I noticed the same last year, lots of the more mainstream crowd were there, less metalheads, and it was the first time I saw people doing hard drugs in the arena. I’ve been going to Download for 16 years and am not the only person who has noticed the crowd and vibe have changed.
Edit: I’m not saying nobody has ever taken hard drugs at Download before as obviously they have, I’m saying it used to be a more chilled out, drink and smoke kinda festival overall compared to the dance festivals I’ve been to where hard drugs are the norm and the vibe isn’t friendly.
Mate the first time I went in the early 2000s there was a bloke walking around wearing an advertisement board listing all of the narcotics he had for sale.
I'm sure they encourage you to get your drugs tested for purity so you don't die taking narcotics, I believe they had a tent for it (at least they did a decade ago.)
Pretty sure the government stopped festivals from doing this, used to have it at download as well. Think boomtown have back of house testing now so they can out warnings out about certain batches of pills
Coke has always been around. How do you think people stay out til gone 3am every night? I’d actually go as far as to say it’s probably more common than weed.
However you’re right that there did seem to be more of it than usual this year
There was a massive amount of what I presumed to be molly (blue triangular pills) around but given the number of people collapsing (and I hear a death), I was wondering if it was something else (M30’s) getting passed off.
Crowd seemed a little younger and a bit more 'try-hard' too if that makes sense? Like doing things they thought they should do rather than just being there..?
Over the last 10/15 years, festivals have become less of an adventure you take once a year to experience the scene you’re into, and more of a rite of passage that has to be done. There’s a group of 20 or so scaffolders that I work with who went to Download this year. No interest in anything other than it’s a festival… and they’re going to get fucked up. They’re the typical sleeve tattoo, pork pie hat wearing festival wear goer. Their girlfriends all dress in hunter wellies, flower wreaths and have pumped up lips. To them, a festival is a festival.
At pantera there was a guy in front of me piss on the floor, scoop his pissy mud up in a beer cup and throw it into the crowd. Fucking animal.
PS. I was definitely one of the metal heads on coke there, but I’m absolutely there for the music
I was there in '08 at 19. I was chatting to this dude who was probably twice my age. It was like 3am and I'd lost all my friends. It didn't feel weird at all until out of nowhere, he asked me back to his tent to do coke in this really sleezy way. I was like, err, I think I'm gonna find my friends...
I get offered more MDMA than coke thesedays, though. usually without the touchmybutthole vibe, the first guy gave off.
In terms of people I know it's not any more mainstream, I recall 2010-13 lots of people in my high school that would probably be considered "chavs/neds" going as guitar hero made hard rock kinda cool.
Me and my group got into other music, tried those other drugs and realized the other scenes were vibrant and often more exciting and fun "alternative" scenes. I stopped going cause sitting in a circle everyone baked barely saying anything was kinda dull
So it's often same people, they've just changed, and decided to come back to download, and I think the younger generation are just not as attached to a particular scene
Overall I think it's a good thing the scenes moved on and become less dogmatic. it certainly wasn't any better when bearded metalheads in camo shorts were bullying emo kids, or bottling MCR. Theirs always been cunty behavior
It used to be a lot more dependent on headliner - Prodigy and Pendulum years seemed to have more drug use (I remember talking to a guy when I was setting up my tent years ago and he grabbed a bit of smooth, plastic packaging off the floor and racked up a line whilst we were chatting)
I used to be a Pantera fan but I find it hard to support a band with a singer who declares “white power” and performs nazi salutes. I think if you’re still attracted to them after that you’re either unaware or it says a lot about your character
Well he definitely was wearing it in the rip courtyard . 5ft6ish . Long black dyed hair 60+ dressed like he thought he was Nikki sixx, leather vest with swastikas and black suns all over it . Loud as all fuck .
Its kinda ironic as alot of those racists would have been part of the "chill friendly metalhead" crowd, that people feel is being infiltrated by the bucket hat wearing "normies" crowd there for limp Bizkit who probably have far less bigoted beliefs on average
I was saying this the whole time... it just felt like negative vibes everywhere compared to last year. Last year, everyone genuinely wanted you to have a good time and was looking out for others, this year there were just twats taking the piss and causing issues at almost every turn.
Not to take away from the genuinely lovely people I met, but some people were just assholes.
This was the first time I’d experienced bad vibes from people, some arsehole pissed on my mates foot in the Limp crowd, him and his mates were dicks for the rest of the set because we called them out on it.
I'm sorry you guys had to deal with this. I had a similar experience during Erra's set with some drunk twat in the pit who wouldn't leave us alone.
I had a great time this year all things considered, but I'm not blind to disregard there were tons of issues, and not just the dickheads being discussed 😞 It was certainly a different vibe this year.
I reckon it was bizkit brought in people who had never been to download or a even a proper gig. Noticeable in the pit there, loads of people who really shouldn't have been in the pit or at the front getting battered. The vibes were completely different between the main stage and the opus stage. Opus felt more like normal download in my opinion.
Yeah, something just felt “off”. In previous years, people were willing to help out and a vast majority of the crowd were genuinely decent. This year, it felt like some of that was missing. As others have mentioned, there were people opening offering out hard drugs, people shoving others out of the way and just being generally dick-ish.
Download has always attracted this kind of crowd, and yet I see comments every year saying "It wasn't like this any other years"
Yes, yes it absolutely was.
When two of your headliners are Fall Out Boy and Queens of The Stone Age, you're going to attract a crowd not usually attending Download. Plus Royal Blood, Offspring, Enter Shikari, Busted, Billy Talent, The Used.... it wasn't a festival for the chilled out metalheads this time. Which is fine, but the crowd is gonna skew to the more loutish crowd.
Download has been and always was a rock and metal festival. All those bands have played before, some like Enter Shikari play all the time. People need to get this metal fantasy out of their heads and go look at the previous lineups.
You can't blame the bands playing or being booked on the dicks that come to watch. I'm a fan of more than one of the mentioned bands. Also a fan of a lot of metal bands. The music taste doesn't make the dickheads. Dickhead are dickheads no matter what music they're into.
I'll back this- I used to work in a KFC next to a popular venue and when certain bands or dance acts played, we would have to deal with the absolute carnage of drunk coked up assholes coming out of the gig looking for food. My assistant manager got punched more than once and we would actually have to tackle the bathrooms as a team, it was so bad. The oasis crowd were the worst. Fallout boy played there twice and it was the mildest, most sober crowd we had ever had to serve. Not a fan of the band, but to the fans- thanks for not being pigs 🖤
One the reasons we choose not to go, it has always been one the most friendliest festivals, if anyone was in a state people were more likely to look after each other and be more respectful. I saw no fights while i was last there. The crowd and who they are attracting has changed, the bands, its lost its way.
This was my first Download and I’m gonna make an assumption that the crowd isn’t normally like it but so many people seemed absolutely miserable or like they didn’t know what they were doing there.
The usual crowd stayed away thanks to Headliners.
It only "sold out" 2 days before the 5 day camping started.
