Download festival upgrading to 5 days camping from 3 days?

Raksha

Despite Ticketmasters 'no worries' respinse to my email asking if this was possible, I've not been able to get to speak to a human being through their phone system.

I am told its possible to pay the extra £10 at the site on the weds and camp with the 3 day ticket. Do they ever sell out?

Stressed out Mum of 2 excited post 16 year olds going to their first festival..

*manda*

I don't know, but efestivals has a great forum and I expect a quick search or asking the question will confirm this!

Nile

Ever so slightly off topic but...........I spotted a good quality black metal 'Festival Trolley' in Asda today. It folds down well and is very sturdy when opened up. It costs £12.00 and I think it might be a useful tool to carry tents and stuff.:D

Sharon87

Anything with wheels is rubbish at most festivals! Especially Download. I always see people struggling to wheel the rented ones over the rocky, wet, muddy ground!

Download generally sells out, but usually a few days beforehand, but since you've already bought the ticket, there'll be room for the extra 2 days camping.

SunReader

Given up on download now, rip off everything, customers treated like !!!!! and very little preparation for heavy rain, year after year.

Kids will love it but be realistic as to how much cash they will need to take with them to eat and drink there - arena can be a mile or two away from camping areas. A few years ago there was a heat wave and over 2 millions 250ml bottles of water were sold at 2 pounds each, also quite a few kids got badly dehydrated.

5 days better than 3 and yes you can do it.

marywooyeah

Download gets very muddy! I'm talking your shoes-getting-stuck-in-mud-and-your-feet-coming-out-of-your-shoes kind of muddy!

I would definetly not take a trolley at all!

OP the facilities at Download are quite poor, every year all the toilets get blocked up so lots of the cubicles are unuseable and for a while they had those big block loos where there's a big poo and wee catcher tank underneath. As a result, the campsite smells like a sewer pretty much from day one.

East Midlands Airport is nearby so there's planes going overhead frequently, it's very noisy and difficult to sleep. I definetly would not recommend camping for 5 days! If you go on the wednesday, by the time the festival starts on the friday you'll be ready to go home!

Have you considered booking a b and b in nottingham? You can get a train to East Midlands parkway and they have buses every ten minutes or so running to the festival itself.

If not and you want to extend the camping, I know camping has sold out in the past so I would pursue your enquiry through ticketmaster. I called ticketmaster yesterday and when I eventually got through to someone they were really helpful - here's the number: 0844 4999 999

Sharon87

SunReader wrote: »

Given up on download now, rip off everything, customers treated like !!!!! and very little preparation for heavy rain, year after year.

Kids will love it but be realistic as to how much cash they will need to take with them to eat and drink there - arena can be a mile or two away from camping areas. A few years ago there was a heat wave and over 2 millions 250ml bottles of water were sold at 2 pounds each, also quite a few kids got badly dehydrated.

5 days better than 3 and yes you can do it.

I managed to Download on a budget last year. We took a car and loaded it up with food and booze. You can take food into the arena, just not drink. But you can take empty bottles in to fill it up with the free tap water. no need to buy water! I managed to spend a lot less on food than I had in the past, 1, sometimes 2 hot meals a day bought on site, accompanied by my own cereal bars, pringles, fruit, sweets, sausage rolls kept cool with ice packs for first couple days and a bbq the first night! Also lots of drink for campsite as well as taking one for the long walk to the arena.

Yes it gets very muddy but so does Reading Festival. I found Reading worse than Download for it.

It sounds like you would prefer Sonisphere though, when I went last time it was on, even with the amount of rain we had, the ground was pretty solid, just had some muddy puddles.

Raksha

Its not me whose going, im just the transport, thank goodness. Its at 17 and 19 year old who've camped with cubs and scouts since they were so high, so they will be hosed down on return, black bags for washing etc.. their toilet habits are quite up to those sorts of conditions, it may even make them appreciate a dry bathrom floor! They're taking ration packs, camping stoves with solid fuel packs and lots of noodles, cereal bars and baby wipes

Robbie at Knebworth was dnough for me, glad I went, but shan't be doing it again, spent the whole time at the back near the loos where it wasn't crowded

Paulaviki

I've camped at numerous muddy festivals but was lucky that the year I went to Download it was dry and we had a campervan. Cost us about £100 each but it was so worth it!

Did you manage to get the early camping tickets? You definitely need them to get a decent spot and to get the maximum festival time.