Download Festival
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| Download Festival | |
| |
| Location(s) | Donington Park, England |
| Years active | 2003 - present |
| Date(s) | mid June |
| Genre(s) | Rock, Metal, Punk |
The Download Festival is a three day rock/metal/punk festival held annually at the spiritual home of rock music in England - Donington Park, which hosted the Monsters of Rock Festivals between 1980 and 1996, and 2002's Ozzfest. It takes place in early summer, and is owned and managed by Live Nation, a company owned by Clear Channel Communications.
Download 2003
The first Download Festival was held in 2003. The headliners were originally Iron Maiden and Limp Bizkit, although Limp Bizkit pulled out and were replaced by Audioslave. Metallica attempted to step in as headliners, but were unable due to already being headliners at that years Reading and Leeds Festivals. Instead, they played an unannounced "secret slot" in the afternoon on the second stage.Main Stage
| Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|
|
Iron Maiden
Marilyn Manson Deftones Ministry InMe Murderdolls Amen Funeral For A Friend Stampin' Ground Shadows Fall Murder One |
Audioslave (Replacing Limp Bizkit)
Zwan Flint Apocalyptica Less Than Jake Disturbed Stone Sour Evanescence Mudvayne Spineshank The Darkness One Minute Silence Raging Speedhorn Chevelle |
Scuzz Stage
Download 2004
Another stage was added to the festival in this year, bringing the total to three. 72 Bands played over the two days. The 2004 event was also noticeable for several last minute hitches. Firstly Soil got lost on the way to Donington and missed their main stage appearance on Saturday (they later joined Drowning Pool on stage to perform Drowning Pool's "Bodies" and their own song "Halo"). Static-X missed their slot due to a bus breakdown. Sunday was no better - Slayer arrived on time, but their equipment did not, leading to a slot change from the middle of the afternoon on the main stage to a later slot (and longer set) on the second stage. The biggest news came from the headliners Metallica however, when Lars Ulrich was rushed to hospital. Taking to the stage an hour and a half late, James Hetfield explained the situation with Lars and the show began with Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo playing on Battery and The Four Horsemen. Slipknot's Joey Jordison played the rest of the set apart from Fade to Black which was played by Metallica's drum technician, Flemming Larsen. The set featured no post-Black Album songs and was about an hour and ten minutes long. The set has gone down in history as one of the biggest and most memorable Metallica performances.The full line-up for this included:
Main Stage
Snickers "Game On" Stage
Barfly Stage
| Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|
|
Peaches
International Noise Conspiracy Ikara Colt thisGirl Roxy Saint The Glitterati Surferosa Burst Lowfive [[Yourcodenameis:Milo]] Bullet For My Valentine The Holiday Plan Hiding Place Fireapple Red |
Suicide Girls
Young Heart Attack Span The Sounds Dirty Americans Recover Amplifier Do Me Bad Things Danko Jones The Black Dahlia Murder Mooney Suzuki Gonga Acidtone Hurricane Party Planet of Women |
Scotland
In June 2004 a two day Download festival was held on Glasgow Green, several days before the Donington event. This had a limited line up with only 9 bands performing over a 2 day period. However, the bands which did play were similliar to those appearing at Donington including the headliners, Metallica and Linkin Park. Download Scotland also saw an appearance from Welsh rock act Lostprophets who were unique to the event and did not perform at Donington.Acts which also appeared over the two days at Download Scotland were Korn, Slipknot, Iggy and the Stooges, Machine Head, The Distillers and HIM
Download 2005
Download 2005 was held again at Donington Park, on 10-12 June 2005. This festival was different from previous years as the Saturday was officially dubbed Ozzfest 2005. The official line-up included:Main Stage
Snickers Stage
Napster Stage
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
|
Napalm Death
Raging Speedhorn Paradise Lost A Chance of Pace Hurricane Party Tokyo Dragons Colour Of Fire Slunt Just A Word Crash Diet Planet of Women |
Helmet
Lucky Nine Breed 77 Explosion Towers Of London Johnny Truant The Ga Ga's The Answer Panic Cell Crucified Barbara Diamond Nights Quit Your Day Job City On Fire |
Therapy?