And that's if you believe the marketing hype
I was incredibly lucky this year in terms of crowd then i guess, im 16 and was so excited the whole day to see my all time favourite band Pantera, i met some incredible people in that crowd, how ever during the slaughter to prevail set all i could hear behind me was people saying “ this song is called killing Ukrainians “ and phrases along the lines of that, wich totally ruined my experience for them because it was just non stop hate belched towards Alex, truly unfortunate
I didn't realise you had to be a greasy metal head to come to download, the music at download was really bad, there was a few good live performances but on a whole it was pretty shite! There was a few groups and bands which were good.. i still enjoyed myself, funny how the people who go to download are so judgemental, and clicky. It's a festival just enjoy yourself and stop moaning.. maybe they shouldn't have booked Busted (how embarrassing)
What were the racist comments anyway?
Seems like downloaders are a bunch of snowflakes who seem to be upset seeing normal people at the festival
There were a few dickheads I spotted, they mostly got dealt download justice though so hopefully they learn, like the knob infront of me at dirty brasstards set who threw a can into the crowd, then accurate cans came consistently hitting the back of his head until he decided to leave 😂
Thank you!! They definitely earned it - I even appreciated them trying to fix the audio! Like yeah it sucked they only played a few songs, but at least they cared enough to let us actually hear them! Their choreography was great too, just wish I was able to enjoy it more as 80% of the time all I could hear were the lads next to me :(
Ratatatata is a fun song and I'm glad they were able to play it! I was hoping to see them join the Electric Callboy set for it but unfortunately they didn't play at all! 🤘😎
Callboy would have had to join babymetal, which it looked like they planned, since I'm pretty sure babymetal were busy Sunday with their own stuff.
Shame their singer got sick. So many people recently have caught something. Can't blame them though.
been noticing way more people that look the sort to be at parklife & boomtown this year - bunch of dickheads in football t shirts and bucket hats barging out of wheatus' secret set and shaking their heads because they obviously had no clue what type of music wheatus play 🙄 my biggest fear is download becoming more mainstream than it already is but its inevitable at this point. i swear all those dickheads look around at everyone else thinking we are weird when in reality the festival is not for people like them.
EDIT: i am not generalising people in football tops and bucket hats as being dickheads, this was an actual experience i had time and time again with a certain group - you can see that because i am specific with how they were dickheads. others have had similar experiences with people dressing alike, ESPECIALLY from the younger crowd. i dont judge based off looks, i judge based off character. and it just so happened every dickhead i came across was in very similar dress to eachother, which is why i even commented in the first place.
I don’t typically look like an average metalhead and I wore an England shirt on the Sunday but I love metal, rock and pop-punk. This was my third Download since 2014. I know the type of guys you mean though and I saw a few obnoxious ones in the crowd for Limp Bizkit but we’re not all like that I promise
Thank you for saying this. I went to download in football shirts, tracksuit bottoms and hoodies. I've been to a lot of downloads, but now I don't look like a 'typical' rocker, I just wanted to be comfortable. Also got a full patdown from security a few times because of it
I really hate that there's a supposed dress code for metal heads and rockers. Kinda goes against the entire mentality no? Just end up being a sheep in a different crowd.
ahh no i get you! euros were on so england shirts were bound to be about, and ive met many football shirt wearers in the past who have been absolutely lovely. but you can tell a definite difference between a dickhead with a football top on and a nice guy that likes football. hope you had a good time!
Yeah it’s a shame about the idiots there, I did get the feeling they didn’t respect the crowd or usual Download atmosphere. I suppose this is probably the problem with Reading and Leeds having awful line-ups. I had a great time thanks, hope you did too!
This makes me sad. I was last at download in 2011 and have lived and breathed heavy and alternative music my whole life and was so looking forward to "coming home" but was genuinely worried that because I took out my piercings, don't have tattoos and have relatively normal hair that I felt like I wouldn't fit in anymore, despite rocking my skinny jeans and metal core band t shirts, along with my partner who I've been teaching to love heavy music over the last ten years because we don't look alternative enough.
I absolutely had the best time, genuinely felt like I was home with my people and everyone I met was so lovely but coming back and seeing people call out not-on-the-surface alternative people as "download not being for them" goes against what I thought the whole ethos of download and alternative festivals is that it doesn't matter who you are or what you look like you're accepted for who you are!
I've tried my best to ignore it and for it to not put a damper on the absolutely amazing weekend but reading comments in this thread makes me feel like people were probably looking at us and judging me and my partner which feels so un-download and genuinely makes me really sad... Download to me has always been a place where you can go no matter who you are or what you look like which I thought was a core part of the alternative scene because we've all been judged and ostracised at some point for how we look and the "scary" music we like but it seems that doesn't apply any more 🫤
To me The point of being Alt isn’t about looking a certain way, people forget this, if everyone dressed the same way then it’s just as bad as the normies.
We just tend to favour black, the great thing about download is that it’s for everyone and anyone, the only issue is everyone and anyone includes wankers and pickpockets I guess.
I did notice the people camped around me seemed a bit more frosty this year but I just chalked that up to being unlucky with were I camped. Top of purple camp btw. To be fair I did have some good craic with a few different groups as I was walking on by.
Love download man
Edit. It’s not about dressing a certain way it’s about dressing however you want
i think youve taken my comment the wrong way friend, there is a very clear difference between genuine people and ignorant people in the way they behave, and its very obvious how to spot out ignorant people. at my first download, i was taken in by a bunch not wearing any band merch whatsoever and chilling in normal clothes, no tattoos or piercings either. people that are genuine and enjoy the music belong at download. people that barge past you and call you a dickhead and boo on the way out of a set because they didnt understand the music do not belong. and a lot of people i came across who did things similar were wearing similar things. energy is a very easy thing to tell, and im sure people could tell that you and your partner are lovely people.
massive props to those that enjoy everything and are nice! i just mean the idiots that think it makes them so cool to be ignorant and a general asshole
Think a lot of those folk go to the festivals to get f’d up rather than enjoy any type of music. Dunno why rock ones are getting more like that. Maybe we ain’t scary enough anymore.
maybe its the other way around, people are coming to download expecting to get wayyyy more f'd because of our reputation when in reality we are all a bunch of softies looking after one another
God listen to yourself.
Because people that wear football shirts and bucket hands can't like the same bands as you.
Your identity, fashion and personality can be more than your music taste.
you should read the rest of the thread. and the rest of my initial comment lol. i wasnt saying JUST about their clothes and you know that. its about behaviour and a lot of the rude people i came across were wearing similar things. its 100% easy to tell the difference between dickheads happening to follow a trend amongst themselves and respectful people who dont act the same.
I wasn't there but from your description, I think you're describing the Reading/Leeds overspill rather than Boomtown. Those are the mainstream festivals full of mardy dickheads starting fights and burning down tents. You don't want that lot stinking up a nice festival.
Boomtown crowd are messy af but for the most part they're extremely friendly, positive and good-spirited, and in no way culturally mainstream. Booze and coke are the mardy substances, while MDMA, Ket and psychedelics are really not linked with antisocial behaviour IMO.
