Sunday 15/06/08 Day Three, Download Festival @ Donington Park, Leicestershire

Day 3 is again an early start. This weirds us out somewhat as the bands are finishing at the un-Godly hour of 10.30pm (festival curfew is generally about midnight). We catch Fightstar on the main stage. Leaving all previous band incarnations firmly behind him, the rather stocky (he’s like 6’4” in person) Charlie Simpson woos the crowd surprisingly well. By the third or forth song, everyone is pretty happy singing along and air guitaring. We head backstage and run into the very lovely Brock Lindow from 36 Crazyfists tucking into a rather beefy meat sandwich – how very rock n roll you are Brock!

Next up is Chiodos playing the Turborg stage. Half way through the set, front man, Craig Owens has a rant at a small person in the crowd who was repeatedly making a phallic gesture with his hand (you know which one!). In response, the singer says, “What you want to do that to my Dick? You’re 11! I could get it out and it could reach you from here. But that would be illegal.” Hmmmm.

We run backstage again to grab Rick Burch from Jimmy Eat World for a catch up. We’re marched into the bands’ dressing room area, and manage to celeb spot Charlie Simpson (Fightstar) Claudio Sanchez (Coheed and Cambria) and Craig Owens (Chiodos) backstage. Rick fills us in on plans for a new album. Unfortunately our resident Jimmy Eat World fan girl gets a little bit star struck and embarrasses herself (this never happens - honest) but thankfully gets a massive hug from one of her favourite band members, so it’s all okay.

Coheed and Cambria hit the main stage less than an hour later, and despite the band’s technical brilliance (Claudio even managing to do some strange guitar playing with his teeth) seem like they’re pretty much just going through the motions. The set is flat, they fuck up in quite a few places and generally the crowd are not really getting the vibe (and we should know - we’re right at the front!). This is a shame because they’re technically very gifted musicians.

Thankfully, we don’t have long to wait before Jimmy Eat World take to the main stage. Having told us less than an hour before that the set was going to be very rock (“to fit the vibe of the day”), we’re prepared not to hear any of their more acoustic works. Rik tells us they will play ‘Get It Faster’, ‘Let It Happen’ and ‘Sweetness’, which they do. During JEW’s set someone throws a bottle of piss at them. We are not having any of this, and let it rip at the perpetrator. The girls sitting on their boyfriends’ shoulders decide to flash the cameras (OMG! Boobies!). Some poor love doesn’t want to (we applaud you honey!) and the camera keeps zooming in on her - so a guy jumps up in front of her and flashes for her (we love him) “take one for the team boy!” After JEW, we run into Craig Owens from Chiodos backstage who apologises for his earlier rant.

We’d be lying if we said this wasn’t an awesome festival. But like anything else, it’s what you make of it! We’ll see you next year Download. We’re sure to still be passed out in the bush after over indulgence this year. Although, hopefully someone might have sent out a search party for us by then. Well here's hoping!

See the action from Day Three of Download below: