Download Festival 2009
Features editor Lily Canter reviews the music and atmosphere of the UK's biggest rock festival held at Donington Park.
Guilty pleasures were the theme of the weekend at Download festival, which saw the return of many an old rocker.
The Donington Park event, which attracted 80,000 people a day, saw a barrage of 1980s bands including Def Leppard, Whitesnake and ZZ Top.
Thrown into the mix were metal favourites Faith No More (who sang too many ballads), Marilyn Manson (who stropped around on stage but was still dull), Korn (evoked mosh pit mayhem) and Slipknot (festival regulars who didn't disappoint fans).
Despite the glorious sunshine the crowd was awash with a sea of black with the obligatory black t-shirts, skinny jeans and swathes of eyeliner.
Never have I seen so many women in full makeup with perfectly coiffed hair, emerging from their tents in their complete metal/goth/emo glory.
And unlike the sometimes drunken/druggy atmosphere of indie and dance festivals the atmosphere was totally relaxed, friendly and bordering on civilised. (Outside of the mosh pits anyway).
The general rule of rock is the more scary someone looks, the more sweet and sensitive they are likely to be. (The clich being that the war paint, long hair and dark clothing often hide an inner insecurity).
Waking up the sun-kissed crowds on Saturday afternoon were fantastic rock/electric/drum and bass act Pendulum. They were perhaps an unusual choice for the main stage and although received a warm welcome I couldn't help noticing that the audience didn't quite know how to react or what to do with themselves. There was an air of 'I rather like this non-rock music but how should I dance to it? Where shall I put my arms? Where's the mosh pit?'
Nethertheless as a Pendulum fan I was happy to bob up and down, although strangely enough would have 'gone for it' more dance-wise if I had been in a club. Raving at a rock festival just isn't the done thing.
However more in-tune with the rock theme were a selections of hundreds of small local bands in the Tuborg and Bedroom Jam tents, plus the chance to play Guitar Hero video game, a karaoke tent where punters could scream some Slipknot and a cinema tent showing classic rockumentary This Is Spinal Tap.
Ultimately the highlight of the three day weekend for me were the flawless, energetic performance of The Prodigy on the second stage which to my amusement evoked cries of "I love you Keith" from the wailing fans without even a hint of irony – it was almost reminiscent of a Take That concert.
However the prize for best surprise of the festival had to go Limp Bizkit, who rocked Donington with their tongue twisting rap lyrics and an explosive finale of Rollin' which had everyone waving their hands in the air. Even their cheesy theme tune to the movie Mission Impossible went down a storm.
In a classic move, lead singer Fred Durst dragged up two crowd members onto the stage, having spotted them mouthing the precise words to each of his songs. The pair leapt about on stage like idiots, sang segments on their own and almost put Fred out of a job such was their top class, word perfect performance.
Talking to campers in the field afterwards it was clear that full-on rockers loved the somewhat mainstream Limp Bizkit that night, even though they felt a bit guilty admitting it – like I said, those guilty pleasures…
Download facts:
-In 2007 the festival won the agreenerfestival.com award for improving environmental performance and last year achieved the Greener Festival award. This year there were recycling systems in place for cardboard, plastic, paper and cans, plus all vendors used biodegradable packing and beer cups were recycled.
-Faith No More formed especially for Download this year after being unable to get the band together in time to perform in 2008.
-It has only ever rained once at Download, which was in 2003 when the band Zwan was playing.
-Slipknot has stepped into help out other bands on more than one occasion when their members haven't turned up. Joey Jordison played drums for Metallica in 2004 and Corey Taylor sang for Korn in 2007 when their singer Jonathan Davis was hospitalised.
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