I don’t typically fit in to the kinds of gigs I enjoy being black and wearing whatever tf I want going to psychobilly/punk/metal shows and have always had this worry at the back of my mind that I’m being judged for not ‘looking the part’… I just like the music, idgaf about playing dress up 🤷🏾♂️
I am not a Babymetal fan, but the message of not tolerating racism, sexism, or indeed any kind of discrimination in our community deserves all the upvotes.
A lot of the “they’re manufactured!” criticism falls flat when you saw the look on their faces when they got cut off. They give more of a fuck about putting on a great show than most “real” bands do.
There was a big surge of rain that meant they had to be pulled off stage. Then because they only had a half hour slot they only got to play about three/four songs.
Not even the rain, the wind. The massive TVs on the main stage were shaking, it was brutal to see. The wind was horrendous at that moment, though the downpour also made things very bad.
Oh man. That sucks. And sucks even more than people were dicks about it. Shame people like that can ruin it for others. I've only seen Babymetal live once, and they were fantastic, but some prick in the crowd through a hoodie onto the stage that hit Moa. He was chucked out, thankfully, and Moa was a complete pro about it.
I heard there was a lightning warning, every stage was temporarily stopped for safety. Just really bad luck that it keeps happening 10 minutes before Babymetal are due to start!
My partner called out some cunts for being racist during Hanabies set. Who were fucking awesome and I'm now a fan of.
I made the comment to my group that this years attendees seemed considerably less considerate compared to previous years. And I've done a fair few now.
People like this are so embarrassing, like does it make them feel big and cool to bring other people down :) I don’t get it. Babymetal are cool, they’re not my no1 kind of band to listen to but I would never disrespect something just because it’s not for me. always seems to be grown men as well.
Sadly I think this is how the general public have gone. Lack of community activities and things for young people to do has lead to young adults being despondent and they feel a need to lash out. Drugs and alcohol don't ruin our experiences the people taking them for the wrong reasons do. We need more social integrity and discipline.
Babymetal deserves their place on the main stage and it’s disgusting to read and hear comments like that. They put on such an energetic performance and it’s disheartening for them and fans their set was significantly affected by the weather. They deserve to come back next year if possible and put on the fantastic show they can do. But for people to act that way is not only against the spirit of Download but against the spirit of music and art.
It seemed a bit off in the campsite as well, normally everyone's friendly and chatting and hanging out with people they just met. This year everyone kept to themselves around us, no socialising outside of their existing couple or group.
Also I managed to sleep through it but according to my fiancée two girls who were camped next to us were being really loud and playing music until basically early morning and kept being asked to quiet down but ignored the people asking. Apparently at one point another girl asked if they could turn the music down and they replied "fuck you" which I thought was a bit off for the normal Download vibes...
That’s slightly strange, I had a lovely time with the people around me! I was the first to hear that my neighbour was gonna be a dad, and my group struck a rapport with the older people around us. We were in blue, though, which was a massive trek on day 1, so that might be partially to do with it.
That might have been part of your issue. Partially because it was the quickest camp to reach for buses, shuttles, and a lot of traffic, but also because it being closer meant that it was easier to do repeat runs for booze, not to mention hard drugs (there were barely any checks at the entrance). Blue was a trek for a lot of people, so it probably had less assholes by virtue of laziness - plus, people who go for a long time know that blue is on a hill, which is great for when the toilets inevitably get destroyed. Long-time guests are less likely to be shitheads.
With that being said, there wasn’t much space anywhere from what I saw. Luckily my mates got there early on Wednesday and kept some space for me cause all the camps were filling up quick. I got there Wednesday around 2:30, for the record.
I must have been in my own little world because i witnessed none of this apart from people pushing through crowds with 0 manners! Everyone i spoke to was lovely.
If you don't like a band. Go and watch someone else or do something else! Ruining someone else's experience is not cool or funny, you're just a prick. Simple.
Btw im no baby metal fan, but if you are, cool! That's your taste. Have fun and fuck the haters.
Had a similar experience with a girl who joined the crowd for Heilung just to start loudly complaining about how it was too spiritual and she didn't like it - why do people get deep into the crowd just to annoy everyone around them by being rude??
Don’t know I was 2007 Download where My Chemical Romance were relentlessly bottled and yelled. I have never been so ashamed of people for doing that in front of a load of kids trying to have fun.
I imagine they're probably used to it, they've been going for over a decade now, I still remember that Rob Zombie post where he was defending them, mans a class act.
Sadly, these people seem to come out the woodwork every time Babymetal play festivals. I saw them at Sonisphere in 2014 and was stood next to a couple of Maiden fans who spent the whole set yelling racist shit and doing slitty eye gestures.
Just go and watch another band if you don’t like them?
They’re dumb as hell. I’ve seen Babymetal live 3 times here in the US and I’m gonna see them again in November and they have been fantastic every time.
Yeah I noticed there was a bigger amount of dickheads this year.
A group of guys purposely pushed my mate into the mud because she’s was “singing along to loudly” to the offspring
Might be looking too deep into this but the whole state of the world right now might have at least some kind of impact as to people's behaviour.
Noticed people in general seem more stressed out and on edge. Could all be bollocks of course.
Babymetal are a lot of fun. Didn't see the show because was watching Slaughter to Prevail next door, getting screamed at by Alex who I think might actually be the devil, but no-one ever deserves racist or sexist shit so shame on them. I think good progress on those fronts is being made overall though, so try to keep that in mind.
This is pretty much it. Not to sound like a drama queen but the reality is the “old Download” is on its way out. The landscape of rock music is changing. The classic headliners who have been pulling in the punters over the years are getting old and calling it a day. The only natural course for a commercial festival like Download is to start catering to the more mainstream/Leeds crowds. And with it will bring all the demographic and cultural changes one would expect.
I haven’t been since 2019 (I mainly follow this sub out of nostalgia lol) but I can’t really see myself going back. I’d more likely look to one of the European festivals like Wacken, which tends to have better lineups (though that’s just my own tastes) and generally seem more authentic “rock and metal” festivals.
Not entirely sure that Babymetal were disappointing? The situation was, but that wasn’t on them at all. They did what they could and the festival did what they had to do
Download is becoming more mainstream thus bringing in the wrong crowd, next year could be my last depending how it goes.
Im sorry you had that experience, people like that have no place at DL.
Download has always been like this. 8 years ago my partner at the time was approached by a bunch of guys who told her “n****** like you have no place here”. Its always been full of racists.
Based on my own personal life experience, I've found a lot of rock/metal fans to be your typical right-wing, racist, UKIP/Reform boomer types, and it really puts me off
I think its as a lot of metal or rock bars are the exact opposite and any hint of that BS gets those people kicked out and banned.
So you get that one bar in the city that might as well be a literal nazi bar and they all move round in groups.
Sadly festivals get both ends of things solely as everyone goes
I think I was near the same guys just before, they were talking explicitly about sex in a way that was inappropriate, misogynistic and racist, it was shocking. When baby metal came on they shouted 'I love you I wanna fuck you' they were absolute shit for brains idiots. Thankfully they moved almost straight after baby metal came on to get beers and resettled further forwards, would've been great if some of the guys in the crowd could have called them out on this behaviour rather than laughing with them....
