by Ian Carroll
When I look back from the moshpit at just how many people are here for a genre that is considered an outsider, I feel pride at what we as a community achieve each year by attending and being part of an event on this scale.
To sum up what Donington has become for me, it’s a place of escapism, of relaxation and of friendship; it defines the ‘Spirit of Metal’ to me.
In the past, I have came down to the East Midlands out of “festival time" for a couple of gigs, and I have made the trip on the journey to the airport to where the festival is, to have lunch and a beer in one of the local pubs, to visit the festival site, and see it during "down time" and even then, you feel that this is indeed a special place.
A cold December morning and a mild October afternoon I’ve spent in the village, a quiet place that becomes home to 80,000 like minded, friendly people for just one short week a year.
To me, Download is my home away from home, and long may it continue to be the ‘Ground Zero of Metal’ worldwide.”
Kevin Kerr (Glasgow)
“I can remember driving down the M1 being really excited about going to this new rock festival at Donington Park when on the way a friend of mine called and said there's rumour on the internet that "Metallica" would be playing a secret set on the second stage on Sunday afternoon.
At first me and my mate Nathan were like "no way that’s a load of bullshite", but as the weekend carried on we kept hearing the same rumour and eventually we decided to miss a load of great bands early Sunday to get to the front barrier of the second stage in anticipation...
Then I can remember it like it was yesterday, it was mid afternoon and "Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster" had just finished their set, their roadies were removing the gear and one accidentally caught the backdrop curtain which in turn exposed the corner of a wall of guitar amps with the Metallica "M" logo on them.
I couldn’t believe it the rumours were true and I was smack bang in the middle, at the front holding on to the barrier...
Soon after the intro to "Blackened" kicked in and I witnessed the greatest gig of my life.
At the end of the set I managed to get one of James Hetfields guitar picks which proudly hangs on my wall with a picture I had taken during the show.
Its was my first time seeing them live and no matter how many times I’ve seen them since the "Download Festival 2003" gig will always be the very best. Thank you DONINGTON!!!
Ash Winter (Shirebrook)
“Back in 2003 I remember setting on a bus reading Kerrang! and noticed a festival, "Download Festival", noticed the date, it was that day, well the camp site was opening
Realising I had some cash saved for something or another, I decided sod it and when I got off the bus I ran to Rock City(Nottingham) as it was listed as an outlet. Bought my ticket there, as a trial as it was my 1st ever festival I didn't get camping as it was too close to the date so they weren’t selling them at Rock City and I had the best weekend of my life.
At the end of it I made promise to myself "I will come to this festival every year until it dies or I die which ever came 1st".
As in my promise I have been every year without fail. The minute the dates get announced every year I book the time off work. Now I camp which can only be described as fucking mayhem you see the funniest/random/scariest things you will only ever see at Donington I love the festival so much I don't even go for the bands anymore; I go for the atmosphere and the people, the bands are just a bonus!
Over the years I’ve made so many long term friends at Download/Downloads online message board; if it wasn't for this amazing festival I wouldn't know 70% of my close friends.
Over the years the festival has improved and it never fails to impress me and I will continue my loyal ness and be attending every year.
One last thing; thank you for taking over my life 7 years ago Download you give something to look forward to every year!!!”
Adam Walker (Nottingham)
2004
Linkin Park,
Metallica
Returning again in 2004, as a two day festival, with another stellar line-up and two solid headliners in the shape of Linkin Park and Metallica, Download was already now synonymous with Donington.
Metallica were making their 2nd headline appearance at Donington Park, they would be back again in 2006 for a hat-trick and Linkin Park would be back in 2007 for their 2nd headline slot.
The most controversial occurrence of the festival was the non appearance of Metallica's drummer Lars Ulrich who had suffered a panic attack on the plane on the way to Donington and had been hospitalised in a Berlin hospital; the drum stool duties were covered by Slayer's Dave Lombardo, Slipknot's Joey Jordison and Metallica's drum tech, who all saved the headline performance from the brink of disaster.
Elsewhere on the mainstage Sum 41 and Korn (returning to Donington after 8 years) filled the special guest slots and Slayer and Machine Head also made their return to the hallowed grounds of Donington Park. Sadly Damageplan made their only Download appearance, with their career cut short on December 8th of the same year by the murder of their guitarist (ex-Pantera guitarist) Dimebag Darryl Abbott.
The second stage featured headline turns from Pennywise and HIM; HIM would return in 2005 on the mainstage and
returning again to headline the second stage in 2008. The ever entertaining Bowling For Soup made their first Donington appearance on the same stage playing as 'special guests' on the Sunday.
This year saw the addition of a third stage which featured a majority of bands who have never come back to Donington or have split up since; this stage did however feature performances from the ‘new’ Bullet For My Valentine and The Black Dahlia Murder.
This year also saw a 'mini Download' in Scotland on Glasgow Green, which featured a selection of 8 bands from the Download line-up plus the addition of Lostprophets; the festival was still headlined by Metallica and Linkin Park.
