Tool, Metallica & Guns n' Roses - What are your 2006 memories & highlights?

Strapping Young Lad - by christ they were phenomenal!

The extreme heat and great line-up
 
Best bands for me were Metallica,Strapping Young Lad,Prodigy and Devildriver  was my 3rd year and think it was the best for me all round except what happened Sunday night/Monday morning which was a shame to end an epic festival that way but i i hold 2006 as the best festival i've been to.

Best download I have been to. Strapping Young Lad, Deftones, Tool & Metallica were all phenomenal. 
 
It was also the only festival I have ever seen riot police line the paths on the way out. Metal as fuck.

My first festival, and oh how I fell in love with Download!
Massively enjoyed the beautiful weather, Metallica, Prodigy, and Korn-aoke!!
 

the weather ,wow it was hot so plenty of pear cider 2 cool me down. missed loads of daytime bands due 2 inviting a friend who isnt into metal n i remember walking round with a hand carved wardrobe he bought while trivium n stone sour were on thinking wat the hell am i doing grrrr, never invited him again. did catch strapping young lad though n its 1 of my alltime fav dl moments. prodigy in the tent nailed it n glad i got in  the tent since there was a few thousand outside. tallica n master of puppets in full was great with the guest drummers[well done andy c]. it a pity it ended with the utterly shambolic axl rose n friends on sunday linkin park fri made up for it n was the highlight of the weekend

Strapping young lad absolutely tearing the arena a new arsehole. Stunning set! Also, the heat was brilliant, as were Metallica playing MOP in full.

sloppy snickers! 

Lordi playing the tiny 3rd stage tent barely 2 weeks after winning Eurovision - incredible*
totally ignoring GnR and snoozing in the sun
MoP in full
Prodigy tearing shit up, as you do.
The fantastic guitarist near our camp who sang Beatles songs all night, you sir had an incredible voice.
 
*I think it was 2006 they won it

Metallica playing all of master of puppets!
The riots
And Deftones... They were good that year

Deftones were awesome. The weather was brilliant and other bands happend. Throwdown playing a rubbish set and losing interest in them but Johnny Truant, Mondo Generator and Satyricon being brilliant though there 3 song set wasnt enough and why hell havent they returned?

By far the best year in amost every aspect of the festival the weather was amazing
Also this year made me realise I dont go to download for the bands nb there just added bonus its the atomsfaire(sp) I go for

The good:
 
Download 2006 was my honeymoon, having tied the knot 3 weeks before the festival.
 
Metallica.
 
Korn Karaoke...it wasn't that bad to be fair! Plus, only the best hits were played, none of this "we're gonna play something from our new album now".
 
The bad:
 
Scorching heat and nowhere to take shade. Took to pouring 2litre bottles of water over my head to cool down.
 
Long drop toilets!! Disgusting and the smell in the heat was like nothing else I've ever had to put up with.
 
Communal (not split male/female) showers. No prior warning about this, so didn't bring swim wear. Had to shower in a pair of my husband's boxer shorts.
 
Apparently there were riots? I slept soundly on the Sunday night, but awoke to the sights of burning melty toilets and torn down fences.

Getting to learn which of the snickers girls had snickers ice cream and making several trips to them.
 
The long drops... I saw things in the reflections that I can't unsee.... no idea why I looked down, I guess it's like a car crash, you just can't look away.
 
Something about a riot?

my first Download after Reading embraced the Indie disease.
 
Good: Metallica, Korn and rediscovering my fellow Metallers after one year of toughing out the *New* Reading (uuurghh)
Watching two guys with oner of those rubber catapults fire coke cans of piss at Axls(?) helicopter after GNR (dangerous? yes, funny? oh hell yeah!)
 
Bad: Guns and MotherFing Roses - i could fill a page about how bad they were but i wont, ill just say that ive never ever been able to walk  past the sound stage without encountering anyone during the headliner before.
The *Disturbance* - i saw fires, punching, toppling of security towers and one idiot lighting a toilet roll and chucking into someones tent as he was walking past.
The people watching were not amused and chased him out of my sightline while people stomped out the fire.

Waking up on the Saturday morning with a stonkin headache, thinking "...hang on a second, I know that tune..." then realising it was Down.  All traces of headache immediately vanish as I leg it down to the arena for 20 minutes of pure gold!
 
Phil being more wasted at 11am than I can manage if I'm toking all day.  "Don't look at me, or I'll fight you... and you'll lose!"

Haha yeah i remember Phil challenging the crowd was great was sitting on the hill watching Down with yeah a serious hangover and the snickers bars were just completely melted by the time i got back to the campsite and that was getting one on the way out of the arena to the Blue campsite so yeah it was that hot, I didn't see the people giving out Snickers Ice creams i was distraught when i got back and found out they were handing them out as well :( but yeah the whole weekend was amazing.

'06 was my first Download festival and I don't remember a lot of it due to alcohol, but I know it was brilliant enough for me to go back in 07/10/11 and going for 12!!
One of the best experiences of my life and plenty of great bands that have gotten me hooked on live music.
 
I do however live with the memory of those drop toilets >_< How glad I am they're gone!
 

Metallica playing Master Of Puppets album of course!!! Plus arriving to Download and swapping my regular camping writband for someone's Gold wristband which meant I stayed in the VIP/Media area and got access to backstage media area where I hung out with Will Smith (his wife Jada was fronting one of the bands that year!).....Awesome, thanks dude to whoever it was swapped their wristband with me!!!

The year where you could smell snickers and poo everywhere you went! My first festival and it had me addicted. Metallica from front row where astounding. They were the reason I went and the reason that, after a 4 year hiatus, I'm coming back this year. I came back with raging sunburn, a split open head, smelling like hell, with awesome memories. Never forget it.