Oh hun, if I was there with you I'd have been giving them the same disgusted looks. That's awful. They sure as hell don't represent the vast majority of the metal community. Babymetal are amazing! I hope you get to see them again without sexist, racist pricks in your sphere xxx
Probably because it's intimidating for a woman to approach a bunch of (probably meathead, cokehead type) guys to argue with them and call them out, and who wants to spend a festival arguing with people?
I cried during Babymetal! They were one of the main acts I wanted to see, and tho they had a big break in their set, beyond their control, I adored everything they played 🥹❤️
Gutted to hear Babymetal didn’t get to finish their set. Have become a fan of theirs after given them a listen to out of curiosity.
Sucks that the world has such arseholes. Don’t get why anyone who isn’t a fan of a band would want to be right at the front just to be total pricks about it. Like be at the front and be respectful. No need to behave the way you described.
They are doing a disservice to the rock / metal family. We are meant to be a friendly bunch who love to show their emotion with head banging, jumping, singing and doing some crazy shit!
I remember a few years back when I went to go see BVB and there was a group of older blokes watching the whole thing, grumbling and yelling homophobia.
Like, just go watch another band.
ugh god im so sorry you dealt with that. i was in the same boat for being disappointed with babymetal too. some dude literally barged me and my girlfriend (which we literally both have been waiting since wargasm came on) and proceeded to fucking record the whole thing and block half of my vision
may not be that bad obviously and i was probably in the wrong but idk why some ppl this year (was my first download) were absolute pricks hope you had a great rest of the festival though!
The absolute worst thing about the UK scene is the occasional chav who tricks themselves into thinking they like metal because it makes them look 'hard'
Bro I can assure you with absolute certainty there isn't a "chav" in the world that thinks liking metal makes them look "hard".
This scene is softer than a snow patrol gig.
I've found it to be the case often that metal and rock fans are a bunch of old racists lol... maybe its different with the younger generation. Idk though I'm an outsider ig
A lot of you saw a lot of shit you didn’t like and said nothing. Says a lot about where this scene is now.
Call it out instead of moaning about it on fucking Reddit.
Yep, more racists, more selfishness and a lot more chavy mainstream teens on drugs. Download will become reading & Leeds eventually if we keep asking for mainstream bands.
I was with my wife, who is Japanese. If only those lads had made the mistake of being in earshot of me when they made their racist comments, I would have started some shit. I remember when Babymetal first got announced for Sonisphere and they were getting death and r*pe threats. I mostly love the Download/metal crowd but it’s still got some complete wrong ‘uns. It makes me sick.
Saw Babymetal open for the Chili Peppers a couple years ago and they were awesome. I went in with 0 expectations but they were louder and heavier than rhcp which is very hard to do
Unfortunately, Babymetal have been exposing racism and sexism in the metal fandom pretty much since they started. I wouldn’t say I’ve liked everything they’ve released but I’m just happy there’s something different out there.
Nass festival got shut down so I guess all the absolute lowlife rats that took over that festival are spilling over, gross. I’m so sorry you had to listen to that. What a bunch of losers
There were a few people around us at Babymetal who were mocking their accents, repeating things they said. And just straight being rude.
It was a disappointment. The metal and rock communities are already not inclusive enough, and to go to the biggest rock/metal festival and hear things like that is so disappointing
I had the same issue watching heilung… just so many ignorant racist people, it’s always extra shocking when it happens at a place where there should be a strong supportive community 🙄
I’m not sure whether it was just me, but the crowd at this years Download, didn’t seem like the usual group of people you’d encounter at Download.
I noticed the same last year, lots of the more mainstream crowd were there, less metalheads, and it was the first time I saw people doing hard drugs in the arena. I’ve been going to Download for 16 years and am not the only person who has noticed the crowd and vibe have changed. Edit: I’m not saying nobody has ever taken hard drugs at Download before as obviously they have, I’m saying it used to be a more chilled out, drink and smoke kinda festival overall compared to the dance festivals I’ve been to where hard drugs are the norm and the vibe isn’t friendly.
I went in like 2015/16 and there was a dude with a big bag of ket in the arena offering it to people, hard drugs have always been around there
Mate the first time I went in the early 2000s there was a bloke walking around wearing an advertisement board listing all of the narcotics he had for sale.
I miss those days :(
To be fair half of the stuff he was selling was legal back then 🤣
Was he wearing a pink and white dress and calling himself the Kett fairy? If so, we bumped into him at about 6am Monday morning in 16/17!
Thanks for reminding me of the ket fairy 🤣🤣
Oh really! Not saw it till recently, well not compared to other festivals anyway.
My wife calls the Avalanche stage "the gurning tent" from when we went in 2018, it's absolutely a druggy festival in places.
I'm sure they encourage you to get your drugs tested for purity so you don't die taking narcotics, I believe they had a tent for it (at least they did a decade ago.)
Pretty sure the government stopped festivals from doing this, used to have it at download as well. Think boomtown have back of house testing now so they can out warnings out about certain batches of pills
Dude omg I remember this ! Or it was ANOTHER person, papa roach in 2016 on the main stage!
Ket's less of a hard drug than alcohol imo lol
Coke has always been around. How do you think people stay out til gone 3am every night? I’d actually go as far as to say it’s probably more common than weed. However you’re right that there did seem to be more of it than usual this year
There was a massive amount of what I presumed to be molly (blue triangular pills) around but given the number of people collapsing (and I hear a death), I was wondering if it was something else (M30’s) getting passed off.
Crowd seemed a little younger and a bit more 'try-hard' too if that makes sense? Like doing things they thought they should do rather than just being there..?
Over the last 10/15 years, festivals have become less of an adventure you take once a year to experience the scene you’re into, and more of a rite of passage that has to be done. There’s a group of 20 or so scaffolders that I work with who went to Download this year. No interest in anything other than it’s a festival… and they’re going to get fucked up. They’re the typical sleeve tattoo, pork pie hat wearing festival wear goer. Their girlfriends all dress in hunter wellies, flower wreaths and have pumped up lips. To them, a festival is a festival.
I still remember several groups in 2010/11 seeking people to buy coke from. I think you just notice these things more as you get older lol
At pantera there was a guy in front of me piss on the floor, scoop his pissy mud up in a beer cup and throw it into the crowd. Fucking animal. PS. I was definitely one of the metal heads on coke there, but I’m absolutely there for the music
Ye some of us are old and can't hack 3 days of alcohol
I was there in '08 at 19. I was chatting to this dude who was probably twice my age. It was like 3am and I'd lost all my friends. It didn't feel weird at all until out of nowhere, he asked me back to his tent to do coke in this really sleezy way. I was like, err, I think I'm gonna find my friends... I get offered more MDMA than coke thesedays, though. usually without the touchmybutthole vibe, the first guy gave off.
