I thought it was best to bring along someone who had been there, done that, and was up for introducing me to possibly the biggest music festival in the East Midlands. | "Despite being at a music festival we only saw one full set - on the whole we just wandered between stages catching a couple of songs." | | Becca Bryers |
My boyfriend Ed was happy to oblige (after he finally believed that we really were off to Download for the day!) Take a look at Becca's photos from the Download Festival 2006...The festival was slightly disorientating to start with - I was used to the Summer Sundae sized events, not ones that take up an entire racing circuit - but the areas soon became familiar. Most of our day seemed to involve just taking in the atmosphere. The boiling weather made it pretty impossible to do anything too energetic, like jumping about, walking, standing… so we spent a lot of time seeking shade and people watching. It's always a bit of a cliché but I really was surprised at the mixture of interesting people there. Tattoo spotting was particularly interesting, as was marveling over how people were able to stay out in the baking sun whilst wearing extremely skinny jeans and high heels!  | | Becca doing a bit of shopping |
The main thing I was dreading about the festival was the toilets. Just walking past the rows of porta-loos was enough to make you wrinkle your nose and cough. Luckily we had the luxury of the press area toilets- which although not beautifully clean, were a real treat! We actually ended up using this area as a bit of a retreat at times despite Ed declaring that it "wasn't a real festival experience". It was pretty funny to see people sitting at candle-lit tables being served decorated chocolate cake by waiters, whilst we sat cross legged on the floor with chips we'd bought from the arena! The Village provided some interesting clothing and food stalls with some very cheerful stall holders and there was plenty of entertainment from men in alien suits, jugglers and skaters. Despite being at a music festival we only saw one full set - on the whole we just wandered between stages catching a couple of songs. No band seemed able to talk to the audience without swearing at least once per sentence!  | | Gun n' Roses on stage |
Prodigy was the band we'd marked out to see for definite - as had, it seemed, thousands of other festival-goers. Thirty minutes before they took to the Snickers Stage the tent was already packed and we decided we'd rather be further away than be crushed. By the time the band came on people had climbed the house-high tent supports in order to get a good view. Prodigy delivered an energising set that saw the whole area around the tent bopping around and girls reduced to underwear in order to stay cool in the intense heat emulating from the crowd! Afterwards, sweaty and grubby we made our way to the Main Stage to catch a few Guns ‘n Roses numbers before making our way home. Even though we didn't see as many bands as possible I really had a brilliant day. At no point was there a bad atmosphere and the huge number of stewards made the festival move smoothly and effectively. | 
