Download Festival 2005

Donington Park, 10th-12th June 2005

This year's Download was bigger and better than any festival that had taken place previously on the hallowed ground of Donington Park. Now a three-day event, Download, or Donington if you prefer, can now consider itself a fully fledged festival with each day boasting three stages and over 100 bands performing in total.

DAY ONE
Kicking off the proceedings on Friday's main stage was Queen Adreena (4/5). The former Daisy Chainsaw vocalist, Kate Jane Garside, may look like a five year old trying out her mummy's make-up for the first time but you can't help but adore her feminine allure. It's not easy being the first band of the day, but Queen Adreena successfully carried it off.

Wednesday 13 (4/5) blasted through a set of Murderdolls-esque tunes with a collection of wired and wonderful microphone stands to boot.

JJ72 (1/5) were never going to top Wednesday 13's performance and whilst the Snickers stage was bursting at the seams with Lordi, the area in front of the main stage was sparsely populated.

If JJ72's incompatibility was predicted, nobody could have foreseen the slow and painful death the following band would endure during their ill-fated and often cringe-worthy performance. Technical difficulties rendered The Others (1/5) bass player useless and whilst the crowd encouraged them to play on (God knows why!) minus the four string, the singer - forgive me for not knowing his name - was completely lost for words and out of his depth. The problems were fixed in time for the band to perform one last song before quickly leaving the stage to the deadly silence of a bored and rather bemused Download crowd.

Biffy Clyro (4/5) could do no wrong after the previous band's calamity and the main stage crowd swelled as they blasted through a strong set of songs.

The good old days returned when Megadeth (5/5) – a surprise addition to a rather lightweight bill – took to the stage. The crowd in front of the main stage was at its capacity to witness Dave Mustaine and co.'s last ever UK performance. Songs like 'Holy Wars' and 'Symphony of Destruction' went down a storm!

Largely unknown to the Download crowd, Dinosaur JR (3/5) may have taken a few by surprise. These old timers can still rock! They certainly blew young twats like The Others off the stage!

Technical problems again threatened to ruin Garbage's (4/5) set, but the Shirley Manson's ability to hold the crowd made sure they didn't follow a similar fate to The Others. 'Stupid Girl' came surprisingly early in the set and you had to agree with Manson when she exclaimed "I can't believe we're playing at Donington". The Monsters of Rock crowd of ten years ago wouldn't have accepted them, but Garbage are a great live band on their day and today was one of them.

Feeder (3/5), I suppose, were the perfect headliners for a day which was less about metal and more about mainstream rock – the festival goers that would arrive and swell the Donington crowd on Saturday and Sunday would have probably ripped them apart!

Day two