Read the Bands Review

Here is my review of the weekend.

For a lot of people the most frustrating and annoying thing about last years event was the endless queuing, we had to queue for hours to get into the camp site and then queue further to get into the arena. This year the organisers very sensibly opened the campsite 2 days before the event as opposed to the 1 day at last year's event. This meant that not as many people were arriving at once, I hear that on the Wednesday when the site first opened there was still too long a queue (maybe everyone had the same idea to get there early to beat the rush!). But personally this worked very well for me, as I arrived Thursday morning and only had to queue for about 5 minutes to get in.

Last year at the front gate you got your camping wristband, but you only got your arena wristband on the way into the arena, which ultimately lead to more queuing. But this year you took your ticket into the site with you, inside the site there was a tent to receive your arena wristband at your convenience. Basically this meant that
100 000 wrist bands could be exchanged any time over the 2 days before the bands start, rather than trying to exchange 100 000 wrist bands hours/minutes before the bands start.

It was a welcome change to last year's system, avoided
unnecessary queuing and made entrance to the arena
much quicker.

The bag checks on arrival to the campsite seemed largely superficial, the people gave your bag a pat down and then asked you if you had any glass bottles and that was pretty much it. The problem is most people were coming with a couple of big bags, and to properly go through everyone's stuff would be awkward and take a very, very long time. Maybe they just did random proper searches every now and then to keep people on their toes, but I couldn't say for sure. I was just happy to just get into the site quickly after such a long journey. Although to be fair they did have people walking round the campsite confiscating anything they saw that was not allowed in.

it was pretty easy to get illegal stuff in...
but in all fairness I think I probably saw fewer
illegal items inside this year than I did last year.

On entry to the Arena all bags were more thoroughly searched, most people were frisked and all cans, glass bottles and alcohol were confiscated. But inevitably some things got into the arena, but in all fairness I think I probably saw fewer illegal items inside this year than I did last year.

On the camp site I didn't see any fires this year, unlike last year disposable barbecues and camping stoves were allowed in, so people didn't need to make a fire. On the last night people were setting off fire works again, which is worrying when you consider you are in a field of flammable tents. I heard a couple more fireworks go off than I did last year and you could blame the lack of a proper search on the way in. On this note it is impossible for any organiser to totally control the behaviour of so many people, so many problems of the safety issues were down to the behaviour of individuals in the crowd. But I do not know how the organisers dealt with people they found to be causing such problems.

Maybe I just had good luck but I felt that the toilets were much cleaner than they were last year, which would suggest that they may have been cleaned more regularly, I saw the toilets were cleaned at least once a day.

Food and drink prices were just as bad if not worse than last year (£2 for soft drinks, £3 for beer, £3.50 for cheese burger and £5 for Pizza or Noodles). But it is a festival with a captive audience, and as disgraceful as it is I didn't really expect any different. So it would probably be unfair to single Download out of criticism on this count, as I suspect every other festival does exactly the same.

In past years at the has been a cover on the ground at the front of the stage, this year the cover wasn't used, this meant that when there was much movement in the crowd (pit or jumping around) the result was massive dust clouds that made breathing uncomfortable in that area of the crowd. This was one of the most annoying things at this years Download as me and my friends often stood further away from the stage than we wanted to in an attempt to avoid the lungs full of dust.

Hopefully the organisers will go back to the cover on the ground next year to stop this problem.

In between main stage acts crowd bottle fights were again a fixture, but to a lesser extent than last year. Also the bottle fights seemed better natured than last year, last year you sensed the bottle fights were a product of the frustration of bands being juggled, cancelled or 2 hours late on stage, this year it seemed like everyone was happier and having fun. Since it was mostly empty plastic bottles, no one was getting hurt and most people seemed to have a fun dodging the bottles and trying to hit one of the numerous human targets who hoisted themselves up on their friend's shoulders. I am happy to say I didn't see any bottles thrown full of stones or urine this year, unlike last year.

There was also an incentive that if you could fill up a provided bin bag with empty bottles that you would receive a free can of beer. But when you consider that it takes about 100 bottles to fill up a bag, it seems like they are asking you to do too much for one beer. I think maybe if the bags were smaller, and if fans only needed to pick up 25 or 50 bottles or even 10 bags for a 25 pack of beer cans, that the incentive would have been greater and more people would have participated. The incentive wasn't really advertised or made as clear it should have been. And I feel that this is a good idea .....

if they can get this initiative right next year it will not only help
cut down on the site clean up, but could stop the bottle fights.