Yeah... no... Iv been to many and there has always been load of hard drugs going on. You are incredibly naïve
In terms of people I know it's not any more mainstream, I recall 2010-13 lots of people in my high school that would probably be considered "chavs/neds" going as guitar hero made hard rock kinda cool. Me and my group got into other music, tried those other drugs and realized the other scenes were vibrant and often more exciting and fun "alternative" scenes. I stopped going cause sitting in a circle everyone baked barely saying anything was kinda dull So it's often same people, they've just changed, and decided to come back to download, and I think the younger generation are just not as attached to a particular scene Overall I think it's a good thing the scenes moved on and become less dogmatic. it certainly wasn't any better when bearded metalheads in camo shorts were bullying emo kids, or bottling MCR. Theirs always been cunty behavior
There's a lot of drug use at download, but it's nowhere near as rampant as the other major fests imo
It used to be a lot more dependent on headliner - Prodigy and Pendulum years seemed to have more drug use (I remember talking to a guy when I was setting up my tent years ago and he grabbed a bit of smooth, plastic packaging off the floor and racked up a line whilst we were chatting)
That's coping and you know it is
I'm not outright saying anything, but it's telling that the worst of the crowd were there the day Pantera headlined 2nd stage
I used to be a Pantera fan but I find it hard to support a band with a singer who declares “white power” and performs nazi salutes. I think if you’re still attracted to them after that you’re either unaware or it says a lot about your character
I encountered more racists this year than I did in the last decade of Downloads I've attended A certain vibe certainly followed Pantera fans
Saw an old bloke ( got to have been 60 odd) with a leather battle vest full of swastikas and “ Norse “ nazi dog whistles. Cunt.
There’s no way in hell a guy was wearing a vest covered in swastikas. Someone would have got a photo and he’d of been battered.
Well he definitely was wearing it in the rip courtyard . 5ft6ish . Long black dyed hair 60+ dressed like he thought he was Nikki sixx, leather vest with swastikas and black suns all over it . Loud as all fuck .
Its kinda ironic as alot of those racists would have been part of the "chill friendly metalhead" crowd, that people feel is being infiltrated by the bucket hat wearing "normies" crowd there for limp Bizkit who probably have far less bigoted beliefs on average
I met lots more nice guys at pantera than I did a bizkit. But i might have just got lucky?
I was saying this the whole time... it just felt like negative vibes everywhere compared to last year. Last year, everyone genuinely wanted you to have a good time and was looking out for others, this year there were just twats taking the piss and causing issues at almost every turn. Not to take away from the genuinely lovely people I met, but some people were just assholes.
This was the first time I’d experienced bad vibes from people, some arsehole pissed on my mates foot in the Limp crowd, him and his mates were dicks for the rest of the set because we called them out on it.
I'm sorry you guys had to deal with this. I had a similar experience during Erra's set with some drunk twat in the pit who wouldn't leave us alone. I had a great time this year all things considered, but I'm not blind to disregard there were tons of issues, and not just the dickheads being discussed 😞 It was certainly a different vibe this year.
Completely agree, great time, but definitely different.
I reckon it was bizkit brought in people who had never been to download or a even a proper gig. Noticeable in the pit there, loads of people who really shouldn't have been in the pit or at the front getting battered. The vibes were completely different between the main stage and the opus stage. Opus felt more like normal download in my opinion.
Was this at the front left of the stage?
Yeah
Pretty sure I fell in that guys piss when everyone nearby fell over
Yeah, something just felt “off”. In previous years, people were willing to help out and a vast majority of the crowd were genuinely decent. This year, it felt like some of that was missing. As others have mentioned, there were people opening offering out hard drugs, people shoving others out of the way and just being generally dick-ish.
All of that happened to me last year and worse unfortunately
Download has always attracted this kind of crowd, and yet I see comments every year saying "It wasn't like this any other years" Yes, yes it absolutely was.
Yeah there's loads of posts from last year saying the same thing
When two of your headliners are Fall Out Boy and Queens of The Stone Age, you're going to attract a crowd not usually attending Download. Plus Royal Blood, Offspring, Enter Shikari, Busted, Billy Talent, The Used.... it wasn't a festival for the chilled out metalheads this time. Which is fine, but the crowd is gonna skew to the more loutish crowd.
Offspring and billy talent are download bands arent they?
Download has been and always was a rock and metal festival. All those bands have played before, some like Enter Shikari play all the time. People need to get this metal fantasy out of their heads and go look at the previous lineups.
I always like reminding these people that Feeder headlined in 05.
Chase and Status played the main stage
Pendulum and prodigy
Die Antwoord
I went to see Billy Idol instead but Feeder kindly saved their hits for when I was passing the main stage on the way back to my tent.
Last time I went Metallica headlined, great sets from Slayer and White Zombie. However that was almost 30 years ago and it wasn't called download.
You can't blame the bands playing or being booked on the dicks that come to watch. I'm a fan of more than one of the mentioned bands. Also a fan of a lot of metal bands. The music taste doesn't make the dickheads. Dickhead are dickheads no matter what music they're into.
see some bands i get but i saw fall out boy on tour and they are not a dickhead crowd - everyone was lovely
I'll back this- I used to work in a KFC next to a popular venue and when certain bands or dance acts played, we would have to deal with the absolute carnage of drunk coked up assholes coming out of the gig looking for food. My assistant manager got punched more than once and we would actually have to tackle the bathrooms as a team, it was so bad. The oasis crowd were the worst. Fallout boy played there twice and it was the mildest, most sober crowd we had ever had to serve. Not a fan of the band, but to the fans- thanks for not being pigs 🖤
All of those bands have played before apart from Busted
The crowd at busted had some proper dicks in it. Was a punch up between some girls twice during the set
Download has had most of these bands many times before, stop being so elitist. Download is a rock and alternative festival, it's never been just metal
Bambie Thug was one of my favourite acts of the festival
Same happened last year as well. It honestly felt more like leeds crowd wise
so true, leeds crowds and festivals were always brutal and download more chilled and friendly.
lot of boomers as well . average age definitely wasnt in the 20s. but maybe that's because it's getting more expensive.
Boomers are in their 70s mate...
People say this every year tbf
Hmm that’s fair! It was my first ever one so I have nothing to draw comparison to lol
One the reasons we choose not to go, it has always been one the most friendliest festivals, if anyone was in a state people were more likely to look after each other and be more respectful. I saw no fights while i was last there. The crowd and who they are attracting has changed, the bands, its lost its way.
This is why I'm looking to the more European festivals. I hear they are nicer, friendlier, cleaner, better organised and just generally better
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100%. Last year and this year, way more coked up bams than usual.
Noticed that too
This was my first Download and I’m gonna make an assumption that the crowd isn’t normally like it but so many people seemed absolutely miserable or like they didn’t know what they were doing there.
