed that every time someone announced “WHISKEY SUNDAY!!!” (and later: “WHISKEY MONDAY!!!”) someone would produce a bottle of whiskey or bourbon and force everyone to chug some. Quite a lazy drinking game perhaps, but still served to unite and intoxicate all involved. I was highly anticipating Dream Theater and Clutch, and they both certainly delivered the goods. Def Leppard headlined and I think they were pretty good, although I can’t be entirely certain.
The drive back was much more relaxed as we had eaten and drunk most of our luggage (the edible parts I mean!) so there was much random reminiscences, falling asleep and complaining of feeling like death. But we were all very happy about how well the weekend had turned out.
download 2009 stage
* Drunken stagger
