wilona

I made it guys!!


Download was immense.

Here be my tale.

The journey to my first ever festival began with a long ass car drive with a load of smelly boys.
The M1 was fucked so sadly we had to take a bitch of a route and didn't arrive until around 9pm on Thursday night, meaning we missed the SG meet, argh!
Next year guys.

Anyways, we ended up in white camp which was relatively quiet compared to the other camps.
I guess this was a good thing in the end.

I was really lazy and spent hours in the shisha tent in the morning, smoking my lungs into oblivion and drinking pot after pot of tea, listening to awesome chill out music.
It was pure bliss.
My best friend from primary school that I haven't seen for almost ten years was working in there, which was an added bonus.

My addiction to shisha meant that I did not see as many bands as I should have done because I was too chilled out to even move, let alone walk all the way to the arena.
But I made sure I made up for party time once I eventually got there!

On the first day, I saw Killswitch Engage live, and they made my heart melt.
I think it was clear from my incessant squealing and hopping about like a monkey that I was a little bit excited about seeing them.
I just wish I'd have been closer!



Then I saw Backyard Babies, and wet my knickers when I found I was standing in front of Dregen.
Possibly the most sexy man on earth.
He's like Jack Sparrow, only with a leather jacket and more coke.
I love him.



Anywho, later on I finally got to see Motley Crue, the whole reason I was at Download.
As great as it was seeing them, I couldn't help be disappointed - Vince Neil sounded like shit, Mick Mars played brillliantly but looked like he was about to drop any minute.... Okay, Tommy was awesome, and Nikki looked cool as always but... I really wish I'd seen them back in the day when they were young and good.
Because I didn't think much of their performance at Download.
-Sulk-

On Saturday I saw Fightstar live again (they didn't get bottled!!!) and this swarm of bees appeared out of nowhere by the second stage:



WAT.

We also had a couple of mini tornadoes rip through the campsite and throw a fair few tents and gazebos into the air.
It was epic.



Saturday night I saw Pendulum and The Prodigy, which is currently a painful blur of awesomeness.
I was 2 or 3 from the front for The Prodigy, and ended up half crowd-surfing, half getting pulled out during the 4th song because it was getting way too crazy in there.
There were people getting pulled out right, left and centre, thousands of people pushing forward whilst raving in fucking painful man, and I have a couple of tasty bruises on my left arm to prove it.
I watched the rest of the set from the side of the stage with a random topless dude who also got pulled out, and we raved it up.


Sunday was possibly the hottest day all weekend (and it was fucking roasting ALL weekend), and after seeing the legends that are Journey, I crawled half way back to camp, found a nice piece of shade and fell asleep in it.
Then my phone died
I saw Chris Cornell (swoon) and being 3rd from the front for Papa Roach in the evening, which was ultra win
When they played Last Resort, things got a bit crazy and 10 crowd surfers went over my head in the space of about a minute, kicking me in the head and the nose along the way.
So I thought, fuck this, and crowd surfed out.
Good set though.

Then my memory gets a bit hazy.

I remember buying a bar of chocolate and going back to blue camp to drink some beer.
The plan was to go back to the village to get food, get some cash out and charge my phone... And then shit started going down.
Massive crowds decending on the campsite, waving flags, chanting and setting fire to anything they could lay their hands on.
At first, it was kind of exciting, but it got really out of hand.
We had to move other people's tents and stuff because flames were either dangerously close or there were some dickheads with massive sticks beating the shit out of things nearby.
It was kinda like Harry Potter 4 when they all go to the Quidditch World Cup and things get a bit crazy.
Anyway, I ended up staying awake most of the night in blue camp trying to stay safe, instead of going to where I 'live' in white camp.
Due to having to borrow blankets and smokes off people all night, I was nicknamed Camp Hobo.
I certainly looked the part.

We had fun despite the craziness, and I managed to get some sleep once people had calmed me down and convinced me that I wouldn't get burnt to death in my sleep.

The morning was a bit shitty but I managed to make it home with most of my stuff and relatively sober, though absolutely knackered.

I'm covered in bruises, my nose and shoulders are burnt, and I'm skint, but I had such a great time that none of it matters.

I can't wait for next year.

I have nothing left to say but....
BUTT SCRATCHEEERRRR!!?!??!

And...
Pictures?