The usual crowd stayed away thanks to Headliners. It only "sold out" 2 days before the 5 day camping started. And that's if you believe the marketing hype
I was incredibly lucky this year in terms of crowd then i guess, im 16 and was so excited the whole day to see my all time favourite band Pantera, i met some incredible people in that crowd, how ever during the slaughter to prevail set all i could hear behind me was people saying “ this song is called killing Ukrainians “ and phrases along the lines of that, wich totally ruined my experience for them because it was just non stop hate belched towards Alex, truly unfortunate
I didn't realise you had to be a greasy metal head to come to download, the music at download was really bad, there was a few good live performances but on a whole it was pretty shite! There was a few groups and bands which were good.. i still enjoyed myself, funny how the people who go to download are so judgemental, and clicky. It's a festival just enjoy yourself and stop moaning.. maybe they shouldn't have booked Busted (how embarrassing) What were the racist comments anyway? Seems like downloaders are a bunch of snowflakes who seem to be upset seeing normal people at the festival
There were a few dickheads I spotted, they mostly got dealt download justice though so hopefully they learn, like the knob infront of me at dirty brasstards set who threw a can into the crowd, then accurate cans came consistently hitting the back of his head until he decided to leave 😂
Right on! You go girl! Baby Metal are a great band and deserve to be on the main stage..
Thank you!! They definitely earned it - I even appreciated them trying to fix the audio! Like yeah it sucked they only played a few songs, but at least they cared enough to let us actually hear them! Their choreography was great too, just wish I was able to enjoy it more as 80% of the time all I could hear were the lads next to me :(
Ratatatata is a fun song and I'm glad they were able to play it! I was hoping to see them join the Electric Callboy set for it but unfortunately they didn't play at all! 🤘😎
Callboy would have had to join babymetal, which it looked like they planned, since I'm pretty sure babymetal were busy Sunday with their own stuff. Shame their singer got sick. So many people recently have caught something. Can't blame them though.
been noticing way more people that look the sort to be at parklife & boomtown this year - bunch of dickheads in football t shirts and bucket hats barging out of wheatus' secret set and shaking their heads because they obviously had no clue what type of music wheatus play 🙄 my biggest fear is download becoming more mainstream than it already is but its inevitable at this point. i swear all those dickheads look around at everyone else thinking we are weird when in reality the festival is not for people like them. EDIT: i am not generalising people in football tops and bucket hats as being dickheads, this was an actual experience i had time and time again with a certain group - you can see that because i am specific with how they were dickheads. others have had similar experiences with people dressing alike, ESPECIALLY from the younger crowd. i dont judge based off looks, i judge based off character. and it just so happened every dickhead i came across was in very similar dress to eachother, which is why i even commented in the first place.
I don’t typically look like an average metalhead and I wore an England shirt on the Sunday but I love metal, rock and pop-punk. This was my third Download since 2014. I know the type of guys you mean though and I saw a few obnoxious ones in the crowd for Limp Bizkit but we’re not all like that I promise
Thank you for saying this. I went to download in football shirts, tracksuit bottoms and hoodies. I've been to a lot of downloads, but now I don't look like a 'typical' rocker, I just wanted to be comfortable. Also got a full patdown from security a few times because of it
I really hate that there's a supposed dress code for metal heads and rockers. Kinda goes against the entire mentality no? Just end up being a sheep in a different crowd.
ahh no i get you! euros were on so england shirts were bound to be about, and ive met many football shirt wearers in the past who have been absolutely lovely. but you can tell a definite difference between a dickhead with a football top on and a nice guy that likes football. hope you had a good time!
Yeah it’s a shame about the idiots there, I did get the feeling they didn’t respect the crowd or usual Download atmosphere. I suppose this is probably the problem with Reading and Leeds having awful line-ups. I had a great time thanks, hope you did too!
This makes me sad. I was last at download in 2011 and have lived and breathed heavy and alternative music my whole life and was so looking forward to "coming home" but was genuinely worried that because I took out my piercings, don't have tattoos and have relatively normal hair that I felt like I wouldn't fit in anymore, despite rocking my skinny jeans and metal core band t shirts, along with my partner who I've been teaching to love heavy music over the last ten years because we don't look alternative enough. I absolutely had the best time, genuinely felt like I was home with my people and everyone I met was so lovely but coming back and seeing people call out not-on-the-surface alternative people as "download not being for them" goes against what I thought the whole ethos of download and alternative festivals is that it doesn't matter who you are or what you look like you're accepted for who you are! I've tried my best to ignore it and for it to not put a damper on the absolutely amazing weekend but reading comments in this thread makes me feel like people were probably looking at us and judging me and my partner which feels so un-download and genuinely makes me really sad... Download to me has always been a place where you can go no matter who you are or what you look like which I thought was a core part of the alternative scene because we've all been judged and ostracised at some point for how we look and the "scary" music we like but it seems that doesn't apply any more 🫤
To me The point of being Alt isn’t about looking a certain way, people forget this, if everyone dressed the same way then it’s just as bad as the normies. We just tend to favour black, the great thing about download is that it’s for everyone and anyone, the only issue is everyone and anyone includes wankers and pickpockets I guess. I did notice the people camped around me seemed a bit more frosty this year but I just chalked that up to being unlucky with were I camped. Top of purple camp btw. To be fair I did have some good craic with a few different groups as I was walking on by. Love download man Edit. It’s not about dressing a certain way it’s about dressing however you want
i think youve taken my comment the wrong way friend, there is a very clear difference between genuine people and ignorant people in the way they behave, and its very obvious how to spot out ignorant people. at my first download, i was taken in by a bunch not wearing any band merch whatsoever and chilling in normal clothes, no tattoos or piercings either. people that are genuine and enjoy the music belong at download. people that barge past you and call you a dickhead and boo on the way out of a set because they didnt understand the music do not belong. and a lot of people i came across who did things similar were wearing similar things. energy is a very easy thing to tell, and im sure people could tell that you and your partner are lovely people.
Bro ignore these clowns. These are not people you want to look like, let them have this lol, their identity depends on being "different".
lol some of us manage to do both and behave 😅 also really similar chats happening on the boomtown sub too tbf
massive props to those that enjoy everything and are nice! i just mean the idiots that think it makes them so cool to be ignorant and a general asshole
Think a lot of those folk go to the festivals to get f’d up rather than enjoy any type of music. Dunno why rock ones are getting more like that. Maybe we ain’t scary enough anymore.
maybe its the other way around, people are coming to download expecting to get wayyyy more f'd because of our reputation when in reality we are all a bunch of softies looking after one another
hah maybe, seen that in Scottish festivals. People think everyone here had been in train spotting
It's the same in sports too these days, drunkards at the rugby, cricket and horse racing with little empathy for the game.
God listen to yourself. Because people that wear football shirts and bucket hands can't like the same bands as you. Your identity, fashion and personality can be more than your music taste.
you should read the rest of the thread. and the rest of my initial comment lol. i wasnt saying JUST about their clothes and you know that. its about behaviour and a lot of the rude people i came across were wearing similar things. its 100% easy to tell the difference between dickheads happening to follow a trend amongst themselves and respectful people who dont act the same.