So Download was now establishing itself as a major player in the festival market and would return the following year bigger and better than ever.
“M.I.A.
Things got a little ‘nutty’ on that airplane, so I ended up spending our headlining Download appearance in a hospital bed in Hamburg, Germany. I believe that everybody else stepped up and Lombardo, my drum tech and Joey Jordison all saved the day.
It was so weird just lying in this hospital bed with wires and stuff like that, hooked up to a machine. I spoke to James and said ‘listen I’m fine, there’s nothing wrong, I had a bit of a panic attack; I’m going to get out of this hospital and come over and I will make it’ and he said ‘you fucking stay there, get some rest and chill out’.
It was the only show I have missed. I was just so bizarre laying in a hospital bed in Germany and it was on the ground floor. I was actually thinking, at one point when I was lying there, of just jumping out of the window and taking off and hitchhiking down the airport and stealing a plane; Donington or bust!
I have never seen any of the footage or heard any of it because the whole thing obviously left a very surreal taste in my mouth; apart from the fact that it’s something I try and compartmentalise as much as possible, I heard that Dave and Joey saved the day and that it all worked out fine. So that day was a big reason to come back in ’06.”
Lars Ulrich (Metallica – Drums)
“The year we in Sum41 got to play Download was a very special show.
We were just fresh off a week of dodging bullets in Africa and someone told us we had to go play Donington.
I can still remember the camaraderie we had in our eyes before we went on
stage. One of those moments that you have everyday on tour, but this one stuck out in particular, due to our mental states at the time. Looking back it was hilarious as we were all shell shocked little guys going to play a loudass outdoor music festival.
If you've ever been shot at, playing music is one of the best releases especially in front of a crowd like that.
The whole day was fill
ed with good memories as Iggy was there and stopped in to say hello. I believe "Party Boy" from the "Jackass" series punched a member of Electric six through a window. We also had our room raided by the "Suicide Girls Burlesque Tour." Oddly enough all of them were skinny so we offered food and beer to fatten them up. It didn't work as they stayed skinny and talked more ‘schupidness raas’.
I love playing festivals as they are always like a one day, ‘day camp’ filled with some of your friends and favorite musicians. I got to say hello to a very influential set of people on my playing as well. But I missed Arch Enemy's set due to our set starting five minutes after theirs had.
All in all it was a huge mental victory to get back onstage after a very
enlightening trip to Africa. I'd like to thank all in attendance on our behalf for making some shell shocked Canadians feel welcome.”
Dave "Brownsound" Baksh (Sum 41 – Guitar)
“I played with Damageplan, it was awesome and there was a lot of love.”
Bob Zilla (Damageplan – Bass)
“The Download Festival to me is a pretty big deal, because I always knew about Donington and Monsters of Rock, growing up as a metal fan and a metal kid.
The first time that we were booked to play the Download Festival I didn’t realise that it was the same thing and that it was at Donington.
So our first experience of playing there was pretty amazing because I got to meet Tracii Guns and Nikki Sixx and all these guys that I had grown up listening to.
We played the side and weren’t really sure how it was going to go as we aren’t a metal band, so we were a little concerned as to how people were going to respond.
It was really good, but we were a little too drunk to play at our first experience of Download, actually a lot drunk.
We were pretty awful; Eric threw up on stage.”
Jaret Reddick (Bowling For Soup – Vocals/Guitar)
“The first time that we got to play Download, it was going to be the ‘big deal’ for us, as we were going to be playing with bands that we all loved, like Slayer.
I’m a ‘metal head’, so I was freaking out at the metal line up. It was Castle Donington, the Monsters Of Rock; it was one of the biggest rock festivals in the world and I had been reading about this thing in magazines since I was a kid, so it was a big deal.
I got way too loaded, all of us did and our show was ‘so terrible’, we played like shit, complete shit!
But, the beauty of it was that we were funny and we do have personality and that’s our saving grace. Apparently a band like us, in a metal festival, is comic relief, we’re the entertainers.
I tried to get someone from Kerrang! to get photos of me being punched in the face by someone from Slayer. I was really drunk and they are my favourite band and I just thought that it would be cool to get one of them to punch me in the face.”
Chris Burney (Bowling For Soup – Guitar)
“The first time played At Download, we were the next top last band on the second stage, and HIM played after us, so we were in-between Slayer and HIM.
Kerry King during his set uttered the words,
“I can’t believe that we’re opening for Bowling For Soup!”
It was great for us .He was taking the piss out of us, but we loved it, Kerry King said our name!
We showed up at about 10am and everyone started drinking, we weren’t on until 8pm!!!
We arrived on stage too drunk to play and it was awful, we walked onto the stage with our heads hanging, and in a miserable state. We all knew we had just blew a great opportunity. We got back to the States and the emails and reviews of the shows started coming in and everyone said ‘we had such a great time’, when you guys played ‘it was wonderful, it was so awesome’ and our review in Kerrang! gave us three K’s.