Team Sleep Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster Dresden Dolls The Glitterati 3 Inches Of Blood Still Remains Saints Engerica No Hope In New Jersey Acidtone Henry Rollins (Spoken word 'Sermon') |
Download 2006
The 2006 Download Festival was held at Donington Park, England on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of June.
One memorable moment of the festival was the announcement that Korn vocalist Jonathan Davis had been rushed to hospital. Similar to 2004's Metallica set, Munky, Fieldy and David Silveria arrived and explained to the fans why Jonathan couldn't make it and played with guest vocalists Corey Taylor from Stone Sour, Dez Fafara from Devildriver, Jesse Hasek from Ten Years, Benji Webbe from Skindred, M. Shadows from Avenged Sevenfold, and Matt Heafy from Trivium. Another talking point of the festival was Metallica playing the album Master of Puppets in its entirety in honour of its twentieth anniversary. Also on the final day after the bands had finished there was some rioting in some of the campsites.
Main Stage
The main stage was situated in the centre of the arena with crowd control moving around it, and was the largest of all three stages, the safety barriers used at this stage were in a T shape so as to avoid crowd crush in the middle. The stage was open-air and sponsored by the festival's media partners, Kerrang.The acts which appeared at this stage are as follows.
Snickers Stage
The Snickers Stage was situated in a tent, behind the main stage and was the second largest stage at the festival. Access to the stage was via a one-way system which attempted to spread people around the site, rather than all attempting to push through a rather small space.
Gibson/Myspace Stage
The Myspace stage was the smallest of the three and under a smaller tent. It was positioned across from the front of the main stage.
Snickers Bowl Stage
Controversy in 2006
Controversy reigned at the 2006 event.
On the Saturday, Main Stage act Korn lost lead singer Jonathan Davis after he was hospitalised over concerns for bruises on his body. After observation, it was discovered that Davis had contracted a rare blood disease and could not perform at the event. Several different acts contributed singers to fill in for Davis, and appeared with the rest of the band for a shorter set.
Throughout most of the festival, bottles were thrown around the crowd, mostly in a harmless manner. However, during the Sunday headline set of Guns N' Roses, one or more bottles landed on the stage. This caused problems after the band's lead singer, Axl Rose, slipped on the wet surface and one of the bottles apparently almost hit bassist Tommy Stinson. Stinson threw his guitar, accidentally hitting one of the cameramen, and left the stage. He returned after the song and apologised, but warned the crowd that if this activity continued, he would leave for good.
This followed a temperamental Rose leaving the stage on several occasions citing apparent technical difficulties and rumours suggested that Rose attempted to leave the festival.
Disturbances died down, although the band failed to recieve the warm crowd reaction that many other headline acts at the festival recieved. Later in the set Rose commented that he "didn't want to go home yet. [He] couldn't say that an hour ago!"
There were also suspecions amongst the crowd that Axl was lip-syncing to the opening song. Although there is no evidence to prove or disprove this claim, the vocals did bear a striking resemblance to earlier live recordings, and Axl's voice was significantly more scratchy and aged when the second song began.
Some reports in the media blamed Guns N' Roses' early problems in part for starting the trouble later in the night, which resulted in many fires, and 12 arrests for criminal damage and assault. The official website stated that "about 150 people spoiled the end of what had been a great weekend for over 75,000." Despite this disturbance, and the lack of water points and overcrowding, most left feeling the weekend to be a huge success.
External links
- [Official website]
- [Download Festival 2006: The weekend in pictures]
- [Official Myspace Profile]
- [Up to date news and information]
- [Download Festival Fan Website with the latest news and info.]
- [Download Festival coverage on Sound Generator - news, blogs, galleries]
- [Pedigree Music - Download Festival News]
- [Room Thirteen at Download - festival related news, reviews and interviews]
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