Sunday 11/06/06 Day 3 @ Download Festival, Donington Park

We had some tough choices to make on Sunday. Breed 77 or Godforbid? Bullet For My Valentine or Eighteen Visions? Fightstar or In Flames? No contest there, or so you’d think. Fightstar proved they have what it takes to cut it on the festival circuit. The obligatory bottles were thrown as the boyband turned metal princes came on stage, but after Charlie pointed out that they actually didn’t give a ****, but the people who threw like girls were hurting the people at the front, mockery morphed into respect and a good time was had by all.

Dragonforce and 36 Crazyfists took the main stage by storm early in the day, followed by love ‘em or hate ‘em bands Cradle Of Filth, Bullet For My Valentine and Funeral For A Friend who most people seemed to ignore, again, in favour of sunshine and booze. The Snickers Bowl played host to the cream of skate and BMX talent interspersed with a selection of the bands everyone hears about but few people have actually seen. Imagine playing Tony Hawk but bigger, louder and a hell of a lot more fun. And with free Snickers bars.

It seemed like the whole site was crammed into the second stage to watch the mighty Prodigy perform an amazing but much too short set. The Prodigy are one of those bands who just about everybody loves and whose every song becomes a classic tune. Things became a little unnerving when the show had to be paused to order people down from the huge poles holding the tent up, but it was all good natured and many hot and sweaty bodies emerged with grins from ear to ear.

Guns N Roses didn’t turn up until way after they were due on stage, but what else would you expect from metal’s biggest prima donna?! Axl Rose and what, in reality, is mostly a group of session musicians, came roaring on with ‘Sweet Child Of Mine’, only to disappear again, presumably to collect more money. Or beer. Or girls. Axl went in and out of the wings like a fiddler’s elbow but was forgiven by the majority of fans for still putting on a damn good show despite the fact he should probably be six feet under by now.

With a great site, decent organisation and an already outstanding reputation for delivering the best of the best, Download is set to be the festival of choice for rock and metal fans for years to come. Even the usual riot nonsense on the last night didn’t ruin the weekend. With just a hint of complacency tickets are already on sale for Download 2007 but we suggest you bite the bullet and book them anyway. Horns up!

Check out the photo gallery!