It was like ‘did you guys see the same show that we played?’ Because, we played absolutely awful!!! Even our manager at the side of the stage saw us come off and he had the ‘I know how you feel face’ as we all walked off with our tales between our legs. Then the response to it was absolutely amazing!!! Chris’ big deal the whole day, was that he wanted Kerry King to punch him in the face, ‘I want him to punch me in the face’. We met them after everyone had done playing and we were speaking to them and Chris was upset because he couldn’t get anyone else from Slayer to punch him in the face!
Erik Chandler (Bowling For Soup – Bass)
"We had gotten into town a day early and done a warm up show. We stayed up drinking after until seven in the morning, we're idiots!
We got to Download and we had press starting at 8:30am, so we were all still hung-over and smashed at the same time. We rolled out of bed, brushed our teeth and someone handed us a beer and we started drinking again. When we got there we did think 'what the hell are we doing in this mix'? It was like a peanut butter, jelly and prawn sandwich something doesn’t fit.
The bad news was we didn't play until 9pm, so we just continued drinking all day!
I don't think any of us remember being on stage, but there were photos of us on stage, so I'm sure that we were. But, when we got offstage we were blown away by this HUGE festival that we'd just played, but all kinda pissed off 'cause we knew that we'd sucked and probably had one of the worst shows we'd ever played.
We were really worried about how it went over, but we ended up getting really good press from it! The way they spun it was it's this heavy festival and everyone is pissed off and here come these 'drunk ass fat dudes from Texas' who'd rather tell jokes than play songs and they all got some comedic relief from it!
Our sound guy said that he didn't do anything with the sound after the first song because he couldn't make us sound any better, we just sucked.
We went and watched Slipknot from the pit and all the kids who were coming through were asking for our autographs, so we had to get out of there, because the security said we were going to cause a riot.
That night we were playing a dice game on the bus and Dimebag Darrell came by and played and then later we were in the parking lot playing folk songs with HIM.
Jared fell down and hurt his head, his wife wasn't too pleased about that!"
Gary Wiseman (Bowling For Soup - Drums)
“I remember mostly just getting there and us being the first on; seeing people funnel in from the gate. A friend of mine brought a digital camera with a time-lapse function and every 3 seconds it would take a shot of this funnel of people coming in, running. We were setting up and we went away for a bit, then we came back and there were about 30,000 people!
It’s always a little weird playing early in the day, but the experience is overwhelming to say the least. Obviously what we were doing was just going by so fast and evaporating, bands like Air sound great outside, bands like us sound like trash; so it ends up being like ‘high energy’ but ‘low accuracy’.
I remember watching Opeth after us and it was the same kind of thing ‘what is this band doing playing in the day?’ It just seems so weird.
We hung out that day and I got a haircut. Bed Head had a booth and my hair was a mess and they were offering anyone free haircuts, so I said ok and sat there and got a haircut. I remember hanging out and having a joint with the Opeth dudes.
I also remember taking a disgusting shower backstage.
There was also a big press area and I remember spending a lot of time there doing interviews.”
Liam Wilson (The Dillinger Escape Plan – Bass)
“I have some good things about Donington 2004.
That was the day I got to play 3 songs with Metallica in their backstage rehearsal room when Lars couldn't make it.”
Sal Abruscato (Life Of Agony – Drums)
“Donington Park rocks! The first time we were on the Barfly stage and we were an unsigned act; that was the scariest time.”
Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas (Bullet For My Valentine – Drums)
“Every time I have played Donington with the boys, it’s been amazing. We’ve had a really good tim
e and played with some really big bands there. It’s a gig that we always used to go to when we were younger and now it’s really cool to be able to pay that show.
The first year was the most exciting because we were getting to play ‘DONINGTON’!!”
Jason “Jay” James (Bullet For My Valentine – Bass)
“We came over as a very young band. It was the first year that we started touring in 2004 and we were still ‘cutting our teeth’; but Download was (and still is) the biggest and grandest scale gig that we have ever done.
We played on the small stage and we came with great expectations as this is THE most famous rock festival.”
Trevor Strnad (The Black Dahlia Murder – Vocals)
“Our very first Experience at Download was in 2004, I believe the headliners were Metallica on our day of the weekend.
I had my wife and best friend to share in the event with us as well. Growing up I knew of Donington and the legendary concerts that had preceded my first visit. It was everything I had thought it would be and more, from hanging out in the backstage village with all the bands to watching Slayer destroy the Snickers Stage.
I Have never been more anxious or nervous to play a show, the crowd was immense and the overall attitude of everyone there attending, playing, and working is just a really positive environment.
I think the highlight that year besides just playing and being a part of the line up was probably watching one of my all time favorite bands, Machine Head. Having toured with them a couple months earlier I could tell by the look on there faces that it was one of there greatest moments on stage. They absolutely owned it that day.
Metallica was also without Lars due to an illness I believe, so backstage you could hear a select group of drummers auditioning for certain songs to play with them in there set. Overall the first Download experience is something I will never forget.”