Photo: Andrew Whitton / Jenna Foxton
Download Festival certainly went out with a bang on the Sunday night, as the third and final day featured explosive performances from Steel Panther, The Pretty Reckless and Aerosmith.
After a full weekend of non-stop partying, festival goers slung on their sparkly trousers and hair metal wigs for Steel Panther. The rockers took to the mainstage, blasting into tongue-in-cheek tracks such as ‘Asian Hooker’ and ‘Death To All But Metal.’
The four-piece, known for their wild and controversial stage antics, invited seventeen girls up on stage during the song ‘17 Girls In A Row.’ The band then told the ladies to parade around onstage with their boobs out.
Lead singer Michael Starr said: “Last time we were at Download we got two girls to kiss, now we’re gonna get three.” Three crowd members then partook in a three-way kiss in front of a giant screen for all to see.
If that wasn’t provocative enough, lead singer of The Pretty Reckless Taylor Momsen could also been seen playing the Zippo Stage; initiating sultry dance moves to tracks ‘You Make Me Wanna Die’ and ‘Miss Nothing.’
To finish off the slightly bizarre events of the day and to close Download Festival 2014 were none other than mighty cock-rockers Aerosmith. Steven Tyler walked onstage wearing an elaborate sparkly stage costume, singing high-pitched lyrics to opener ‘Train Kept A Rollin.’
Covering The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ mid-set and dedicating the majority of their stage backdrops to iconic British images meant that the crowd felt reunited whilst singing along to the songs well- known lyrics. Emotions were also running high as the band played ‘Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing,’ with Tyler announcing it was his “favourite ever Aerosmith song...well, one of them”.
It was during ‘Dream On’ that things got really amazing though, with Tyler playing a grand white piano with hundreds of pieces of confetti bursting out of cannons during the songs climax. Just wow. The final day of Download Festival certainly didn’t fizzle out quietly, bringing more madness and fun than ever expected. We’re looking forward to next year already.
