Jake Longhurst joins Download to celebrate their 20th Anniversary weekend, As the spiritual home of all things rock and metal in the UK, Castle Donington and the surrounding area has a long history of amazing live music events and Download Festival 2023 was no exception.
Ahhh, Download. You are the festival equivalent of a nice warm blanket, or a hug from mum. Returning to Donington feels just like going home, except that home is inexplicably full of dust, possibly covered in mud, and has nine angry men shouting at me to put my fingers in my eyes. Which frankly is an improvement on the usual decor.
Thursday at Download’s 20th anniversary weekend was an interesting day for me, as I started it in an exam room for my final marks of the year. Then, after a two hour journey (not too bad by the years standards) myself and the team arrived at the hallowed festival grounds of Donington Park. After a quick tent putting-up we managed to make it into the main arena, and saw the end of Puscifer followed by the band who make Download into DOWNLOAD, the wonderful Skindred! They are literally the perfect band for Download and frankly if they weren’t there I wouldn’t be either (I am only half joking, it’s not Download without them). Afterwards, we meandered to the top of the main field to watch Metallica and also get really really cold. They were great, although somewhat underwhelming, which I feel was a combination of their age, their reliance on the crowd adoring them too much to care if they’re genuinely great or just good, and the cold. After half of the set, we ended up heading back to the tents to try and warm up before we went to bed.
Friday came around with a lovely bright sunny start to the day, and we got set up for a bit of press. After all that was done I wandered towards the Dogtooth stage to treat myself to the exquisite one-two punch of Witch Fever and Pupil Slicer. Tragically I did have to miss Undeath immediately afterwards as interviews needed doing, but I am sure they were also brilliant. The day was full of brilliant bands that I was very sad to miss, including Crawlers, Elvana, Ingested, Brutus, Empire State Bastard and Carpenter Brut, but press calls
Nonetheless, I did manage to fit in some brilliant acts on the main stage, catching a good amount of Pendulum’s set, and then getting right into the front for Architects and Bring Me The Horizon, who gave out one of the best headline sets Download has seen in a long time.
Starting with their brand new single ‘AmEN’ was a bold move that paid massive dividends, and the rest of the set being filled with some of the best music of their career (although sadly missing everything pre-Sempiternal) cemented their status as headliners for the future.
Metallica day 2.0 came rolling around complete with some of the most imposing heat I’ve felt in a long long time, and so during the middle of the day myself and many others wilted away a little, so for all the bands I missed again I’m very sorry and I will see you all the next time you’re here I promise. That said, Monuments into Creeper into Metallica was a really great end to the day, as the first two were on brilliant form, and Metallica definitely upped the ante a bit so felt like they were actually trying to compete a little bit with BMTH rather than sitting back and being completely eaten alive. A setlist chock full of amazing music always helps, and finishing my time in the arena with Enter Sandman was great fun. However, all was not finished as Bob Vylan played surely the best set of the day in the village after the arena had closed, with the plug eventually being pulled as they got the crowd screaming along with them. They were a force to be reckoned with, and I feel safe to say that their tour this Autumn will be a beautiful piece of chaos.
Download’s last day is always a slightly bittersweet one, as you know it’s coming to an end, but you also know that you’ve still got a few more hours of brilliance, and next years event will surely still be a great weekend. That said, this years was better than most because Iowa had sent a visiting party. The main stage ended up being a ridiculous set of acts one after the other, with Bloodywood followed by Lorna Shore followed by The Hu followed by Behemoth being one of the best four in a row at the whole festival! But naturally, it could only ever be Slipknot who took the crown on Sunday, delivering an almighty performance in spite of losing a band member and having another nearly miss the show. They were exactly what we wanted, and needed, to finish the weekend in emphatic style. ‘Eyeless’ was a personal highlight, but ‘Duality’ was surely the singalong of the whole festival, and as the masked nine piece walked offstage a beautiful sense of happiness spread across the crowd. Download was done for the year, but that did mean the next Download was four whole days closer.
See you next year DL.
Jake Longhurst
Edited by Olivia Hannant, Photo Courtesy of Lindsay Smith
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