Download 2019, Sydney Australia
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Its the 9th of March. Heavy guitar riffs can be heard in the streets of Parramatta. My destination was the location those riffs were coming from. That destination? Download Festival 2019.
The heavy metal music festival had an impressive lineup with industry juggernauts such as Slayer, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains and Anthrax (with Ozzy Osbourne originally billed to play) just to name a few. Prior to Download, there wasn’t any major heavy metal music festivals (other than sound-wave which was cancelled in 2016), so a mate and I decided we’d go. We’d been to a lot of Triple J supported festivals before such as Falls Festival, Groovin the Moo, and Yours and owls but we had never experienced a heavy metal festival before and were pretty much going just to see Alice in Chains and Ozzy.
Our expectations varied and we weren’t sure if it would be for us. Safe to say that even though we knew hardly any acts performing, We enjoyed the hell out of Download.
The Atmosphere, People, and of course, Music completely differed from anything we’d experienced previously at any gig or festival we’d been to. Festivals like Falls offer a wide variety of artists and genres to choose from and leads to different vibes (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing). At Download however, every single person was there for the same genre of music. This was shown in the passion these people had when screaming out the lyrics with passion to Judas priest’s ‘painkiller’, or laughing and having the time of their lives as they threw themselves into circle pits during Slayer’s ‘Raining blood’ and
the bands performed with real passion and love for the music and their fans.
A lot of stereotypes lead people to believe that the heavy metal community is full of hatred and violence. This is certainly not the case. They’re some of the most friendly and caring people I’ve met and made me feel welcomed in a community I felt I had no place in.
Even though I knew almost none of the bands that played, I am truly happy to have been apart of Download 2019.
Mitch's blog 
A really well written Blog! It’s really cool that you still went to the festival without knowing the artists too well just for the experience. I am really into live music and have only been to similar triple j hosted festivals but have always wanted to go to a heavy metal festival! Never really had the chance because I was worried about the stigma they have about hatred and violence, but with your experience and how you felt welcomed there has help change my perspective on them and i’ll consider going to one in the future!
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I really resonated with experience of going into an audience situation with little expectations or knowledge of what you’re going to experience. I believe when we loose this judgement of what we are experiencing, we can become wrapt in the moment have a more authentic experience. There does remain a stigma over heavy metal that it provokes violence within its listeners and is generally associated with many negative attributes; however, your experience as a wholly positive one is refreshing and enlightening, as an audience you learnt to observe and consume media most people avoid.
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