It’s festival week here at The Rock and Roll Guru! This week I’ll be discussing the upcoming summer festivals – highlighting the highs, lows, and all the in-betweens of each. I’ve selected five festivals and will post daily on each. Enjoy!
Download Festival
http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk/home
Download Festival
http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk/home
If you live in the UK, or if you are planning a trip for the summer, the Download Festival is a hard one to beat. Taking place over the course of three days (June 11 – 13, 2010), Download Festival will bring the rock like no other festival can. AC/DC, Aerosmith (with Steven Tyler), Rage Against The Machine, Megadeth, and Stone Temple Pilots are just the highlights of this year’s festival.
History
The Download Festival started off as the Monsters of Rock Festival 30 years ago in 1980. The first year included Judas Priest and The Scorpions on the bill. In 1996, the last Monsters of Rock festival was held and then there was silence for many years. In 2003, the Download Festival was born as a remembrance of the Monsters of Rock and a hybrid of the classic metal from years ago mixed with modern metal for the new arrivals. An amalgam of metal music that’s bound to make everyone happy, Download Festival strives to get the best acts on the bill and give the audience the most bang for their buck.
Lineup
This year’s lineup includes AC/DC as the major headliners. Also performing over the weekend are Rage Against The Machine, Aerosmith, The Deftones, Stone Temple Pilots, Megadeth, Motorhead, Billy Idol, Saxon, and Ratt, just to name a few. When you add in the bands that are performing on the second stage, you have one of the most rocking festivals in existence. Hard and heavy, the Download Festival is metal done right.
Ticketing
Weekend ticketing plus 5 days of camping is 180 pounds, which roughly translates to $270. That’s a little on the high side, but when you look at the lineup, it is definitely worth it. And it includes the price of camping, which is much cheaper than a hotel. As of this posting, no single day tickets were available for Download Festival.
Places to Stay
Thinking of attending? Here are some recommended places to stay and/or visit. The festival itself has camp grounds for those who want to stay right on the site. The campsite opens on Wednesday, June 9th at 10:00AM and is available until Monday, June 14th at 12:00PM.
If camping isn’t quite your style, there are nearby hotels worth checking out. A quick search of the web shows nearby bed and breakfast boutiques located less than 3 miles from the park, some as close as one half mile. There are also plenty of hotels nearby. Best Westin, Marriott, and Days Inn are all minutes away and most of the nearby hotels offer complimentary shuttle service to the park.
Overall
The Download Festival looks like a great concert to attend in 2010. With plenty of heavy hitting headliners and several acts that are worth checking out, Download is going to be an incredible summer festival. I expect to hear good things about this once it has come and gone. If you have the opportunity, check it out and be part of the history.
Comments are open. Feel free to post some.
2 comments:
If I won the lottery, I would put the whole HRH Crew on a plane for this festival. Download is going to be amazing this year. I hope they have their live internet broadcast the way they did last year.
A live internet broadcast would be sweet! And even though we can't all fly it to Download, at least we'll have M3 (OK - some of us will).
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