When was the last time rock’n’roll had such clout? With the world in desperate need of concerts, everyone had been waiting for Download Pilot to chart out the post-Covid future of music festivals. Granted, the three days are a smidgeon of the festival’s normal menu; only 10,000 people – one-eleventh of Donington Park’s capacity – gathered on a reduced venue this year, with the number of stages cut in half to two.
The normalcy, on the other hand, is excessive within the gig venue. Masks and social distance have been made obsolete — every participant has given documentation of a negative lateral flow test – and have been substituted by a year-round yearning for the crazy nights.
The world’s most respected rock and metal concert, Download, was restored after the government approved it as a test event after it was postponed twice due to Covid.
The three-day festival in Castle Donington, Leicestershire, began with severe downpours on Friday, in true Download fashion.
“It feels ethereal,” adds John-Joe, a lifelong Download attendee. “I’m not concerned about it because everyone has been subjected to mandated testing. Because it’s a government-backed experimental program, this is the only way to ensure you’ll see a live event this summer.”
For him, “Everyone’s really respectful as well. Nobody’s gonna come up and lick your face,” laughs fellow attendee Chloe, who’s at her first Download after previously being put off by the festival’s size. “I’ve heard the walk between camping and the arena used to take half an hour. It’s just so intimate this year.”
The festival had been labeled Download in previous seasons due to the bad weather, but the visitors of the event have different things to say about its electrifying atmosphere.
Meanwhile, the bands are overjoyed at the prospect of heading to the stage again after the long hiatus. Not only are the performers doing what they truly love again after at least 15 months of inactivity, but it also suggests that touring cash — the only meaningful means to earn profits by an underground artist in the streaming era – is on the way. Death Blooms, a nu-metal band influenced by Korn and Mudvayne, are the first show of the weekend, performing thundering screams. They take on their mission with zeal, even if frontman Paul Barrow admits to being inundated to the point of tears.
Even infamous punk sensation Frank Carter, who appears on Friday, is grateful. They are fortunate to be performing in front of 10,000 of the world’s most ardent rock fans. Twin Atlantic singer/guitarist Sam McTrusty appears to be the only one who isn’t having a good time this weekend. His bandmates aren’t strong enough to cover for his audible dissatisfaction with technical glitches with his microphone. Their heads are bowed and their feet remain quiet, giving their 45 minutes all the pomp and circumstance of a soundcheck.
Continuing with that emotional vein, the hardcore genre has compelled its audiences throughout the weekend. On Saturday, While She Sleeps combine it with metal and synthpop to glorious effect, in what is unquestionably Pilot’s best hour – if not the best in the entire Download lineage. Their concert is jam-packed with scorchers, and they expertly command their surroundings, inciting sights like leader Loz Taylor dangling from the speaker tower. Following headliners even with their chaotic LED light show, Enter Shikari can’t keep up. stalwarts of the genre, despite disinterested observers, appointed to Serve exude venom early the next morning. It’s frustrating since their songs on millennial hardship should have found their target audience here.
On Saturday morning, during Conjurer and Bleed from Within’s back-to-back extreme metal mainstage acts, the musical savagery reaches its pinnacle. The former, in particular, annihilate in a cyclone of riffs and roars; their compositions, which range from thrash to headbang-inducing sludge, are equally innovative and ruthless. Is it any surprise that they’ve been dubbed “British metal’s brightest hope” for the last few years?
Bullet for My Valentine brings the day to a close on Sunday. The Welshmen were originally hailed as potential stadium kings due to their emo-metal floor fillers, but missteps with radio rock and nu-metal have shattered that hope. Skindred, their mainstage counterparts, are the ones who make a huge impact. They’re so good at energizing any crowd with their reggae punk jams that no summer festival is ever finished without them. Kill the Power, Warning, and Nobody will linger in everyone’s mind till the early hours of the morning.
