This year, festivals are a no-go, which sucks.
But thankfully the web is full of videos of people going to other festivals in the past, that you can watch them and recapture SOME of that festival spirit that 2020 is so sorely lacking.
When it comes to Festival Vloggers, there are literally thousands of them!
Anyone who’s ever recorded half a song during a mosh pit and uploaded it to the web can theoretically be called a Festival Vlogger.
So which channels should you watch?
In this blog post, I’ll go through my personal favourite channels that make videos about and at Download Festival.
I’ll explain their content type and give some suggestions of great past videos the channel has done.
1. Me!
Okay, let’s get the obvious self-promotion out of the way: I happen to have a YouTube channel that focuses on music and music festivals!
Download Festival is my absolute favourite, and every year I make a series of videos in the run up to the festival, including:
- Line-up discussions
- Band reviews
- Packing tips
- Shopping Vlogs
- Festival Vlogs
If I had to recommend a video of mine, I would suggest the Download Festival 2019 video, because its the most recent and I think it is a higher quality than some older ones (though you watch those too!).
Highlights include: rain, more rain, meeting Matt Bacon (more on him later), a lot of Would You Rather questions, and even more rain!
2. Helen Anderson
Though she was known as Melon Lady in the video I discovered her though, Helen Anderson has grown to become a phenomenon on YouTube, it has to be said.
Known for her make-up and outfit videos, she also is a lover of music festivals, and has been to several Download festivals.
If you don’t know her content yet and want festival stuff, I would start with 2012. It’s a very old video now, but its the first one I remember seeing and it’s such a fun video!
It’s got humour, tips, silliness, everything you need to make a festival Vlog enjoyable.
It is a video I’ve seen dozens of times at this point, and I still watch it every year.
3. TPD TV
Not just one YouTuber, but several! TPD TV is a whole campsites worth of people.
Led by Rob Kellas, this group goes to several festivals each year and are known for their high-energy and ‘lad’ humour.
These guys go to all kinds of festivals: Download Festival, Reading & Leeds & 2,000 Trees. They tend to make very long videos for each, and then a second video, called a B-side, with all the extra footage that didn’t make it into the main video.
It’s like the DVD extras of their festivals!
My recommendation for a video of theirs would be Download Festival 2018
It was a great year at Download and the video is 46 minutes of pure festival campsite shenanigans: Drunkenness, jokes, dancing and… more drunkenness.
It’s a funny, silly video that has all that festival atmosphere we are mossing this year.
4. Matt Bacon
Moving to some smaller YouTubers now, Matt Bacon is a relatively recent YouTuber on the scene (starting in 2017), but his content is very enjoyable and he presents with such a positive attitude and passion for the subject.
Matts videos are a mix of full-length vlogs of festivals, reviews and opinion videos.
If you are into the longer festival vlogs, I highly recommend Matts video from Download 2019. It is over an hour of drunken shenanigans,
He also records high-quality videos of other gigs, so if you want to see a video of a Slayer perform Raining Blood live, but in high-definition and without all the shaky camera and terrible audio, matt has you covered.
5. Soldier7Sixx
Another younger who created feature-length videos, but from another perspective. Soldier7Sixx is ran by (name) a father who goes to festivals with his wife and daughter.
So these videos are less binge-drinking and rowdiness, but more the quieter side of festivals.
Their channel has a whole playlist of Download Video Diaries, going all the way back to 2011. And let’s face it, finding Download Vlogs from that long ago is hard!
If you are a parent and wondering how safe festivals are for younger people, then this is definitely the channel for you!
Even if you’re just a normal festival goer who is not a parent, their videos are still enjoyable and fun ones that are all about the camping and music side of them.
I will recommend their Download 2017 vlog. All their festival videos are really good, but I don’t want to recommend a video from the same year for every channel I’m talking about here.
Plus 2017 had a lot of rain, which always makes for an enjoyable video.
Others
There are absolutely loads of Festival Bloggers out there, about every Music Festival around, and Download Festival is no exception.
Type in Download Festival Vlog and you will be greeted by hundreds, if not thousands of relevant videos to help comfort you in the long months before festival season comes back!
Do you love another festival YouTuber that I’ve not mentioned? Let me know about them in the comments!
