Last year had sunburn and a hangover, and early in the morning a man in a burger van gave me bottled water, breakfast and aftersun for free which was kind :D
 
A couple of years ago my friend lost his phone...I got a call from 2 young people who had found it (i was his most recently contacted) and they missed half of the headliner to meet us to return it <3 not exactly a cheap phone either...

after i started to turn slightly yellow and find it impossible to move a few years ago, some stranger offered me their kidney. i thought that was pretty nice. :P
 
in truth though, nicest thing ever was chuck duran (rock sugar guitarist) last year. after the gig he (and the rest of the band) came to the barrier and said hi to the fans. I noticed that chuck was wearing an awsome rock sugar necklace and asked him if i could have it (joking obviously) and the ****er gave it to me!! :D
 
also, jess harnell did a whole bunch of wakko warner quotes. i swear to god, rock sugar are the nicest guys on the face of the earth.

tempest08

d_b

just got a flash back from 2009  me n my mate phil (ex boardie unless he still posts here phil?) we where waiting and a raw fish was being thrown around(anyone else remember this?) and he was looking at summert hit smack bang in the face after ppl around us and he laughed for about 2mins a guy walked up to him gave him a fag saying think you need that mate

[sm=Angel_anim.gif]

lol The Fish was called Eugene!
The people i go with are the ones who chuck him!

Big_Mick_On_Campus

tempest08

d_b

just got a flash back from 2009  me n my mate phil (ex boardie unless he still posts here phil?) we where waiting and a raw fish was being thrown around(anyone else remember this?) and he was looking at summert hit smack bang in the face after ppl around us and he laughed for about 2mins a guy walked up to him gave him a fag saying think you need that mate

[sm=Angel_anim.gif]

lol The Fish was called Eugene!
The people i go with are the ones who chuck him!

I wish I could've seen this. There are many "WTF" moments at Download, but this must've been top!

He was dressed with a red Superman cape to start with!
2010, they brought 2 kippers, one got thrown about, the other sold for £1 - the people who bought him had it in their tent all weekend - musta stunk!!!

My first year I turned up as a naive 16 year old with a tonne of bags, tents and a bunch of clueless mates on a Thursday evenin' with no idea where to pitch or how to even get there. 2 lads walkin by could see we were quite clearly confused, offered to carry all my stuff and helped us find a spot to set up before givin us some pointers on festival life. Such nice lads, every year i make sure help to out random campers who are strugglin if i can.

I think it was 2010, not entirely sure, but my driving license fell down the back of the lockers, and I was in a mass panic, fretting about how much it would cost to get a new one, etc... Reported it to lost and found, they hadn't got it, but told me to check back that evening... I went back, and lo and behold, someone had handed it in... No words can describe how grateful I was for that... If I knew who'd handed it in, I'd've given them a huge hug and bought them a couple of drinks...
 
As for this year, a lovely lady who recently joined this forum has bought my ticket... She's insane for doing that, but still, it's an incredibly nice gesture...

My laptop decided to double post >.< Apologies...

2007 some a**hole security took my mate offsite in the back of a van for "fighting". This particular guy could not have a fight with himself let alone anyone else. The security said they had seen a guy with a beard fighting and he had a beard.....good enough for them.
 
He had a nice long walk back from Donington village following that.
During the snatch, he dropped his phone near the dodgems.
 
The next day as we sat around the campsite commiserating, one of the guys working the dodgems phoned one of our other mates having found the phone and gone into the recently called. Went and collected and all was cool. Really took the edge off what had been a nasty incident.
 
Just so noone worries reading that, that was an isolated incident with the security and every year since then the security have been polite, helpful and good natured.

Big_Mick_On_Campus

tempest08

d_b

just got a flash back from 2009  me n my mate phil (ex boardie unless he still posts here phil?) we where waiting and a raw fish was being thrown around(anyone else remember this?) and he was looking at summert hit smack bang in the face after ppl around us and he laughed for about 2mins a guy walked up to him gave him a fag saying think you need that mate

[sm=Angel_anim.gif]

lol The Fish was called Eugene!
The people i go with are the ones who chuck him!

hahahahaha i remember the name now you say it was the jesus guy with you lot aswell?  as there was  a jesus mincing around lol

Haha I remember Eugene

Ahhh yes. Eugene the Fish!!! So many great posts in here now. everyone just helping eveyone else out completely selflessly! Laura, i always try to help out younguns and blatant first timers. No one likes being all worried and stressed out on their big trip!!
Banished, security back then has some attituude quirks, thankfully the people they use now are alot more understanding, tolerant and approachable! They abide by the law of free hugs too

