Critiques

Guest writer Joe went to this year's Download Festival and gave us poor folk who couldn't make it the lowdown. Check out what he thought here! http://www.twobeatsoff.co.uk/?p=390

Fri 10 Jun – Download Festival 2011

With the dust settling on another of Live Nation's premier rock festivals, it can mean it's time for one thing – the obligatory review!

Aside from some shocking weather on the Sunday, this year was much better than last year. Musically I think it was stronger too and, for me, this was probably my favourite overall Download.

Wednesday

Instead of just getting wasted in our tents this year, we decided to see what entertainment was on in the village and stumbled across the comedian tent. We walked in halfway through Paul Pirie's set, and stayed to see Phil Nichol, Bob Slayer and Jason Rouse. All of them were entertaning in their own ways. I think Nichol was the stand out performer for me.

Thursday

There's been an on-and-off tradition at Download that members of their message board have a small influence on acts booked for the Thursday night. This year, the booked four quite varied bands that were given around 30 minutes each. This was then followed by a club night in the same tent.
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Fri 10 Jun – Download Festival 2011

After leaving at about 08:45 on Wednesday, I got to the site at about 11:30. After queuing for a few hours to get in, I ended up setting up the blue campsite. Spent the afternoon getting the rest of my stuff from the car and laying around, before heading out in the evening with a few drinks for a wander. Ended up getting through a litre of vodka and hanging out with different groups of random strangers all night - it was a decent night, although I lost my hoody at some point.

Didn't get to sleep until about 05:00 though, and was woken by the oven-like heat in my tent at 08:00. Felt terrible all morning. Went out to see some friends in the afternoon (they're at uni about half an hour away from the festival site), which I really wasn't up for at the time because I was so tired, but since I'd bailed on them a few times before I felt I ought to go this time. Not like I had anything better to do anyway. …