England/Download 2016 Part 2
No sleep and a lot to drink the night before. Waiting for the train, looking at each other, shaking our heads, giggling over the situation. Actually proper laughs. Several times. The only ones there who knew why were me and Malin. I wonder what the other people at the station were thinking…
Our train from East Croydon to London got delayed so we missed our train up to East Midlands. Fortunately we got some help so we could get on the next train, leaving an hour later.
When we finally got on the next train we both fell asleep. We woke up after ~40 minutes when the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. We were standing there for ages and every 10 minutes the train-manager-lady told us through the speakers that “unfortunately we have no further information”. Apparently there had been a power failure, causing problems with the signals. After 2 hours at that same spot the train started moving again. People were actually cheering. The train-manager said: “So, we are now moving, but unfortunately we have no further information”. *Everyone in the train started laughing* and so did I. I love sarcasm!
When we got off the train it was raining. It was absolutely pouring down. Even our taxi driver didn’t want to get out of the car to help us with our luggage. “It’s open in the back”, he said. A true gentleman.
We checked in at the hotel, got ready and left for Download. The hotel had this shuttle-service for the hotel guests going to the festival area. £5/trip in a minibus. AWESOME!
Since our train had been delayed we thought we’d miss BabyMetal (Malin really wanted to see them) but we actually made it before they finished their set. It didn’t sound as bad as last year when they played with Dragonforce. (That was absolutely horrible).
Next band that I really wanted to see was Fort Hope. They are from England and they are really good. They were really good on stage and they played a few new songs that I cannot wait to hear when the studio version is out! I have to admit that I have a bit of a crush on Jon Gaskin, the singer. His voice makes me feel like I’m 16 again.
Before going to the festival we were talking about going back to the hotel between bands. The next band I wanted to see after Fort Hope was Rammstein and they weren’t going on stage until 4 hours later. However we decided it is not worth it to go back, so we stayed and now I am so glad we did because we saw Korn – and OH. MY. GOD!! They were so good! Both Malin and I went crazy during their set; they were just that fucking good! At some point I even thought it was playback because the sound was almost too good, but all of it was for real! And his voice! We decided that when (if) they come to Sweden, we will be SOOOO there! I actually think they were the best band I saw on Download 2016.
We met up with Karlsson and Jonathan, Malin’s brother and cousin and we all went to see Rammstein together. They were really good as well. I love how provocative and raw they are. At one point Till Lindemann (The singer) had put on something that looked like a bomb-vest. At the end of whatever song they were playing it blew up with pyro. At the end of a song called “Mein Herz Brennt” (My heart burns) he had pyro on his chest, making red fire/firework-looking-sparks. (Yes, I fucking LOVE fireworks/pyro). They were so fucking heavy and I was just standing there enjoying the show. Don’t worry, we were all headbanging and jumping around too…
More to come… That’s just day one!
XXX