In 2010 (my first Download) I lost my mates during Deftones and was incredibly hungover and far too hot cus of the heat that day. Went and sat on my own on the grass, looking very clearly ill with some water, and a couple of dudes came up to me and asked if I was ok.  One went and got me some juice for a sugar boost and the other sat with me and had a cig with me until my ex walked past and took me off to get some food. Really great guys, kept me smiling and laughing through the whole thing. =)

Haushinka.daz

As for this year, a lovely lady who recently joined this forum has bought my ticket... She's insane for doing that, but still, it's an incredibly nice gesture...

 
I'm sorry? Can I just get this straight? Was she a stranger? Wow, this ones a winner for me.
 
I remembered last year some dude tent was killed during the 10 minutes of rain at around 1 o'clock on the Wednesday we gave him our duct tape to fix it in return we got loads of cans. Just came to me.

This is such a nice thread! So lovely to hear about people doing good things for eachother. 
 
I have a story but it was at Reading in 2010 which surprised me even more tbh. The weather was vile and the mud was like nothing I have ever seen before! We were camped next to a group of uni students who appeared on the Thursday morning (we got there on the weds) and they were all pretty loud and obnoxious at first. We were dreading the next few days camped next to them. 
 
We decided to make and effort though and got chatting to them after a while and they were actually ok people. I helped them out once or twice with my magical bag of toiletries because they were pretty under-prepared for the weather and the festival in general really. Anyways on the Sunday the rain was evil and the wind was even worse. We got up went of to the arena as usual. Got back later that afternoon and noticed our tent looked a bit out of place and wondered what was going on. It turned out that in the epic wind our tent had completely fallen down and the group of kids camped next to us had put it all back up for us so that it wasnt totally ****ed when we came back from the arena!
 
I was so greatful to them and they restored a little bit of my faith in the human race that day. Needless to say that evening we all stayed up into the early hours to keep an eye that no one was trying to set fire to us/our tents (it was Reading after all) so we shared a ton of our booze with them and in the end had a really awesome night :D 

At sonis 2009 i took connor, for his 11th birthday, just fortheday. He is a massive bizkit fan (like hismum :P ) so said ok we can either watch from back here of i will take you down to the barrier. Him being typical lad he demanded to get to the front lol. We worked our way thru and got 2nd row. Kids in front got chatting and they were holding their spot for metallica so agreed to spread out and let him get on the barrier. Big northern guy behind protected us from the mosh all set!! he was super sweaty but super nice haha. Also, while we were waiting for them to start the security were bringing connor monster, mars bars, apples, crisps haha. Kept their eye on him the entire set even tho he was fine. Really good day that was and i think i became officially best mum evah hahahaha

Some of these stories are really nice. I pledge to be super helpful this year. Not that I'm not anyway, but I will give away a lot more free beer and shots this year for newbies that are lost or unsure!

Haha, one of my friends got a Eugene to the face while waiting to get in one year. It did amuse us. heh.

s1xxgod

Haushinka.daz

As for this year, a lovely lady who recently joined this forum has bought my ticket... She's insane for doing that, but still, it's an incredibly nice gesture...

I'm sorry? Can I just get this straight? Was she a stranger? Wow, this ones a winner for me.

I remembered last year some dude tent was killed during the 10 minutes of rain at around 1 o'clock on the Wednesday we gave him our duct tape to fix it in return we got loads of cans. Just came to me.

We've only been talking to each other since just before christmas, and I was in holland when she messaged me to say she had bought herself a ticket for download and, at the same time, got one for me too... She's not a stranger, but the gesture is rather awesome considering how long we've been talking...

Haushinka.daz

s1xxgod

Haushinka.daz

As for this year, a lovely lady who recently joined this forum has bought my ticket... She's insane for doing that, but still, it's an incredibly nice gesture...

I'm sorry? Can I just get this straight? Was she a stranger? Wow, this ones a winner for me.

I remembered last year some dude tent was killed during the 10 minutes of rain at around 1 o'clock on the Wednesday we gave him our duct tape to fix it in return we got loads of cans. Just came to me.

We've only been talking to each other since just before christmas, and I was in holland when she messaged me to say she had bought herself a ticket for download and, at the same time, got one for me too... She's not a stranger, but the gesture is rather awesome considering how long we've been talking...

And I'll make sure you're awake by 7am sharp each morning.