“We heard some heartwarming stories about people sharing space in their tents with those whose tents had been flooded”

When we launched our competition for Liftshare members to win tickets to Download, we didn’t expect poetry. But when submitting her entry to let us know why she should win the tickets, Emma delivered just that, and wrote the following:

Hey there Liftshare, nice to meet you, I’ve got a small proposal,
I need to get to Download, but with no car at my disposal,
I’m trying to win a ticket, and feeling quite a lucky girl,
But getting there’s a problem, so take me for a whirl!

A car share saves us money… that we can spend on beer,
And reduces all those gases, that hurt our atmosphere.
So how about it Liftshare, does that sound like a plan?
Let’s reduce our carbon footprint, ‘cuz the world ain’t our trash can!

And with literary skills like this, how couldn’t we send her some tickets?! Emma shared her prize with hubby Adam, who was thrilled to hear they’d be going – as they hadn’t been to the festival for 7 years!

Of course, as the weekend crept up on us, so did the downturn in weather, and Emma tells the tale of a seriously wet and windy festival. But, it seems this ended up facilitating some unexpected sharing between revellers. We’ll let her tell you about it:

“I chose to share my prize with Adam because we both love the bands that were on and we’ve not been to Download together since 2009. We tend to share most things as we have lots of similar interests! I suppose I also took him because he’s my favourite person in all the world, it’s our 4 year wedding anniversary this month. So it was nice to do something as a couple so close to our anniversary! 

Download 2016 has been dubbed ‘Drownload’ and I must admit, it’s the most rain I’ve ever seen in my life! We got there on Friday morning to a lovely dry festival and as soon as we had pitched our tent, the rain started. It was light at first and we had our waterproofs which we put on as soon as we got into the arena. Turns out they weren’t very waterproof!

The first band we saw was Babymetal, a j-pop/heavy metal fusion band who were a lot of fun. The heavens opened during their set with rain so heavy everyone thought it was hail! It didn’t take long for the whole festival to become a mud bath. 

Thankfully, festivals are a great place to be if you’re not prepared. I bought myself some new wellies and we heard some heartwarming stories about people sharing spare spaces in their tents with those whose tents had been flooded. We were lucky and our tent did us proud; keeping us warm and dry all weekend!

We had some amazing festival food as the arena is full of lovely stalls selling unusual food. Our favourite was ‘Bunny Chow’ a street food which originated in South Africa which is a hollowed out baguette filled with chilli.

Download festival has a great atmosphere and we met lots of lovely people who shared our love of rock music. Sunday was a real highlight with some of my all time favourite bands playing (my favourites were Halestorm who I discovered at Download 2009, and Adam loved Monster Truck and The Temperance Movement) and seeing Iron Maiden was literally a dream come true for both of us!

There was so much mud by the end of the festival (as you can see from my pictures), yet we still managed to stay dry after Friday’s torrential downpour. We even managed to get sunburnt on Saturday through the clouds! The moral of the story is to be prepared for all weather when in the arena with rain ponchos, suncream and warmer clothes because the arena is an hours round trip from the campsites. We were extremely lucky to not get stuck in the festival traffic and were out of the car park in five minutes – which goes to show how many cars can be cut out by liftsharing to events!

My advice for anyone going to a festival is to take a portable phone charger so you can get lots of good pics and are able set up your sat nav with live traffic information on the way home. We were tucked up in our own beds by 1am which we were very grateful of when we had to get up for work on Monday morning!”

So there you have it. Download was quite an adventure, and sharing it made the experience even better for Emma. Keep an eye on Liftshare.com for future trips and competitions, and you could be sharing too!