Fox Reviews Rock

Sunday.

Our final day at Download, and the best weather we had all weekend!

We headed to the festival for 11am as they were letting everyone in, this was later than it was supposed to be due to the organisers having to put more straw down on what can only be described as a swamp.

Today we were unable to enter through the south car park due to it being so muddy over the past couple days, we heard reports of cars being stuck in the mud, some all night! We instead headed in through the North entrance, when we got there there was a huge queue twisting and turning all around the field, however shortly after we arrived it seemed everyone gave up with it and the queue turned into a stampede towards the entrance.

The North entrance was a significantly shorter route and not through any campsites, so at least we know if we decide to go again in the future! This entrance brought you out right near the Avalanche Stage.

Once in, and water bottle filled, we made our way to the Opus stage where we met the rest of the Fox crew to watch 311 together. They are an American band with a mix of reggae, metal, hip-hop, and funk, creating an unexpected but unique sound that we really enjoyed! We stayed for the whole set that consisted of 5 songs with ‘Beautiful Disaster’ and ‘One and the Same’ being our favorites. This was the first time we had listened to them and would recommend them to anyone looking to explore a fun new sound!

Next up was Royal Republic, from Malmo in Sweden. Although new to us, the band seemed a popular choice at Download as the crowd thickened somewhat before they had begun to play. Royal Republic came on stage wearing matching black outfits and played 8 songs. The band told us they are big Metallica fans and asked the crowd to be nice as they played ‘Damage, inc’ which we thought they did an excellent job of covering, they also played ‘My House’ and ‘Tommy-Gun’ which hyped us up for the rest of the day and gave us a reason to listen more to the band and hopefully catch them again in the future!

As the crowd changed we managed to get almost to the barrier for the next band, Zebrahead!

Opening up with ‘Rescue Me’ Zebrahead were as enthusiastic as ever with their set, we have never been let down with their comedic approach to crowd interaction, this time it was one of the barrier security staff’s birthday and they wanted as many crowd surfers as possible! This led to around 20-30 people passing by us, some were unfortunately dropping before reaching the front due to gaps in the crowd as the mud was partially deep in some areas.

Zebrahead then played ‘No Tomorrow’ and ‘Hello Tomorrow’ before playing their brand new song ‘I Have Mixed Drinks About Feelings’ which they were recording for their music video, but unfortunately we had to head out while it was playing to catch Bowling for Soup. We could hear their final two songs ‘All My Friends Are Nobodies’ and ‘Anthem’ as we were making our way across the arena.

We fought through the crowd to get almost to the center stage for Bowling for Soup, we were pretty excited for this set as St Jimmy hadn’t seen them play since 2007, and this was Rex’s first time!

Only 3 members came on stage, but dove straight in with ‘Girl All The Bad Guys Want’ followed by ‘High School Never Ends’ they also let us know the fourth band member; Chris Burnley, was unfortunately in hospital and unable to join them.

The band played many of their best sing along songs such as ‘The Bitch Song’ and ‘Phineas and Ferb Theme Song’ while also providing great interaction and getting distracted with a toy plane that an audience member had thrown into the air. During the set Bowling for Soup were also joined by Zebrahead for a fun photoshoot, Jaret’s son wearing an oversized tortilla hoodie which lead to the crowd chanting ‘Tortilla’, as well as Brenden B Brown where they played ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ together and announced their tour along with Magnolia Park! (We already have our tickets and are very excited)

The band finished strong with 3 more absolute bangers ‘Punk Rock 101’, ‘Almost’, and finally ‘1985’ a SR-71 cover. There was enough time between bands as they now seemed to have got back on schedule for us to rest our voices and get even closer to the stage.

Next up was SUM41 for their final UK festival show, they also told us to keep an eye out for their final UK tour too (which we also now have tickets to)

AC/DC’s ‘T.N.T was playing as the band came on stage, their first song was ‘Motivation’ correctly guessed by St. Jimmy during the intro. After, they jumped straight into ‘The Hell Song’ and ‘Over My Head’ and the band were not the only ones jumping, we were surrounded by mosh pits and people jumping which only added to the explosive atmosphere the band provided!

The hits were flowing through the whole set with ‘Landmines’ from their last album Heaven :x: Hell, ‘In Too Deep’, ‘Fat Lip’ as well as a sped up version of ‘We Will Rock You’ by Queen. Finishing their 12 song set with ‘Still Waiting’ we thought they had a great set list, and hope that they add ‘Pieces’ and ‘War’ to that setlist for their upcoming tour.

After watching 3 bands back to back and only moving closer towards the stage our tummies were rumbling so we headed out of the crowd to get some food! We settled on Sri Lankan food which filled us up very nicely, we decided to stay a bit further out from the center of the crowd for Limp Bizkit but still managed to get an excellent spot.

Limp Bizkit set was slightly different to any other that we had seen over the weekend. They started with ‘Break Stuff’ and the crowd went wild, mosh pits, crowd surfers, absolutely everyone jumping, you name it! This was then followed by Oasis’s ‘Wonderwall’ but not performed by Limp Bizkit, they had songs playing through the speakers in between each performed song. Although a little thrown off by the change of pace Fred Durst kept the crowd thoroughly entertained with both songs performed by the band and the music played between.

Although the setlist was bizarre, every single song played and performed had the crowd singing and dancing, even some proposing!

The set continued with Limp Bizkit performing songs ‘My Generation’, ‘My Way’ and a cover of The Who’s ‘Behind Blue Eyes’ which Fred mentioned that lead singer of The Who hates him. We thought these songs blended well with the songs they chose to play through the speakers.

The set was briefly paused due to Fred spotting a crowd member in distress, it was quickly resolved but gave us a new appreciation for the band.

As the set was coming to an end they played George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper’ through the speakers, followed by a cover of ‘Faith’ which we think they did a great job at, and finally they finished on a song that I don’t think anyone could have predicted, ‘Break Stuff’ yep, they started and ended with the same song! They knew what the people wanted, and they gave it to us! Twice!

We made our way slowly trudging back up the hill through the mud back to the rest of the Fox Reviews team to watch the headliners Avenged Sevenfold, we have a similar opinion to Fox with this one and we weren’t particularly impressed.

We ended up leaving early and getting churros just before the stall closed, this meant we managed to get extra! As we made our way out of the festival we could hear Avenged Sevenfold finish their set as well as blow the electrics playing ‘Nightmare’ and we are very glad we didn’t have to try and leave in the pitch black like many others!

And that was it, our first ever Download Festival! There was rain, a lot of mud, some new to us bands, some bands we haven’t seen live before, some bands we have seen many times, and a lot of tickets bought for upcoming tours, we definitely had fun and it was a great experience! We look forward to the lineup reveal for next year to see if we will be returning!

St. Jimmy and Rex 🖤☠️

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