Download Festival

I'd never been to a music festival before. I like my music, but am more happy listening at home on the radio or a CD. Even these days, as I am of course down with the kids, I might listen to my music on an 'I-Pod'. I have been to a few concerts, or gigs as we cool cats call them, over the years, but hadn't ever really been that excited by the idea of a music festival. Loud music for days, camping in a muddy field with thousands of other people, not washing, that was the kind of thing that had always put me off. I had had a couple of previous encounters with the great unwashed as they left the Reading Festival and that had added to my negative thoughts of this medium of entertainment.

But I figured I should try it once. My friends were going and they asked me if I was interested. They won me over my some of the following arguments: we would stay in an apartment and not camp; the apartment would have toilets and washing facilities; and the festival would not be a standard indie one like Reading or Glastonbury, but would involve lots and lots of heavy rock and metal! That is one of my preferred musical genres. The headliners were Metallica, who had agreed to play their Black Album in entirety on the 20th anniversary of its release. That is an album I have enjoyed over the years. So I did sign up and parted with a fairly large amount of money in order to partake in this endeavour.

The Friday arrived and the weather was a continuation of that of the summer to that date - not that warm and pouring with rain. As we drove up the M1, we discovered that the site was so muddy that the opening of the car park had been put back a couple of hours. Not a good start for someone who was trying to avoid a weekend of trampling through mud. We were stuck in traffic anyway, so by the time we actually arrived, the site was in fact open. 

The state of the site was as bad as I had feared. Squidgy, stodgy, sticky mud which tried to pull my walking shoes from my feet every time I lifted my legs. I suppose not all of the site was that bad, and the areas around the main and second stages were ok. We set up our folding chairs near the second stage and settled in for a bit of Terrorvision. Due up next were Europe, and we were looking forward to them reprising their massive hit 'The Final Countdown'. However, due to the inclement weather, they had been unable to travel. So we missed our chance to listen to that song again, and had half an hour without music. 

The rest of the afternoon was mainly spent around the second stage. We moved to the main stage towards the evening to grab some food and then get a good spot for anyone who wanted to see the Prodigy who were headlining that evening. That was the biggest mistake we made over the whole weekend. We had to endure 'Chase and Status' with their unique style of electronically produced dance music. I had decided I wasn't going to watch the Prodigy, as Slash was on the second stage at the same time and he was by far the bigger draw for me. So Desy and I wandered over to the second stage, to be greeted by epic orchestral sounds, pyrotechnics and a Scandinavian female vocalist as Nightwish were finishing their set. We had spent an hour of 'Chase and F-ing Status' as the 'vocalist' liked to call  them (albeit that he tended to replace the hyphen so that he formed an actual word), when we could have been listening to that soaring orchestral Scandinavian music instead. What a mistake!

Slash himself was great, accompanied by a vocalist (fortunately Slash himself didn't sing!). He played a set that was basically alternating Guns 'N Roses songs and his own work.He finished slightly earlier than the Prodigy so we got to see the last couple of their songs. I'm not convinced we missed much!

Leaving the car park took a while, as the rain meant that a lot of people managed to get their cars stuck in the mud. We had a four-by-four and were fine, but had to wait until the lanes were clear enough for us to get past. And so Desy very kindly drove us to the apartment for our few hours of luxury. Beds and showers!

The Saturday followed a similar pattern. We arrived slightly earlier and then the day was spent rushing from stage to stage to tent to stage trying to catch the acts worth seeing. Most of the sets we saw were pretty good, but it was exhausting hurrying around, standing up through each set. The afternoon at the main stage was a bit silly, as there were two 'comedy' bands next  to each other - Steel Panther followed by Tenacious D. So I was struggling a bit. At least the rain had stopped and the mud wasn't quite as bad. It was a bit warmer out too. 

And then it was time for Metallica. We had found a good spot, not right at the front, but close enough that we could just about see what was going on. And then the crowds arrived. About 100,000 of them, all crammed into a small space. The show itself was great, other than possibly when James Hetfield told us we were all part of the 'Metallica family'. Before and after his being soppy, the show was very good. But I'm clearly not very good with large crowds and found myself getting more and more frustrated with being barged around.

So my festival was a curate's egg to that point - there had been good points, but also a fair few bits I hadn't enjoyed. But then the Sunday happened. The sun came out, the mud dried out, none of the bands required any rushing about to see and there were far fewer people on site. I actually began to enjoy myself. We spent a relaxing lunchtime wandering around the merchandising stalls, then the afternoon was spent sitting in our chairs, with a beer or two, taking in the music in the background. We stood towards the back when Black Sabbath were on, and then made a swift exit. We were on the road very quickly and were back in London by 1am. 

Much as I enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere of the Sunday, it wasn't really enough to persuade me to make a return visit. However, I've just heard that Iron Maiden and Motorhead are playing in 2013....