Download Diary 2019

Here’s what happened at my first time at Download Festival-

Or as we’re calling it Brownload.

‘Cause you may have heard it was a little muddy…

Tuesday 11th June ’19

We set off after I finished work at about 11:00 am, deciding to stay overnight in Dumfries to break up the long journey a little bit.

127 High St, Dumfries DG1 2QT

We arrived at around lunch time and saw my boyfriend’s friends and family- as this is where they stay- before getting a bite to eat at a place called Bob and Bert’s.

They do an awesome Vegan Hotdog with curry sauce.

Wednesday 12th June ’19

We left Dumfries just after 8:00am and had a cooked breakfast at a service stop somewhere in between.

On the way, we listened and sang along to our Download playlist.

As we began to see the signs for the festival my excitement and nerves grew.

I think it suddenly hit me that I was finally going to the festival I’d dreamt of and heard about for six years.

We arrived at Donington again around lunch time. It was still raining at this point and the ground was already pretty muddy.

We unloaded the van and began the trek to the campsite, hiring a barrow to save our backs. (£20 for four hours + £40 deposit)

Next year we plan to bring our own set of wheels because it was a huge help!

We pitched the tent and had a beer (or beers) and sat in the tent while it continued to rain and get muddier and muddier. ↓

this was only day one…

We actually ended up moving the tent over to get away from the mud bath and people walking past.

Next year we also plan to camp somewhere not so steep! ‘Cause constantly sliding down the tent during the night isn’t fun.

For dinner, we went to the Meatless Co. van and tried to Bacon Cheese Burger with cheesy fries (cause, you know, I like cheese.) It was really good and we ended up going to this food van quite a lot.

We checked out the Village, went to the Dog house, picked up our shower passes and had another early night to recover from the long drive down.

Thursday 13th June ’19

The day started with a splash of rum in our coffee.

And it was all downhill from there.

There’s not much to say about Thursday, other than we sat under our umbrella that we taped to our camping chairs and had ~~a lot of~~ a drink.

Tip: Jack Daniels and Ginger Beer work really well together, but I don’t recommend the Honey JD with it.

Friday 14th June ’19

Today the Arena opened and the bands started playing, so after breakfast and a coffee we headed in to see the stalls and catch Icon For Hire at 2:50pm.

We found a lost Motorhead jacket patch on the floor on the way, which spurred me to buy some more for my denim jacket.

Icon For Hire were on the Avalanche stage and I was really looking forward to seeing them live after supporting them for so long!

However, their set was cut short to only three songs due to technical problems.

But the songs they did get to play were as awesome as I thought they would be.

Slash

The other bands playing on Friday that we saw where Delain, Clutch, Whitesnake, Slash and, of course, headliners Def Leppard!

Whitesnake

Whitesnake and Def Leppard were a highlight for me and I can’t describe what it was like seeing them not only live for the first time, but at the legendary Download Festival.

There was a moment when Def Leppard started playing ‘Hysteria’ and I looked up and saw the Download name above the mainstage, and I realised where I was, who I was seeing, who I was with… it was everything.

We got some Vegan Sushi from Happy Maki in between bands and a slice of cake from Kitty’s Cake Emporium.

Both were delish!

Saturday 15th June ’19

We started the Saturday off with a shower- which was absolutely worth paying for, even if the queue was quite long.

We had a Chinese from Hot Wok and went through to the arena for 5pm to see Trivium– who I’m a huge fan of and had been most excited to see!

Trivium

I might be a little biased but they were brilliant and I can’t wait to see them again!

Next, we saw Halestorm– I now worship Lzzy Hale even more.

Halestorm

And finally, the second headliners, Slipknot, who absolutely killed it!

Slipknot

Sunday 16th June ’19

On Sunday, we went through the arena early to catch Like A Storm at 11am.

Like A Storm

Then we went up to the van to boil some water to make our coffee and a noodle pot instead of buying- this we plan to do every day next year to save more money.

We then saw Palaye Royale, -who were a lot of fun- Dream Theatre and Smashing Pumpkins.