Phew.
I just got back from a truly awesome 5 days at the Download Festival in Donington, and I'm fucking knackered.
1st day: Bus down. Took a little over 6 hours. Faffed around finding a camping spot (they had to eventually open a new site for us), set up tent, started drinking. Lots of Jager, lots of Kopparberg. Went shopping, found poi for Furby, found new set of juggling torches for myself. Got straw cowboy hat, got new pair of chrome mirrored Aviators. Matt is happy. Went back to tent, spun poi, juggled, drew crowd. Drank more, fell asleep.
Day 2: Woke up, screamed at pain in back from lying on solid mud tracks all night. Attacked useless, useless rollmat, and went to buy airbed for tent. Got a double, as Yaz would be arriving that day. Juggled a bit more, drank a jagerbomb to get self going, Yaz arrived, saw first bands. Soil were ok, Strapping Young Lad RULED and Tool just blew my mind. Went back to tent, drank more, fell asleep.
Day 3: Saturday was Jagerbomb Saturday. Nothing much on that we wanted to see, so we got drunk, and saw Alice in Chains and Stone Sour. Stone Sour were good, Alice In Chains were EVERYTHING that I'd hoped for. They were awesome. Then more drinking, then Metallica. They were a lot more entertaining than I thought they'd be. Played the entirety of "Master Of Puppets". The whole album. Got stratospherically drunk, passesd out in tent. I'm pretty sure it was mine...
Day 4: Woke up, went to see Dragonforce. They rocked, but the sound was bollocks from where I was sitting. Sang along. It was fun. Then headed over to the Snickers Bowl to watch the "Best Trick" comp, and Bucky Fucking Lasek was there!!! That was cool. Then after an hour of insane skating (halfcab indy over the bowl elbow, fs 540 Rodeo flip w/ varial, nollieflip onto tailslide on bowl extension, layback smith on the coping and a 720 tailgrab!!!) Viking Skull came on and rocked the fucking place. That was just awesome. Arsed around for a while longer, then saw Lordi on the gibson stage (spec-fucking-tacular) and caught Guns 'n' Roses (who came on early!!! What the fuck?!!!). Axl was a dick. Sebastien Bach (from Skid Row) made a guest appearance during their set, which was great.
(Axl Rose: "Sebastien Bach, ladies and gentlemen!" Big cheer.
Seb Bach: "Guns 'n' Roses, everybody!!!" Smaller cheer. Hehehe.)
I totally love G 'n' R, but it just wasn't Guns 'n' Fucking Roses. It was the Axl Rose Kareoke experience.
Goit back to the campsite, started on the drink again. Heard a chant go up from a few miles away, figured it was a riot due to Guns 'n' Roses. 5 mins later, it turned out to be a "Say No To Emo" rally/protest march with a flag and everything. So we chucked all our shit into the tents, grabbed our booze, and ran off screaming "Say No To Emo" over and over again for about 2 miles, on a march spanning the Village and 4 campsites. It was eventually put to a halt by the officials after we got about halfway through the Gold campsite. Bloody spoilsports.
Then there was a poi/juggling/fire/diabolo/spinning party on the football field after all the spinners and jugglers hijacked it. Spun til morning, went back and finished the jager. End of weekend. Unless you count the bus journey up, which included the reversal of the bus halfway back up a motorway sliproad, and running a red light 15 seconds later. Rock 'n' Roll.
Images of this awesome weekend will be posted as soon as I get them.
I just got back from a truly awesome 5 days at the Download Festival in Donington, and I'm fucking knackered.
1st day: Bus down. Took a little over 6 hours. Faffed around finding a camping spot (they had to eventually open a new site for us), set up tent, started drinking. Lots of Jager, lots of Kopparberg. Went shopping, found poi for Furby, found new set of juggling torches for myself. Got straw cowboy hat, got new pair of chrome mirrored Aviators. Matt is happy. Went back to tent, spun poi, juggled, drew crowd. Drank more, fell asleep.
Day 2: Woke up, screamed at pain in back from lying on solid mud tracks all night. Attacked useless, useless rollmat, and went to buy airbed for tent. Got a double, as Yaz would be arriving that day. Juggled a bit more, drank a jagerbomb to get self going, Yaz arrived, saw first bands. Soil were ok, Strapping Young Lad RULED and Tool just blew my mind. Went back to tent, drank more, fell asleep.
Day 3: Saturday was Jagerbomb Saturday. Nothing much on that we wanted to see, so we got drunk, and saw Alice in Chains and Stone Sour. Stone Sour were good, Alice In Chains were EVERYTHING that I'd hoped for. They were awesome. Then more drinking, then Metallica. They were a lot more entertaining than I thought they'd be. Played the entirety of "Master Of Puppets". The whole album. Got stratospherically drunk, passesd out in tent. I'm pretty sure it was mine...
Day 4: Woke up, went to see Dragonforce. They rocked, but the sound was bollocks from where I was sitting. Sang along. It was fun. Then headed over to the Snickers Bowl to watch the "Best Trick" comp, and Bucky Fucking Lasek was there!!! That was cool. Then after an hour of insane skating (halfcab indy over the bowl elbow, fs 540 Rodeo flip w/ varial, nollieflip onto tailslide on bowl extension, layback smith on the coping and a 720 tailgrab!!!) Viking Skull came on and rocked the fucking place. That was just awesome. Arsed around for a while longer, then saw Lordi on the gibson stage (spec-fucking-tacular) and caught Guns 'n' Roses (who came on early!!! What the fuck?!!!). Axl was a dick. Sebastien Bach (from Skid Row) made a guest appearance during their set, which was great.
(Axl Rose: "Sebastien Bach, ladies and gentlemen!" Big cheer.
Seb Bach: "Guns 'n' Roses, everybody!!!" Smaller cheer. Hehehe.)
I totally love G 'n' R, but it just wasn't Guns 'n' Fucking Roses. It was the Axl Rose Kareoke experience.
Goit back to the campsite, started on the drink again. Heard a chant go up from a few miles away, figured it was a riot due to Guns 'n' Roses. 5 mins later, it turned out to be a "Say No To Emo" rally/protest march with a flag and everything. So we chucked all our shit into the tents, grabbed our booze, and ran off screaming "Say No To Emo" over and over again for about 2 miles, on a march spanning the Village and 4 campsites. It was eventually put to a halt by the officials after we got about halfway through the Gold campsite. Bloody spoilsports.
Then there was a poi/juggling/fire/diabolo/spinning party on the football field after all the spinners and jugglers hijacked it. Spun til morning, went back and finished the jager. End of weekend. Unless you count the bus journey up, which included the reversal of the bus halfway back up a motorway sliproad, and running a red light 15 seconds later. Rock 'n' Roll.
Images of this awesome weekend will be posted as soon as I get them.