Why Losing Download Festival Hurts More Than Most
At the tail end of May 2003, 17-year-old me crammed in the back of my best mate’s older brother’s car, pointed north, and made the 160-mile pilgrimage from West Sussex to Donington Park. This wasn’t the first time we’d made such a journey – just the year prior, we’d taken our first steps on the turf of the Home Of Metal, buzzing on a syrupy mix of Southern Comfort & Lemonade (why this was our drink of choice, god knows) and the intoxicating atmosphere of a place that carried with it such history and infamy. But that year, the Ozzfest 2002 one-dayer felt like we were arriving as tourists into a world that belonged to others; those that had known the Monsters Of Rock, who had long known Donington as their stomping ground. As kids, it felt like we had landed unannounced into the land...
