Over the years, Download Festival has tried to widen its scope by adding more stages, more bands and even adding funfair elements to the “village” section of the festival site.
The festival has also expanded in some other, more creative ways.
Sometimes these changes are fantastic and represent a shift for the festival as a whole.
Other times they are a terrible idea from start to finish, that no-one enjoyed and are best left forgotten.
So let’s take a roller-coaster of a ride and discuss some of the best (and worst) ideas that Download Festival has implemented over it’s time.
Best – Motorcycle Stunt Ball
Let’s start off with something great, but maybe not hit-you-in-the-face obvious.
The motorcycle ball is a simple stunt of a giant metal ball that people in motorcycles drive around.
I don’t know how or why, but these motorbike stunts just fit the festival atmosphere really really well.
It’s exciting, it’s a bit metal, it’s motorbikes and stunts: it’s cool!
In 2019 the ball stunt was in the main arena, right at the back just as you walk in. It made for a very cool set piece to watch as you wandered from stage to stage.
And as a whole, Extreme Sports and Download Festival just go together as well as beer and… well, Download Festival.
Nitro Circus had some stunts set up in 2019, and these sorts of attractions have been appearing at the festival as far back as 2005, when the festival set up a BMX pool, with Matt Hoffman himself coming to do a demo!
Oddly, there is very little ifnormation about the motorbike stunts online.
In 2019 the stunts were performed by Thunderdome, but the link on the download site is dead now.
In 2008, the stunt was called ‘Balls of Steel’, which at least shows that the stunt has been a part of Download Festival for a very long time.
Worst – Police Face Scanning Technology
Download 2015 was not a great year.
The rain was ongoing and severe, with the festival being dubbed Drownload and Downpour festival.
However it did make a very atmospheric set for Slipknot.
The festival was trying a new cashless idea, RFID wristbands, known as ‘Dog tags’.
These were fraught with issues that caused massive queues, and since no vendors were allowed to accept cash, there was no quick fix.
And on a personal level, the Download Festival marked the very deepest low of my (then undiagnosed) depression.
It was not a great year.
And to top it all off, the icing on the poo-cake, was the facial-scanning technology put in place.
Now, Download Festival has had its struggles with security, and no solutions has ever really made everyone happy.
The long lines of the first few years meant a huge wait for all the festival goers to get in.
Then, the shorter lines in the last few years have meant more lax security that did not put people at ease.
So the 2015 decision to have lax security AND scan everyones faces was a pretty terrible one.
Download was kind of a guinea pig festival fir this technology, and if successful the technology would be rolled out to music festivals nationwide.
Thankfully that did not happen.
And people were not happy about the addition at the time: the lack of warning for Download festival-goers, as well as the lack of an opt-out option did not go over well.
The scheme was meant to help with the catching of criminals. However, I don’t know how well that worked.
But regardless: letting my face be scanned and the data saved for a slight rise in the chance of catching drug dealers at a music festival doesn’t seem like an even trade.
Shockingly, face scanning technology has not been used at Download since.
Best – Download Festival Scotland (2004)
Download Festival takes place at Donington Park in Derby, England.
That’s the way it is.
But in 2004, Download was expanding. After the roaring success of the first Download Festival in 2003, they wanted more.
So in 2004 the organisers put on a second, smaller Download Festival up in Scotland.
The cut-down event took place over 2-days, with most of the bands from the Donington event playing, and was headlined by Linking Park and Metallica.
In a way, this was the precursor to the International Download Festivals we have now.
Download Festival has since spread to Japan, Spain, Australia and France, but this expansion started with a small extra festival not too far away (comparatively speaking) in Glasgow Green in Scotland.
Worst – AC/DC Stage
There are some bands that are world-beating.
Bands that help define a genre and are well known for generations. Bruce Springsteen, Metallica, The Beatles.
These are bands that will be remembered forever.
Now, AC/DC probably ARE one of these bands. They are huge, have been producing hit-after-hit for decades and are well-loved all over the world.
But no matter how huge you are, your ego can always ruin you.
No musician is bigger than their band, and no matter how high you get, you really shouldn’t think yourself better than your fans.
The Beatles saying they’re more successful than Jesus, Lars Ulrich thinking fans would support his personal vendetta against Napster, (other example)
AC/DC demanding their own stage at Download is in this category.
Rather than (God forbid) share their performance space with other bands, AC/DC flew in their own stage to perform on.
Aside from two inflatable hats on the top of the stage, the stage itself was indistinguishable from the other stages, so didn’t offer any extra experience, other than to separate AC/DC from the other acts.
The festival has not hosted another band on their own stage since. Whether this was because it’s too much work, or because no other band has asked for it, I don’t know.
All I know is I’m thankful for it.
Best – Wrestling stage
When you think about Download, you think of heavy metal music, beer-drinking and camping in a wet and muddy field.
You know what else goes really well with these things? Wrestling.
Wrestling is a sport that really appeals to drunk people. It’s over the top, dramatic fighting and drunk people probably have an easier time ‘believing it’, or at least not criticising it for being fake.
I’m just going to say it: adding the wrestling stage to Download Festival was a stroke of genius!
The festival has hosted WWE NXT Wrestling multiple times, and it’s gone down a storm each time, so hopefully that continues when the festival is back on.
Wrap Up
Download Festival has made some great choices, and some terrible blinders over its history.
Do the good ones outweigh the bad? Yes, I think so.
But more importantly, I fully support Download trying new things and helping the festival to evolve.
Without these kinds of changes and tests, the festival risks growing stale and losing its popularity. I can take an uppity band wanting their own stage every few years if it means great changes like the Wrestling Stage as well.
Though the face scanning technology was flat-out a terrible idea performed badly.
