Download 2019 - Day 3

 Sunday morning at Download festival. The ET crew were just emerging from the blissful land of sleep for the final day of what had been a weekend full of booze, junk food, hardly any sleep and of course, fantastic music!

Tea drunk, cereal bars eaten and with the ET crew vaguely resembling human beings (as far as is possible at a festival) it was off to the guest area for the lining of the stomachs. The Sunday line up meant the ET crew had a late start with the first band of the day, Amon Amarth not taking to the stage for some time, a fairly relaxed late morning/early afternoon was had, starting off with, as readers of the Day 2 post will have heard about, some ‘Spicy bois’. Stomachs suitably lined (and probably also destroyed) it was back to base camp to put another dent in the remaining plastic bottles. Whilst warming up for Amon Amarths set with a mix of Brothers of Metal, Slipknot, Tool (who were headlining the main stage that evening) and various others was put on with the ET crew remaining about what an excellent weekend it had been even if the mud had turned the festival site into what would be known as Brownload.

Soon it was time for T to put on his viking robes (T is a viking reenactor) which he’d bought up with him specially for Amon Amarths set. In typical ET crew fashion, the only time the sun came out and temperature rose all weekend was when T had donned said robes which were made of wool and extremely warm at the best of times. Still, having bought the robes with him, T was in no mood to take them off and soon the ET crew were making their way towards the main stage. As luck would have it, the ET crew managed to secure a spot as close to the front as they’d managed all weekend. With T resembling Niagara Falls on a particularly rainy day, on they burst with the pursuit of Vikings. A set consisting of crowd pleasers sent the download crowd suitably wild. At one point a viking rowboat was formed with T taking the lead and screaming row at every opportunity! Now, anyone who’s seen Amon Amarth before knows how they love to use lots of fire and pyrotechnics. This set was no different and sent the temperature of the ET crew through the roof in particular T who looked as if he’d just run a marathon wearing a suit of armour. Amon Amarth ended with twilight of the thunder god featuring their dragon and with this, the ET crew made their way back to base so T could get out of his robes and rehydrate (with both beer and water).

Fire!!!!

Row!!!

With T having recovered, it was back into the main arena for the final gangsta kebabs of the weekend and to try and secure a spot for Slayers final ever UK show. Suitably fuelled up, it was over to the Zippo stage. At this point the ET crew realised there was absolutely no chance of getting anywhere near it. Reluctantly the decision was made to abandon it and head to the bar near the main stage to hydrate and take in the Smashing Pumpkins from the top of the hill. Final festival pints of the weekend sunk; it was down the hill to secure a spot for tools headline set. The plan had been to watch slayer and then head over to the main stage midway through tools set, but now the crew would take in the whole thing. Whilst we were gutted not to be able to see slayer, it did at least mean we had a decent spot for tool, a band both of us had always been curious to see live. Why Slayer hadn’t been given the final headline slot of the weekend or at least been playing on the main stage we have no idea. As scheduling cock ups go this will no doubt go down as one of the worst of them.

As the light faded for the final time at Download 2019, the intro to third eye was played over the speakers complete with a spectacular visual display. On they came for one of the rarest sights, a live tool show in the UK (again, we point out that this was at the same time as Slayers final UK show). It must be said, tool very much took a backseat to their music with the members silhouetted against their stunning visuals. Entering with Ænema the set consisted of a mix of longer tacks like Parabola which seemed almost hypnotic at times (probably not helped by the various substances the ET crew could smell) along with the crowd favourites. At one point during the set T said to E “Do you need to be really high to understand this music”, E’s response of ‘probably’ summed up how the ET crew were feeling during Tools set. It was good, just not what we’re used to. With hindsight we’d much rather have been at Slayer, but C’est la vie. A strong finish with Stinkfist marked the final track of what had been an amazing weekend for the ET crew.