I wasn't there but from your description, I think you're describing the Reading/Leeds overspill rather than Boomtown. Those are the mainstream festivals full of mardy dickheads starting fights and burning down tents. You don't want that lot stinking up a nice festival. Boomtown crowd are messy af but for the most part they're extremely friendly, positive and good-spirited, and in no way culturally mainstream. Booze and coke are the mardy substances, while MDMA, Ket and psychedelics are really not linked with antisocial behaviour IMO.
👏👏👏
I don’t typically fit in to the kinds of gigs I enjoy being black and wearing whatever tf I want going to psychobilly/punk/metal shows and have always had this worry at the back of my mind that I’m being judged for not ‘looking the part’… I just like the music, idgaf about playing dress up 🤷🏾♂️
Lol at the gatekeepers
I am not a Babymetal fan, but the message of not tolerating racism, sexism, or indeed any kind of discrimination in our community deserves all the upvotes.
Gutted what happened to babymetal she looked fuming when she went off stage
A lot of the “they’re manufactured!” criticism falls flat when you saw the look on their faces when they got cut off. They give more of a fuck about putting on a great show than most “real” bands do.
And Su immediately went to see what the problem was, they're more professional than a lot of larger bands I've seen.
What happened? I love Babymetal but didn't see any of Download.
There was a big surge of rain that meant they had to be pulled off stage. Then because they only had a half hour slot they only got to play about three/four songs.
Not even the rain, the wind. The massive TVs on the main stage were shaking, it was brutal to see. The wind was horrendous at that moment, though the downpour also made things very bad.
Oh man. That sucks. And sucks even more than people were dicks about it. Shame people like that can ruin it for others. I've only seen Babymetal live once, and they were fantastic, but some prick in the crowd through a hoodie onto the stage that hit Moa. He was chucked out, thankfully, and Moa was a complete pro about it.
I heard there was a lightning warning, every stage was temporarily stopped for safety. Just really bad luck that it keeps happening 10 minutes before Babymetal are due to start!
My partner called out some cunts for being racist during Hanabies set. Who were fucking awesome and I'm now a fan of. I made the comment to my group that this years attendees seemed considerably less considerate compared to previous years. And I've done a fair few now.
People like this are so embarrassing, like does it make them feel big and cool to bring other people down :) I don’t get it. Babymetal are cool, they’re not my no1 kind of band to listen to but I would never disrespect something just because it’s not for me. always seems to be grown men as well.
Sadly I think this is how the general public have gone. Lack of community activities and things for young people to do has lead to young adults being despondent and they feel a need to lash out. Drugs and alcohol don't ruin our experiences the people taking them for the wrong reasons do. We need more social integrity and discipline.
Very well said 👏
Babymetal deserves their place on the main stage and it’s disgusting to read and hear comments like that. They put on such an energetic performance and it’s disheartening for them and fans their set was significantly affected by the weather. They deserve to come back next year if possible and put on the fantastic show they can do. But for people to act that way is not only against the spirit of Download but against the spirit of music and art.
It seemed a bit off in the campsite as well, normally everyone's friendly and chatting and hanging out with people they just met. This year everyone kept to themselves around us, no socialising outside of their existing couple or group. Also I managed to sleep through it but according to my fiancée two girls who were camped next to us were being really loud and playing music until basically early morning and kept being asked to quiet down but ignored the people asking. Apparently at one point another girl asked if they could turn the music down and they replied "fuck you" which I thought was a bit off for the normal Download vibes...
That’s slightly strange, I had a lovely time with the people around me! I was the first to hear that my neighbour was gonna be a dad, and my group struck a rapport with the older people around us. We were in blue, though, which was a massive trek on day 1, so that might be partially to do with it.
We were in red, we there early enough on Wednesday so we should have tried to find some space in purple or something really...
That might have been part of your issue. Partially because it was the quickest camp to reach for buses, shuttles, and a lot of traffic, but also because it being closer meant that it was easier to do repeat runs for booze, not to mention hard drugs (there were barely any checks at the entrance). Blue was a trek for a lot of people, so it probably had less assholes by virtue of laziness - plus, people who go for a long time know that blue is on a hill, which is great for when the toilets inevitably get destroyed. Long-time guests are less likely to be shitheads. With that being said, there wasn’t much space anywhere from what I saw. Luckily my mates got there early on Wednesday and kept some space for me cause all the camps were filling up quick. I got there Wednesday around 2:30, for the record.
Problem is that it was my first Download since 2013 and everything had been moved around so I had no idea where the best camping spot was really...
I must have been in my own little world because i witnessed none of this apart from people pushing through crowds with 0 manners! Everyone i spoke to was lovely. If you don't like a band. Go and watch someone else or do something else! Ruining someone else's experience is not cool or funny, you're just a prick. Simple. Btw im no baby metal fan, but if you are, cool! That's your taste. Have fun and fuck the haters.
That’s so awful, and well done on calling them out. Next time take a photo of them and report them. I think download have a reporting page.
Had a similar experience with a girl who joined the crowd for Heilung just to start loudly complaining about how it was too spiritual and she didn't like it - why do people get deep into the crowd just to annoy everyone around them by being rude??
Don’t know I was 2007 Download where My Chemical Romance were relentlessly bottled and yelled. I have never been so ashamed of people for doing that in front of a load of kids trying to have fun.
And this is their precious "friendly and inclusive" metal scene.
I imagine they're probably used to it, they've been going for over a decade now, I still remember that Rob Zombie post where he was defending them, mans a class act.
Sadly, these people seem to come out the woodwork every time Babymetal play festivals. I saw them at Sonisphere in 2014 and was stood next to a couple of Maiden fans who spent the whole set yelling racist shit and doing slitty eye gestures. Just go and watch another band if you don’t like them?
Babymetal deserved a higher spot. After Next album they could 100% sub
They’re dumb as hell. I’ve seen Babymetal live 3 times here in the US and I’m gonna see them again in November and they have been fantastic every time.
Yeah I noticed there was a bigger amount of dickheads this year. A group of guys purposely pushed my mate into the mud because she’s was “singing along to loudly” to the offspring
Might be looking too deep into this but the whole state of the world right now might have at least some kind of impact as to people's behaviour. Noticed people in general seem more stressed out and on edge. Could all be bollocks of course. Babymetal are a lot of fun. Didn't see the show because was watching Slaughter to Prevail next door, getting screamed at by Alex who I think might actually be the devil, but no-one ever deserves racist or sexist shit so shame on them. I think good progress on those fronts is being made overall though, so try to keep that in mind.
I've said this years ago. Copping is trying to appeal to the reading/Leeds lot. I won't go back again.
Mate have you looked at the R&L line up recently? Its nothing like Download.
There’s nothing there for fans of mainstream rock, that’s why a lot of it is going to Download fans now. It’s mostly pop and rap these days
There's more indie rock bands this year than pop and rap, with hardly any rappers there this year at all really.
That's why I said he's making it like R&Ls. It didn't just happen overnight. It's all about money and sponsors.
