Download Festival


Ah, thinking back on Download Festival 2011 makes me a little bit sad, I miss it!
It was my first festival, and as you can guess I was so incredibly nervous, but also insanely excited; I was seeing the majority of my favourite bands, in one weekend!

I have been wanting to write this for a while, but I could never be bothered getting around to it, but here I am typing away and re-living the best weekend of my life so far.

But, not everything goes perfect. The weekend did come with a few hiccups!

==Purchasing my ticket==

I chose the 5 day camping plus coach ticket, it cost me £235. Expensive, I know but to me, it was worth it. Purchasing the ticket was quick and simple and it didn't take all to long for it to arrive either.
You book them through live nation, which is a company I always book my tickets through since I find them reliable and trust worthy, they are yet to disappoint me! *touch wood they never will*

==Pre festival jitters==

So I'm packing for Download...and I'm starting to panic; it's a big place. What if I don't find my friend? What if something goes wrong or they don't accept my ticket? (If that would have happened, I would have been in floods of tears) However, I remained calm, got my packing done and tried to take my mind off it... the excitement never let me do that though.


==What did I take with me?==

-bread
-nutella
-Hotdogs
-water
-tin can opener
-juice
-crisps
-pot noodles
-dry shampoo
-toothbrush
-toothpaste
-makeup
-sleeping bag
-6 hoodies
-baby wipes
...Unusual list isn't it? I survived off the food...just about (you will understand what I mean about that soon) and the dry shampoo was a great idea, since I hate my hair getting greasy. What? It was 5 days without a shower; I needed to at least keep my hair looking good!

==The coach==

The coach was actually a nightmare. It said it would reach destination point at 1:15pm (I think) but didn't arrive til about 4pm! Not only that, it stood in Chester for what must have been a good 40 minutes. My patience grew ever shorter. But then I got chatting with the girl next to me and two guys behind me, and the journey went rather quickly after that. I do think they should put on at least 3 coaches for the day though, because it was horrendous! I have never been so cramped in my life, plus people had to have a lot of luggage on their laps.

==Getting there!==

As we all piled off the coach, I started to feel sick with nerves so I grabbed my case and had to sit down and have some water before I could follow on to get to the gates, the girl that sat next to me on the coach was kind enough to wait with me and make sure I was okay.
So I reached the gates and handed in my ticket, they did a luggage check and put the wristband on me. That was it for me, the wristband, excitement took over the nerves and knocked me sick again so I had to go to the side and sit down before I passed out or threw up. Once I was...relatively calm again I was allowed to carry on and search for my friend. We were in Green Camp!

==The Atmosphere==

If you want to go somewhere, where everyone is friendly and all up for a laugh, a festival is your place to go. I had never been as happy as I had been whilst there. It is a great place to make new friends, I certainly did and the friends I made there are rather special to me now. It's great fun, but remember, you still have to be careful.

==The Village==

The village is a field with shops, rides, burger bars e.c.t on it and the place you go after a day at the arena or even before. At night time, the village is a great place to be, to bounce off all that adrenaline you still have coursing through you before you go back to your tent to unwind for a few hours and try to get a kip.
You don't sleep at a festival, since there is always too much noise, but you can close your eyes and relax before another crazy day begins.

==The Arena==

The arena is where you go to see the bands; there are multiple tents and stages. Not only that, you have rides there too, just like the village. I mostly stayed at Main stage, the only other stages I went to were 2nd stage for Korn and Pendulum and Pepsi Max for Asking Alexandria.
Here you also have the signing tent, where bands do a meet and greet and sign a postcard for you. I never got chance to meet any band though =[...I joke! I actually got to go back stage to meet Black Stone Cherry, by far, that beats the signing tent, no table to ruin the hugs. The band also put on one of the best sets of the weekend!

On Saturday, it was a good day, up until Down came on the stage, at this point I had seen 3 out of the 5 bands I wanted to see at that stage. 2 of which were the last 2 bands.
I felt a pop in my side and had to get pulled out of the crowd (I was at the front too!) I was taken to the medical tent, where they examined me and checked me over. Now here is the funny thing. Whilst I was screaming in pain, Synyster Gates of Avenged Sevenfold (one of my favourite bands, and the band I was desperate to see) walked past, obviously he heard me and popped his head in. He asked what the noise was about and laughed as I just screamed, more of pain than a typical fan girl moment, I was in shock. He spoke to me for a while and was really nice to me and hoped I got better before I was driven off to another medical tent.

My sugar levels went down to 2.3, danger zone, apparently. So they gave me sugar and pain killers and sent me on my way. I made it back down to main stage and fairly close to the front for Avenged Sevenfold, where I cried my eyes out.
I never managed to see System of a Down, since I needed to go get my phone and was in incredible amounts of pain.

Sunday was wet and muddy and I saw one band: Bullet for My Valentine. After that I got left in the middle of a field, caked in mud by one of my 'friends'. Naturally I panicked and called my Dad, who came to my rescue and a few guys were nice enough to sit with me while I waited and even gave me a jacket to keep warm since everything I had was soaked.

So I went home early, missed Linkin Park and Rob Zombie but I still had one hell of a weekend. And I would do it all again, minus the horrible friends and low blood sugars and this time I would water proof myself.
I had work the next day, which was fun because I still managed to get sunburnt, I had a cold sore and no voice at all, so the managers were not impressed with me. But I was still on a high, despite the crap moments, it was worth the money.

Also posted on ciao under rockchick2k7 ©