Summer 2022 - Download Festival, Donnington Park

 It's been a while since I was here writing about festivals. Covid took away a lot from the events industry, which I plan on covering in later blogs, in particular what it meant for festival production to have lost so many long-timers. Since events were basically off for two years, with the exception of a few that pushed through the trials of a late summer 2021 event, many individuals with expert knowledge of putting on festivals and events had to find other ways to make a living - which has left big gaps in production teams across the festival circuit. 

Which brings me nicely to Download 2022. There's so much to say about how it came about that I was even attending, but I'll keep it simple. A friend of mine was looking for some help towing a trailer and setting up her cake and tea stall. I'd worked with her before, at Illusive a few years ago, and I know that her usual team was quite a laugh, so I agreed. What's that? I agreed to drive a long-wheelbase van and janky old trailer over 100 miles? I'm not sure what possessed me to do that, to be honest. I've never driven a van. I don't know anything about trailers. I don't even know my left and right.

With quite a bit of help, I got the thing there, and after a rather sudden reminder of why festival accreditation is a pain in the butt when you aren't going in with a band, we managed to site the trailer in the right spot and batton down the hatches for the first night.

I'd studied the line-up pretty hard before setting off. Mostly bands in the 'I know I should want to see them but I don't' catagory. Iron Maiden, Steel Panther, Biffy Clyro, Korn Kiss, The Darkness...the list of rock bands was long and I'm not going to sugarcoat it, not massively appealing to my more upbeat and less deathy musical taste, but, we move.

If you are thinking of attending Download 2023, here's my top tips:

• Fashion was black, black and more black. Vintage Iron Maiden shirts and leather waistcoats were the most-spotted sartorial choice. Bring your ripped tights and fedoras, everything you own that's black leather and a vape. Honestly, finding anyone with a lighter was nigh-on impossible.
• The site is large and set around a racing circuit. At some point, you might even find yourself walking along it. Some of the camping is a very long trek from the car park. It's not as bad as many of the larger festivals, but you'll definitely be putting the steps in. Staff camping is way up on yonder hill, so if you are working at the festival, camping in the main arena next to your stall is the better option if you plan to get to work on time. 
• The Village is the best party after hours. It took us three full days to find, as you have to walk quite a long way and it almost seems like you are leaving the site and walking into a totally different area, but once you see the unmistakeable shape of stacked containers looming in the distance, you are nearly there. 24-food vendors, fairground rides and banging music draw revellers all night long.
• Be prepared for things to get wild. I don't know if it was just because it was the first big festival in a while for people, or if it's always like that, but some serious partying went down at Download this year. From a viral snap of a gentleman receiving a bj in broad daylight in a main throughfare to rumours of outrageous parties in staff camping, there was a lot going on - 
• Book quiet camping for a curfew on noise or go all out and try one of the many luxury camping options - we saw everything from Gypsy caravans to mini container homes. Most regular Download goers book RIP which gives you some extra bits like posh toilets and warm showers and secret things that I didn't quite find out about! 

Since it's been a while that I've written about festivals, I'm going to cover some of the things that I know I have looked for when researching upcoming events, which I know others are often looking for too. Sorry if you find talking about toilets boring :)

TOILETS

Download had plenty of toilets in each arena and they were cleaned every single night that we were there, we also got our own toilet as part of our stall which stayed spotless and stocked the whole time. Bit sad they didn't bother with using anything but the cheapest chemical toilet but as I camped in the main arena, I'm not sure what the campsite facilities were like. It was a bit of a mess by the late evening, but generally, reasonably good - I don't have experience of the disabled facilities, so if you do, let me know and I will add that information.

ECO 

Was Download eco-friendly? Well, the mess didn't make the headlines as at some other events this year. To be honest, at that point in the summer, I didn't know how important festival's ability to manage their waste properly was going to become, and it did really become more apparent over the season that some festivals really had this down, and others struggled with implementing even the most basic principles. I do know that litter was well dealt with at Download, whether that was the clientele or the production, probably both. One big problem which became apparent here and for the rest of the summer was disposable vape pens, one use, non-rechargable flavoured vape devices with a lithium battery that get thrown after a hundred puffs, all solid plastic. Festivals need to do something about this!

WORKING 

There's a couple of dedicated staff camping areas but for reasons that I cannot fathom, they are MILES from the main arena, which makes no sense if they want people to get to their stalls on time, but there we go. We discovered this extremely long walk one night looking for the staff showers, because despite allowing camping in the main arena there were no staff showers there, not great for hygiene because I honestly wondered who bothered with that huge trek every day, you'd be covered in dust and whatever else by the time you walked back. As far as I discovered, having a staff wristband made very little difference, except being allowed in the main arena past midnight.

So, a week before we set off for Download 2023 I've finally posted this! Let me know in the comments of over on Instagram if you are heading for Donnington Park next week!!