Download has two main stages on first night of this rock feast!

The Download Festival at Castle Donintgon is always a highlight in the music festival calendar, and anyone who likes rock music would be hard pushed to find a better or bigger festival to cater for their musical taste.

This year was no exception! Download claimed it was going to be bigger and better than their previous efforts partly due to celebrating 30 years since the original Monsters Of Rock was held at Donington. Admittedly there have been good times and bad times over those years (which included the complete eradication of the Monsters Of Rock event). It was only after a few years of being left in the wilderness did the Monsters of Rock theme merge into a rock festival to put rock music back on the calendar, hence the current reincarnation that we all know and love as Download Festival.

So where do I start with this years Download? Well they were definitely spot on when they said it was bigger than in previous years, I found this out immediately upon arrival when I parked in the disabled parking, and it was a full twenty five minute walk in blazing sunlight to get to the main arena.

By anybody's standards that quite simply isn't acceptable, and that really needs a major rethink for next year. The point being that if that's where disabled parking was situated I don't even want to even guess how far away the usual car parks were from the main arena although I did notice it was £20 to park which shows that Download wanted to milk every punter for as much as possible from the very start.

Not only in terms of sheer size was Download bigger, but they really had managed to pull of the impossible with securing the biggest rock bands around to headline this years Download, boasting AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine, and Aerosmith, surely must have taken a lot of negotiating and lots of work behind the scenes to get them to sign on the dotted line.

The first thing that was impossible to miss was that this year they had the main stage as per usual but next to it was another stage joined onto it which was exactly the same dimensions, but this stage was only to be used by AC/DC. If the rumours are to be believed apparently this was one of the conditions for AC/DC performing, they wanted to bring their own stage, lighting, and everything that goes with it, which evidently they were allowed to do. They also apparently requested that no other bands would be playing at the same time so that the focus was on them, which as a fan of the band was a great thing to do, as having their own stage made it clear that they were going to be on stage at the right time, and also the fact that everyone who was in the audience genuinely wanted to see them.

The stage itself had two inflatable red devil schoolboy caps on each side of the highest point of the stage with horns and a big letter 'A' emblazoned on it. It also had one of the biggest stage runways I have ever laid my eyes on, in fact I'm surprised that pilots coming into land at East Midlands Airport didn't try to land on that runway instead.

Before AC/DC took to the stage, I had the pleasure of catching an acoustic set by Skin which drew a fairly respectable sized crowd, and as always no one left disappointed. Then on the main stage Killswitch Engage treated us to their brand of rock music although it did come across as a bit too heavy for my liking, but thankfully I seemed to be in the minority and the sea of people seemed to appreciate it.

Them Crooked Vultures performed a more than adequate set, and they were originally going to be headlining until AC/DC confirmed that they would play. Which was a saving grace for Them Crooked Vultures because even though Dave Grohl and his entourage are good enough to watch live, they just don't seem to have that headline act factor about them just yet, so being high up on the bill suited them and left the crowd wanting more, where as if they had been headlining I feel they would have left a lot of people feeling disappointed.

Then the stage was prepared for the imminent arrival of AC/DC, and sure enough they delivered a blistering set, which lasted over two hours. Finally after all of these years, the Download Rumours about will they or won't they play can be laid to rest.

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