This post is a continuation of Part 1. While Part 1 covered the preparation and journey to Download Festival, this part is about the shows I watched at the world’s biggest heavy metal festival.
Day One: The Shows
I’d barely gotten my bearings in the arena when the Main Stage came to life. The first band up was Rise to Remain. I’d seen them before when they opened for Iron Maiden at GWK Bali a few years earlier, and their music wasn’t really my thing — but the sheer spectacle of the Main Stage stopped me in my tracks. I stood there watching, genuinely gobsmacked, thinking: THIS IS DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL. IT’S STARTED.
After a few songs, Vicky and I had seen enough and walked in the opposite direction to queue at the Trooper tent — Iron Maiden’s official beer. That queue turned out to be one of the longest at the entire festival, from day one through day three. Worth it.
As evening approached, we had a split-second decision: Converge were playing the Third Stage at the same time as the next Main Stage act. The two stages were about 800 metres apart. We chose Converge. I watched from outside the tent so I could smoke. It was around 8 pm but the sky was still completely bright — perfect for a summer festival. Long summer days in England are something else.
We headed back to the tent to eat and rest before the night’s headliners: HIM on the Pepsi Max Stage and Slipknot on the Main Stage. The plan was to catch Slipknot’s intro first — their intros are always spectacular based on every live video I’d seen — then slip over to watch HIM.
The plan fell apart immediately. Walking back toward the arena, I could already hear HIM’s “All Lips Go Blue” echoing from the Pepsi Max Stage. They’d already started. I made a snap decision and ran for HIM. I ended up watching them for the rest of their set. No regrets — Ville Valo in full form is something you don’t walk away from.
Day Two: Shopping and Mastodon
Day two felt like a gallery — specifically a giant Iron Maiden t-shirt gallery. Name any Iron Maiden shirt design and someone in that crowd was wearing it.
For us, this was the shopping day. After the arena opened at noon, we spent the first few hours browsing for merchandise. We stumbled across a skate shop right across from the Jägermeister Stage — Emerica, Etnies, Enjoi and more, all on sale. After picking up a few t-shirts and a thick hoodie (finding a hoodie warm enough was genuinely joyful), we rushed over to the Main Stage for Mastodon.
It was half past two and the weather was decent. Mastodon’s performance was interesting sonically — the sound production was excellent — but visually, the main entertainment was watching them swap guitars almost every single song. And every guitar was beautiful.
After about 50 minutes in the crowd, we drifted back to the tent, recharged, and returned in the evening for the night’s headliner: Iron Maiden on the Main Stage. I’d seen Iron Maiden before in Bali, but seeing them at Donington Park, the spiritual home of heavy metal, was on another level entirely.
The setlist covered the full arc of their catalogue: “Phantom of the Opera,” “Run to the Hills,” “Wasted Years,” “Seventh Son of a Seventh Son,” “Fear of the Dark.” Then the encore — opened by a Winston Churchill speech over the PA — before launching into “Aces High” and “The Evil That Men Do.”
Near the end of the set, the cold started to bite. I remembered where the nearest toilets were — either by the Zippo Stage or the Jägermeister Stage — but heading there meant fighting through the crowd dispersing after the show, and tonight felt busier than Friday. I decided to head straight back to camp. Walking uphill through tens of thousands of people leaving the Main Stage, I somehow felt completely calm and happy. That’s what Download does to you.
Day Three: Last Day, No Easy Exit
The original plan for day three had been to head back to London — Burgerkill had the Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards on the Monday, and we didn’t want to arrive exhausted. We looked into trains and buses but the prices were brutal. In the end we just let it go. Enjoy the last day. See more bands.
After packing up the tent and loading Dom’s car, I mapped out my day: Coal Chamber, Stone Sour and Rammstein on the Main Stage; Ghost and Limp Bizkit on the Second Stage; Vision of Disorder and Newsted on the Third Stage.
Ghost were one of the highlights of the whole festival for me — theatrical, precise, and oddly hypnotic. Watching Papa Emeritus lead the band through their ritual felt genuinely strange and magnificent.
Then came the moment everyone at the festival was talking about. Limp Bizkit were mid-set on the Second Stage when Rammstein started up on the Main Stage. I watched it happen in real time: thousands of people simply got up and walked toward the Main Stage. A mass migration. Fred Durst looked out at the thinning crowd and said, “Thank you for sticking around with us!” Wes Borland leaned into the mic and said, “I’m going to watch Rammstein, BYE!” pretending to walk off stage. Strange moment for Limp Bizkit fans. Magical for everyone else.
I wasn’t a big Rammstein listener going in. I figured I’d watch a few songs and see what the fuss was about. After walking around the bend in the arena that blocked the Main Stage from view, I stopped. What I saw — the scale of the production, the fire, the sheer physicality of the performance — gave me chills. That’s Download Festival. You come in expecting one thing and leave converted.
Three days, three stages, too many bands, not enough sleep, cold nights and long bright days. Download 2013. I want to go back.