Sunday

I made my way to the main festival site about 12 Noon and arrived in time to catch Planet Of Women on the Barfly stage. Was a pretty damned good set, and some nice eye candy too. After their set was over it was over to the Main Stage, to catch Ill Nino, Soulfly, Machine Head and Slayer. Happened to catch the back end of the Breed 77 set and most of Turbonegro's set. Went for some food and ended up missing most of Ill Nino's set. But was in place to catch Soulfly, who blew me away; absolutely superb set and they even played 1 or 2 old Sepultura tracks. Machine Head were next on set and were even better. I've been a fan since their first album and they seemed to be really hyped to be playing Donnigton. The real big highlight of their set was the "SuperPits" they got going; the main one was at least 15 yards across and the smaller one was about 10 yards across. Absolutely awesome sight. Slayer were due up next but due to apparent problems with their gear and crew they didn't make it in time but were shuffled about to play later on the Snickers stage. Damageplan, a side project of Pantera, were the lucky ones who got bumped from the Snickers stage up on to the main stage and they grabbed the opportunity firmly by the throat and blew the crowd away. I'd listened to Pantera in the past but was never really in to them in any great way. I hadn't even heard of Damageplan before they took the stage, but I'm glad I watched their set; brilliant.

After Damageplan finished I decided it'd be a good idea to get over to the Snickers tent ASAP in order to get a decent spot to catch Slayer from. Was lucky enough to catch the whole of Life Of Agony's set, another band I hadn't heard of; well, not all actually, I caught what they played; which was about half their set. Apparently the lead singer saw a member of the audience go down half way through the set and he stopped the gig to get the audience member help. By time it was sorted they'd lost about 4 songs out of their set but rounded off with 2 corkers. Big Ups to the guys for biting the bullet and doing the right thing. Taking Back Sunday were due on set after Life Of Agony, with Slayer due on right after them. However, the crowd turned decidely ugly and started peppering the stage with bottles whilst the crew were trying to set up. I think the band decided that discretion was the better part of valour and elected not to take to the stage; paving the way for Slayer. By the time they came on the stage the tent and area surrounding it was packed with fans and the atmosphere in the enclosed area of the tent was electric. Slayer didn't disappoint and from the opening chords of their first track to the end of their set they blew everybody away. 40 minutes of excellence, and almost worth the ton I paid for the full weekend. They're touring with Slipknot in the Autumn and it is so tempting to go see them in Manchester or somewhere. By far the best act of the 2 days!!!!

Slayer finished at about 8:20pm and Metallica were due to go on stage about the same time. Moved over to the main stage and ended up waiting for well over an hour until Metallica finally took the stage at just before 10:00pm with the news that not all of them had made it and Lars was in hospital with a mystery illness. They had spent the best part of the day running around the other bands asking who would be willing to play with them. Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Joey from Slipknot and Lars' roadie all stepped up to the plate. I'm not sure if they would have played the same set if Lars had been there, but they ended up playing the classic stuff they had become famous with; Battery, One, Blackened, Enter Sandman, Unforgiven etc... They were awesome, probably every bit as good as Slayer had been and in most people's eyes probably better. I rate the Slayer set more because I was a lot closer to the action and it felt much more personal than the position I ended up in for the Metallica set. Got back to the camp site at just short of midnight after having enjoyed the whole day.

Monday morning, was up by about 7am, but Paul had been out on the piss until 3am and he didn't emerge until closer to 9am. Finally got packed up and left site at about 10:30am, after spending 45 minutes trying to get out of the car park. Will be going next year for definite but won't take as much crap with me. Next year's is already in the planning stages, only 11 months ago and acts are being discussed. My wishes for 2005 are Evanescence, Rammstein and Iron Maiden.