Download Festival is Nigh!

1) Stage times have been announced. They are on the official website here.

They have tried to avoid clashes between a lot of the bands on the first and second stages, which is good. Although new comic glam hair metallers Steel Panther clash with Whitesnake on Old Skool Sunday, or at the very least will make fans late for Whitesnake. Given how much of the weekend features no hair metal, it's surely going to piss quite a few people off that these two are on at almost the same time (not to mention people who don't want to listen to old skool big hair metal at the time...). Faith No More and Motley Crue's overlap is probably going to annoy a lot of people too.

I'll give it til approximately 11.35 each day before the running order falls completely behind and out of synch anyway.

2) If you're not yet going, weekend camping tickets have sold out, but weekend arena and day tickets are still available here. Presumably you'll be able to pick them up on the day, considering the backlog of tickets that Ticketmaster haven't yet sent out to loads of people who bought there's ages ago.

3) If you're not going at all, lots of live footage will be screened on the internet via the official Download website. This is presumably for those whose baggy jeans are too wide to fit out of the door and hence can't get to Nu-metal Friday.

Once I recover, there will be some sort of review on here a.s.a.p. next weekend.

Summer Festival Preview

Glorious weather is finally here (however briefly) and that can only mean that the summer festival scene is nearly upon us.

Out of the larger festivals Reading/Leeds, having had quite a metal-tinged line up last year, seems to have all but abandoned metal this time around with The Deftones appearing as the one token act. They still have their Lock Up stage featuring hardcore and punk bands if that’s your bag though, and there are more line up announcements still to come so things could change.

Glastonbury doesn’t normally feature anything metal, but it does have Spinal Tap this year…

So for a big festival it is really between Download and the new Sonisphere festival. Download is headlined by Faith No More, Slipknot and Def Leppard. Sonisphere by Metallica and Linkin Park. Download costs £130-£160 for three days of music and five of camping and Sonisphere costs £135 or £157.50 for two days. Metallica have previously headlined Reading/Leeds Festival 2008, Download 2006, Download 2004, Reading/Leeds 2003, appeared at Download 2003 and toured the country earlier this year. Linkin Park headlined Download 2007 and toured last year. Faith No More are reuniting just before Download, Slipknot have never headlined major UK festival (though cancelled an appearance at Reading last year at the last minute, and have toured regularly) and Def Leppard haven’t either, and have only played two before (though they did tour last year).

Lower down the bill at Dowload there is the return of Limp Bizkit and Skin amongst others, the crowd-drawing likes of Marilyn Manson, Korn and Motley Crue plus loads of great underground bands (such as Sylosis), and a crossover appeal to dance fans in the shape of Pendulum and The Prodigy. Sonisphere has Heaven and Hell (who may or may not have their minds on other legal issues), Nine Inch Nails and Fear Factory, apart from whom there is little that’s particularly remarkable. Sonisphere still has some line-up announcements to make, but given that Download has already sold out camping tickets and Sonisphere (which has a smaller capacity) hasn't, may suggest that the people have declared which is the best big summer festival for metal heads this summer.

On the slightly smaller festival side, Bloodstock always has pretty good line-up. This year it features Carcass, Blind Guardian, Arch Enemy, Cradle of Filth and Fear Factory. It also has Europe for some odd reason. And it's only £99 including booking fee and camping.

More on summer festivals soon.