DOWNLOAD! Day 3: Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy!

We started with Greta Van Fleet. They were quite Led Zepp like and as I was the only one who’d heard of them so had dragged the others over to see them, it was nice that they enjoyed the music.

Then a bit of wandering around and a glance at the wrestling. Yes, I said wrestling! It’s not changed much since the ‘70’s, still corny!

Next up for me was Shinedown. I already knew I was going to love their set, as they’re one of my new favourite bands and I wasn’t disappointed.

I then wandered off for a walk round the festival as Marilyn Manson is not my thing. I saw bits I’d never seen before - could have done with another day to partake on the rides over in the little funfair area. Anyway, found some food, had a wee ( very important to get the timing right on these things, as getting there and back and finding your group amongst the crowd was quite time consuming ) and then settled down to wait for Ozzy Osbourne.

I was a bit worried that it would be a bit sad, wasn’t sure how he was holding up thesedays, but he did a marvellous job! His band were amazing, especially the guitarist, Zakk Wylde, who just blew me away. Sometimes I find guitar solos a bit self indulgent, but not tonight. It was a long solo, but I loved every second.

Ozzy sent us home after leaping about madly to ‘Paranoid’. By then it was dark, so the band couldn’t see us all across the field, but it would have been an awesome sight - goodness knows how many people leaping about as a last hurrah to the weekend.

And then just like that, we moved en masses back to car parks and campsites, no fuss, no fighting, just smiles and people apologising when bumping into someone. Like the singer of Shinedown said, the family of Rockers are the best, everyone is included, no matter age, gender, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, location, what you eat, what you wear ... everyone is included. So true, there were young and old, parents with kids, people in wheelchairs, people chatting away in their native languages, people whose origins were from outside the U.K. but everyone was enjoying the festival, and no-one was fighting, not even in the mosh pits at the front!

So, thank you Download. I hope to do it again one day.

P.S. The extra shows just how far from the stage I was, so it’s a miracle I got any photos at all!