A date that screamed out in the Daisies calendar was Download Festival, one of the worlds biggest rock and metal festivals, situated near Derby in England.
Known for many years as Donnington as it’s situated beside the famous motor race track, it transformed into the Download Festival a few years ago with an increase to 3 days of rock and mayhem.
John Corabi has fond memories as a youth growing up and hearing about the legendary English festival. “As a musician kid growing up in Philadelphia I always read about Donington in Kerrang and other music mags from Europe, so playing that festival was always a goal of mine. It was scheduled to be the first gig I did with Motley Crue in 1994, and for some reason we cancelled, I was bummed. So when I saw it on our schedule with The Dead Daisies, all I can say I was more than excited to get there!!! I wasn’t sure what to expect as we had the 11 am opening slot on the last day, but, the crowd didn’t disappoint. Despite rain, and early show, the Download faithful showed up HUGE!!!! It was packed!! And every last person gave us an AMAZING response!!! Now I can finally say I played Download/Donignton Festival, and hadmore than a great time!!!” John Corabi
Richard Fortus had played Download before, but even he didn’t know what to expect with the early start on a Sunday. “This was my 3rd time playing Download and I couldn’t believe how great the turnout was! I was afraid that most people wouldn’t be awake yet, considering we went on at 11am. The crowd was totally with us and by the time we finished, there were people watching us from as far away as i could see.”
Marco, another Download veteran gave his thoughts on the bands experience, “Having played Download a few times before, I knew what to expect, tons of people, lot’s of mud and rain, always a good time. This time was different though, our new album ”REVOLUCION” had come out just a few weeks ago and our scheduled time on Stage was the last day at 11am on stage 2, what to expect? To our surprise, with just 10 minutes before stage time, suddenly tons of Fans started showing up to the point where that was all we could see, nothing but folks in front of us ready to have a good time, and we delivered ……… what a great feeling!! We have to come back!!
FULL GALLEY: https://thedeaddaisies.com/download-festival-uk/