This year they divided the path that linked the main and second stage in half, and implemented a one-way system, which meant that getting back and forth was quicker and easier than the previous year. Although this was a good idea the system wasn't sign posted at all and was not made clear by the stewards enforcing it, which lead to some initial confusion and conflict. But as soon as everyone realised the situation it went pretty smoothly and worked well.

The official coach service from the stations to the Download site was again in operation, and worked very well. Coaches were not as packed this year because of the extra time allowed for people to arrive and leave.

Another good thing was after System played their set on Sunday night buses to Derby train station were run right through the night through till Monday evening. Last year buses only started on Monday morning, this again cut down on congestion, as it gave everyone 24 hours to leave rather than the 12 or so we had last year.

The communication between the organisers and the fans was far better than last year,
there was at least 3 information tents as opposed to last years one.

The people in these tents also had more idea than they did last year. The organisers also used the big screen to transmit messages, and they even made an announcement from the stage regarding Nightwish, which is something they didn't do last year.

Last years Download was hit with problems of bands turning up late, as many of the bands were travelling to Donnington straight after playing Rock AM Ring in Germany. But by either good luck or good planning the 2 events don't fall on the same weekend this year, so nearly every band turned up and went on stage at the correct time. The only band to turn up late was Nightwish, after a string of band luck (first a bomb scare at Vienna Airport, then a further delay as someone didn't put enough fuel in the plane) they turned up about an hour after they were due on stage. In order to avoid having any further effect on the acts to follow, Nightwish only played a 4-song set. Thanks to a mysterious empty 30 minute time slot earlier in the day, the bands below Nightwish were all shifted down so that Nightwish's lateness meant that Slayer, Slipknot and System of A Down were only half an hour late on stage and were able to play their full allocated times. We also had a proper announcement about the change to the schedule unlike last year. It would have been better if Slayer would have been moved down into Nightwish's spot and then Nightwish play their full set in Slayers spot, but I guess it is a difficult situation, as if the line up swops round you risk confusing fans and making them miss their favourite band. This way they kept the disruption to the bare minimum, certainly not ideal but if you consider the disastrous reorganisation of Download 2004....

it shows Clear Channel have learned something from past mistakes.

On the same note, it appears that Clear Channel actually built time into the schedule in case of such things went wrong. Most bands finished well before the traditional 11 o'clock curfew, so that if there was any delay there was potentially up to extra 45 minutes available.

The much discussed 'Secret Band' was strangely announced a couple of days before the festival and the actual time slot was published too, although they didn't officially disclose the bands identity, it seemed contradictory to confirm that a secret band would play. One thing they did say was that it was going to be extra special and that people would 'flip' when they found out who it was. Upon hearing this peoples imaginations and expectations went into over drive and people were hoping for the likes of Iron Maiden, Motley Crue and Judas Priest, the organisers also described the secret band as a 'Frankenstein's monster' which lead to rumours that it could be a tribute band, featuring Damage Plan and Zak Wylde, in honour of recently murdered guitar legend Dimebag Darrell. So you can imagine the disappointment when Internet rumours proved to be true and it was in fact Funeral for a Friend. I felt that having a secret band on was a great idea but announcing it (and even printing the bands identity in the stage time laminates) spoiled the surprise, and to raise peoples expectations to such a level knowing full well a band such as FFAF would not match the hype they created, made the band look bad and the organisers like fools. Some would say that it was a cynical publicity stunt, but it did get people excited and was definitely the talking point of the festival.

But I think they let everyone down by making
such bold statements then not backing them up
with a true world-class band.

Overall I feel that it was worth going, the line up was possibly the strongest it has ever been, and out of the 100 or so bands on, only one band turned up late and had to played a shorted set (Nightwish) and only the following 3 bands (Slayer, Slipknot and System) were 30 minutes late on stage as a direct result of this. Everyone else went on stage on time and played their full set (give or take 5 minutes).

I wouldn't say download was a triumphant success by any means, but it was a success. And more than anything, after last year it was certainly a step in the right direction. Clear Channel tried to implement some sensible ideas and in the large part they worked. There is still a certain lack of common sense and confusion in some areas of the organisation but I think they in general they did a pretty good job of organising Download this year.

Overall I feel that it was worth going, the line up was possibly the strongest it has ever been
Clear Channel tried to implement some sensible ideas and in the large part they worked.

Now read Simon's review of the bands here