Download Festival 2013!!!
It’s that time of the year again!
In countries with a strong music festival culture, there are events that can give you memories for a lifetime. Believe me — if you’re a music fan, use at least one opportunity to travel abroad and see bands at a festival. The feeling is indescribable, and guaranteed to stay with you forever.
This year I got to go to The Great Escape Festival in Brighton, UK. Last year, I visited Download Festival at Donington Park, UK. Both are unforgettable. But Download holds a special place in my memory — not only because I’d wanted to go for so long, but also because it was the first metal festival in Europe I ever attended. I posted simply “Mabrur!” (“Blessed!”) when I arrived exactly one year ago. I hope there are many more to come.
Donington Park, where the world’s largest heavy metal festival takes place, is about two hours north of London. The festival runs over three days in June. I was there with Vicky from Burgerkill, Ebenk (also from Burgerkill), and Agung, Ebenk’s friend. The plan was to fly straight from Jakarta to the UK and head directly to Donington — which, in hindsight, was a bit crazy.
Preparing for the Trip
Even though I’d been to the UK before, the preparation still took up a lot of time. Midway through the planning, I was asked to add Agung to the group, which meant starting everything over: a new invitation letter from the organizer in London, a letter of support from Indonesia’s Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, updated flight tickets, room counts, hotel bookings, and visa applications.
There wasn’t enough time to go through the normal visa process. I gave up trying to handle it myself and reached out to a contact at the British Council Indonesia — someone I knew from the Young Creative Entrepreneur (YCE) 2006 program, where I had been a finalist. After explaining the situation, I was connected with a BC staff member who regularly handles visas for YCE alumni, and we were given the opportunity to apply for a Priority Visa.
The difference: faster processing, higher cost, and it’s only available at the British Embassy. We submitted the applications in person at the embassy and they came through in time.
Flying from Jakarta to Donington — Directly
We flew from Jakarta to London Heathrow. From there we were supposed to drive straight to Donington Park. Crazy, right? Flying 18 hours with all the festival gear — tent, sleeping bags, clothing — packed into our luggage, only to head directly to a campsite.
At Heathrow we met Dom, a friend who lives in the UK and was driving us to Donington. He had a large enough car. The weather report showed it would be cold — typical for England, even in June — but we came dressed like people from Jakarta. Nothing we could do about that. We just went with it.
The drive from the airport to Donington normally takes about three hours via motorway. We hit some traffic along the way, which makes sense — it’s a busy route connecting several cities. We stopped briefly at a mall in north London to pick up some gear, including Dr. Martens boots. Unfortunately, the store was already closed. After lunch, we continued the journey without the boots.
Arriving at Donington Park
When we arrived and queued to enter, I felt a surge of excitement that’s hard to describe. There were already thousands of people — a mix of families, couples, and groups of friends — all streaming through the gates. About 90,000 people bought tickets for the festival that year. That’s a lot of people. m/
Food, Merch, Charging Stations, and Beer
The first thing we looked for were the four most important elements for the next few days:
- Asian food. After a day stuck eating at the only burger stall near the campsite, we were desperate for something else. Luckily, Chinese and Thai food are popular in the UK, and there were Asian food stalls at every corner of the arena.
- Merchandise. There were several official merch booths selling festival merchandise and custom gear from the headliners and main stage bands. One booth was dedicated to t-shirts from the second stage bands. After a long walk, we found more options tucked away in the far corner of the arena — including a stall selling Iron Maiden merch in every style imaginable.
- Phone charging stations. These were available but always packed. Some people gave up and just bought portable chargers from the nearby stall.
- Beer. Iron Maiden’s official beer, Trooper, had its own tent. The queue there was consistently one of the longest at the entire festival.
The Campsite at Night
Back at the tent after the first night, I couldn’t sleep. By then it was around 4 a.m., which is usually when I’d be sitting at my desk back in Jakarta. The sky was already getting light — the sun nearly fully risen. Everyone else was asleep. Not knowing what else to do, I checked emails and messages on my phone, and sent a few messages back to friends in Jakarta expressing how happy the last 24 hours had been. They replied with envy. Ha.
Eventually the cold started cutting through. Around 5 a.m. I stepped out and headed to the shower facilities set up in the campsite area. Hot water from a shower hitting a body aching from 18 hours of flying and 3 hours of driving felt like the best massage of my life. I got dressed, went and bought a coffee and a hotdog from the burger stall 100 metres from our tent, and sat outside waiting for the others to wake up.