Download Festival
| Download Festival | |
|---|---|
 Download main stage in 2005 | |
| Genre | Rock, Metal, Punk, Grunge |
| Dates | mid June |
| Location(s) | Donington Park, England |
| Years active | 2003 - present |
| Website | www.downloadfestival.co.uk |
The Download Festival is a three day rock/metal/'alternative' 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
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. Slayer were replaced on the main stage by Damageplan, who were scheduled to play the second stage. Their setlist ended with a rendition of Damageplan founders Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell's most recognisable song from their Pantera days, "Walk".
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
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. The running order went as follows.
| Day 1 | Day 2 |
|---|---|
|
Linkin Park
|
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, as well as an "Indie day" on the first day of the festival, which disgraced many "traditional" attendees of the festival (known as "Metallers"), who nastilly heckled JJ72, The Others and Biffy Clyro, who were playing before Megadeth- a band who appeal to the traditional Download attendee. Feeder completed their set without any problems, and were seen by many after the festival as a band who won the crowd over despite the musical style differences between the metal bands. The official line-up included:
Main Stage
Snickers Stage
Napster Stage
Download 2006
The 2006 Download Festival was held at Donington Park, England on the 9th, 10th, and 11th of June. Ironically Download 2006 boasted the largest selling acts out of all the UK music fesitvals (in terms of the combined total of every act). The three days comprising the headlining acts (Tool, Metallica and Guns N' Roses) have sales of approximately 200-250 million albums between them, more than the entire line up of 2006's V Festival.
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 Slipknot, Dez Fafara from Devildriver, Jesse Hasek from 10 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. A highlight of the GNR set was Sebastian Bach performing a duet on "My Michelle" with Axl Rose. Guns N' Roses also performed material from the long forthcoming Chinese Democracy album which was received quite well by the crowd.
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!.
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
| Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|
Controversy
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, who each appeared with the rest of the band for a shorter set.[1]
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 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. Disturbances died down, and later in the set Rose commented "I'm actually having quite a good time now! I couldn't have said that an hour ago!"[2]
On the final night, fires were started by some festival goers and police were called, arresting twelve people.[3] The festival director posted a message on the official website stating that "About 150 people spoiled the end of what had been a great weekend for over 75,000 of us."[4]
Download 2007
The 2007 Download Festival is scheduled for June 8-10 2007, with tickets to go on sale from 9am on 31 January 2007.[5]
On 30 January, the three bands that will headline the 2007 festival were announced as My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park and Iron Maiden.[6] The inclusion of My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park as headlining acts has been met with heavy criticism by many users on the official download forums.[citation needed]
Blabbermouth reported rumours that the 2007 line-up would also include Mötley Crüe, Slayer, Megadeth, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy, Wolfmother and Marilyn Manson. [7]
References
- ^ Chris Harris (12 June, 2006). "Korn's Jonathan Davis Hospitalized With Blood Ailment; Tour Canceled". MTV News. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Axl Rose trips up at Download". Virtual Festivals. 12 June, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Twelve held after rock festival". BBC News. 12 June, 2006. Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Stuart Galbraith (13 June, 2006). "Message from Stuart Galbraith, Festival Director". Retrieved 2007-01-27.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "DOWNLOAD 2007". Retrieved 2007-01-27.
- ^ "Storming line up for the 5th year of the UKs best rock festival". DownloadFestival.com. 30 January, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "IRON MAIDEN, LINKIN PARK Confirmed For U.K.'s DOWNLOAD Festival". Blabbermouth. 30 January, 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-30.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
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