Hypnotic

Back to base camp it was to finish off the booze (as we mention in our day 1 post, there was no way on this earth we were going to try and cart it home). After finishing the final plastic bottles, E found that there was still half a litre of vodka still to be drunk. With limited mixers remaining, some extremely strong measures were poured (well in excess of any allowed by the licensing act) and the ET crew were soon settled into discussing the weekends events and plans for tomorrow. The plan was to take the shuttle back to the transport hub and then board our 10am coach back to the Royal county. This should in theory have us back for lunchtime and a trip to the amazing teapot café in Maidenhead. How wrong could we have been…. With all the booze finished, it was time for the ET crew to hit the hay for the final night in Donington ahead of a day during which hangovers would prove to be the least of our problems.

7:30am on Monday morning soon rolled round. A weekend of spicy food, booze and metal had definitely taken its toll on the ET crew and it showed with the two of us having to make an emergency run to the toilets before any packing commenced. This became known as the revenge of the spicy bois. We’ll spare you any further details… With stuff packed up we bid our living quarters for the weekend farewell and made the walk to the shuttle bus collection point. Drinking all the booze proved to be a good move as the bags were considerably lighter and before long, the ET crew had arrived at the collection point. After half an hour of waiting the bus still hadn’t arrived. This was now becoming a tad concerning as the ET crew now had 1 hour until their coach left. The bus soon arrived thankfully (or so we thought). The driver assured us we’d be there in time for our south bound journey, but how wrong could he have been. The traffic was shocking. It took over an hour to do a mile meaning that by the time the ET crew arrived at the transport hub, their coach had long left. Superb. Not only will we not be back in time for lunch, we’re now stuck in a field near East Midlands Airport with 2 large bags each and no transport.

Something has gone very wrong.......

After a discussion and some googling, the crew decided the best option now was to get a taxi away from the festival site and then explore options. Into the taxi queue the crew went and with a quick look at the tariff board, saw there was an option to take us south all the way to Heathrow airport if we were willing to stump up £225. No chance! A much more reasonable option at £30 was Loughborough. Decision made, Loughborough it was and E would then call in a favour beg for a lift from honorary member T. E made the call, T agreed and soon the crew were in the back of a taxi to Loughborough. The driver had clearly come prepared as he had a beaten-up old Skoda in which he’d covered the backseats in cardboard. Half an hour later, the crew were soon dropped at Loughborough train station. With T not due for another 2 hours, shelter and food were very much required. A quick look at Google maps told us there was a pizza express a 10 min walk away.  With Pizza Express not opening until 12 and with the time 11am, it was off to the handy Starbucks next to Pizza Express to warm up and shelter. Looking like to vagrants, into Starbucks we went. The look on the poor bloke’s face when we walked in and ordered our drinks was priceless! At this point the ET crew were just happy to see a proper chair, electrical socket and the first properly plumbed in toilet in 4 days. Feeling slightly more with it and with Pizza Express now open it was next door for sustenance. Anyone whose ever been in a pizza express will know how bright and clean looking they are. As we walked in, the ET crew couldn’t have looked more out of place! The server clearly knew exactly where two unshaven blokes carrying filthy bags and wearing filthy shoes had been and greeted us with a “Have you guys come from Download?”. When the ET crew confirmed her suspicions, we were ushered in and seated. Two soft drinks (neither of us was in a state to drink) and two non-spicy pizzas later, it was soon time for the ET crew to make the walk back to the station where T would meet us. T arrived and with the car loaded, it was back down the M1 and back to the Royal County. 2 hours later, the ET crew were back at E’s where T collected his car for his onward Journey. For E it was a case of unpacking, jet washing his boots and filling the washing machine with the mud-covered clothes from the weekend. It was then into the bath for a well-earned soak and the human equivalent of a kitchen deep clean. It was then back up to E’s local where the weekend had begun to repay his debt to honorary member T for collecting us both in the form of buying him many beers. It was then soon home to bed in an attempt to recover for work the next day (not taking Tuesday off was a big mistake!).

E