This is pretty much it. Not to sound like a drama queen but the reality is the “old Download” is on its way out. The landscape of rock music is changing. The classic headliners who have been pulling in the punters over the years are getting old and calling it a day. The only natural course for a commercial festival like Download is to start catering to the more mainstream/Leeds crowds. And with it will bring all the demographic and cultural changes one would expect. I haven’t been since 2019 (I mainly follow this sub out of nostalgia lol) but I can’t really see myself going back. I’d more likely look to one of the European festivals like Wacken, which tends to have better lineups (though that’s just my own tastes) and generally seem more authentic “rock and metal” festivals.
Not entirely sure that Babymetal were disappointing? The situation was, but that wasn’t on them at all. They did what they could and the festival did what they had to do
yeah i totally agree! sorry if it came across otherwise - they kicked ass! just was disappointed overall the set was so short but not on them at all!
some guys near me were taking the piss out of their accents when they spoke. couldn’t tell who it was but it was so rude and racist
babymetal are so fucking cool man, idc how people don’t enjoy them, even if they don’t like the music the vibes are always there
Download is becoming more mainstream thus bringing in the wrong crowd, next year could be my last depending how it goes. Im sorry you had that experience, people like that have no place at DL.
Download has always been like this. 8 years ago my partner at the time was approached by a bunch of guys who told her “n****** like you have no place here”. Its always been full of racists.
Based on my own personal life experience, I've found a lot of rock/metal fans to be your typical right-wing, racist, UKIP/Reform boomer types, and it really puts me off
I think its as a lot of metal or rock bars are the exact opposite and any hint of that BS gets those people kicked out and banned. So you get that one bar in the city that might as well be a literal nazi bar and they all move round in groups. Sadly festivals get both ends of things solely as everyone goes
I think I was near the same guys just before, they were talking explicitly about sex in a way that was inappropriate, misogynistic and racist, it was shocking. When baby metal came on they shouted 'I love you I wanna fuck you' they were absolute shit for brains idiots. Thankfully they moved almost straight after baby metal came on to get beers and resettled further forwards, would've been great if some of the guys in the crowd could have called them out on this behaviour rather than laughing with them....
Had the same thing at Heilung. Couldn't really enjoy it when people were laughing at them the whole time. Hopefully I can go see them on tour instead
Oh hun, if I was there with you I'd have been giving them the same disgusted looks. That's awful. They sure as hell don't represent the vast majority of the metal community. Babymetal are amazing! I hope you get to see them again without sexist, racist pricks in your sphere xxx
Why are you telling us now, and not them when you were there.
Probably because it's intimidating for a woman to approach a bunch of (probably meathead, cokehead type) guys to argue with them and call them out, and who wants to spend a festival arguing with people?
I cried during Babymetal! They were one of the main acts I wanted to see, and tho they had a big break in their set, beyond their control, I adored everything they played 🥹❤️
Gutted to hear Babymetal didn’t get to finish their set. Have become a fan of theirs after given them a listen to out of curiosity. Sucks that the world has such arseholes. Don’t get why anyone who isn’t a fan of a band would want to be right at the front just to be total pricks about it. Like be at the front and be respectful. No need to behave the way you described. They are doing a disservice to the rock / metal family. We are meant to be a friendly bunch who love to show their emotion with head banging, jumping, singing and doing some crazy shit!
Metal fans are at both ends of the most inclusive and exclusive fans of their genre imo.
Fuck them, and fuck the miserable cunts sending you hate messages.
Did you post this on the download 2024 Facebook group?
no as i’m not in it as i don’t really use fb, feel free to share/repost though
I had to deal with the same thing when I watched Hanabie
I felt the same the same this year, there were some groups of absolute dicks, not the usual DL crowd
Film them stick it online. Soon stop
As soon as we stepped in dogtooth it was ket central. Coke I understand - I was sober the whole time and needed 9/10 hours sleep every night 😂
Ket's so much more fun lol, a lot less damaging, addictive and expensive as coke too
I remember a few years back when I went to go see BVB and there was a group of older blokes watching the whole thing, grumbling and yelling homophobia. Like, just go watch another band.
ugh god im so sorry you dealt with that. i was in the same boat for being disappointed with babymetal too. some dude literally barged me and my girlfriend (which we literally both have been waiting since wargasm came on) and proceeded to fucking record the whole thing and block half of my vision may not be that bad obviously and i was probably in the wrong but idk why some ppl this year (was my first download) were absolute pricks hope you had a great rest of the festival though!
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Someone needed a throat punch
Bands like pantera attracted plenty of red neck wanna be assholes with Nazi patches and tattoos. Scumbags
The absolute worst thing about the UK scene is the occasional chav who tricks themselves into thinking they like metal because it makes them look 'hard'
Bro I can assure you with absolute certainty there isn't a "chav" in the world that thinks liking metal makes them look "hard". This scene is softer than a snow patrol gig.
Saw a bunch of old women taking the piss and being racist during their set which made me feel physically sick tbh
I've found it to be the case often that metal and rock fans are a bunch of old racists lol... maybe its different with the younger generation. Idk though I'm an outsider ig
I'm sure it happens every year, but it doesn't help the optics when Pantera is booked
A lot of you saw a lot of shit you didn’t like and said nothing. Says a lot about where this scene is now. Call it out instead of moaning about it on fucking Reddit.
My sister in law sent me a bunch of video clips of their performance because I live in Japan. The crowd seemed to be enjoying it.
Yep, more racists, more selfishness and a lot more chavy mainstream teens on drugs. Download will become reading & Leeds eventually if we keep asking for mainstream bands.
Most of the racism, ableism and homophobia I’ve witnessed at Download has come from the older crowd, not the younger more mainstream crowd.
And what ableism and homophobia did you witness from these older metal heads?
what was the sexist and racist things they said? Trying to figure out if this is us
I never thought I’d be so glad I was too unwell to go! This year looked like hard work! So sorry you had this experience sending love x
Don't be fooled by the occasional sob story or online moaning - this year was epic one of the best DLs I've been to 🤌🤘
I was with my wife, who is Japanese. If only those lads had made the mistake of being in earshot of me when they made their racist comments, I would have started some shit. I remember when Babymetal first got announced for Sonisphere and they were getting death and r*pe threats. I mostly love the Download/metal crowd but it’s still got some complete wrong ‘uns. It makes me sick.
Saw Babymetal open for the Chili Peppers a couple years ago and they were awesome. I went in with 0 expectations but they were louder and heavier than rhcp which is very hard to do
Unfortunately, Babymetal have been exposing racism and sexism in the metal fandom pretty much since they started. I wouldn’t say I’ve liked everything they’ve released but I’m just happy there’s something different out there.
Nass festival got shut down so I guess all the absolute lowlife rats that took over that festival are spilling over, gross. I’m so sorry you had to listen to that. What a bunch of losers
There were a few people around us at Babymetal who were mocking their accents, repeating things they said. And just straight being rude. It was a disappointment. The metal and rock communities are already not inclusive enough, and to go to the biggest rock/metal festival and hear things like that is so disappointing
What is 'g**k'?
highly offensive racial slur against people of south east asian descent
I had the same issue watching heilung… just so many ignorant racist people, it’s always extra shocking when it happens at a place where there should be a strong supportive community 🙄
You let them ruin it for you by not moving.