Day Two of Download and Derby's annual metal roar has already hit the national news, with footage of unfortunate campers tents being deluged by water.
England's classic British summer has upped its game, bringing heavy rain to the heavy festival, and the site is struggling.
On site, things take time; one foot down, one foot up, squelch, squelch, squelch...there is no racing between stages to watch your most desired, instead just a slow amble to get into place.
And we're ready and waiting when Sixx:AM play under Lemmy's main stage.
This time last year he was pulling down the shutters on Motley Crue, but never far from a bass, Sixx has pulled his 'other band' up and is back occupying the main stage today.
Album number four hit the racks at the tail end of April, so they are here to build on that and they go about it with a set measured, slick and hard.
It's Sixx of one and half a dozen of the others (namely guitarist DJ Ashba and front man James Michael) here, and when they pull together they reward a healthy early afternoon audience with blistering solos, solid grooves and vocally suss deliveries for their troubles.
Among the clutch of stuff aired, we get the title track from the new opus, Prayers for the Damned, and the superb Rise (with some serious backing vocals) from the same release.
And, the thing that started the whole rumble close to a decade ago, Life is Beautiful, is warmly received.
There are more people here singing every single word of every track than even the band probably hoped for, and songs with more sustenance that they've been given credit for. A nice job, done well.
Over on the Maverick stage, things couldn't be more different – it looks like a birthday party for kids fired up on E numbers has gotten all out of control.
Demented clowns, a shepherd chasing a sheep, an oversized boogying bunny, Kim Wilde and the balls of all band members flying high in the air.
You couldn't make it up. And Kim Wilde.
Yup, Nottingham's cheeky 'erberts Lawnmower Deth are back on the Donington turf for the fifth time, and wring every last drop from their 30 minute stage time. Luckily there's a fella with a Smelly Mop on stage too. And Kim Wilde.
The English thrash experience have pulled out all the stops and all the gimmicks for their set, and a tent full to the rafters is having big fun.
Pete Lawnmower introduces 80s popstar turned gardener Kim to the stage, who joins the Deth to do the business on their thrashed up version of Kids In America, but before that she does a cracking turn with Watch Out Grandma Here Comes a Lawnmower. Seriously.
And you thought Trump's progression in the Presidency election was bizarre...
“I can't believe I'm performing with Kim Wilde and throwing bread off the stage,” Pete says as a decidedly heavy press pit of happy snappers get their shots.
It's Download gold for those that managed to make it, and they leave with a slice of 'Viking Metal up your arse...in a Robbie Williams kinda way...”
You don't get that with Rammstein.
She's frisky and fabulous, a maelstrom of whipped up, pumped up attitude, looking all svelte and slinky in her quite fabulous bright white catsuit. And when she's not summoning up rock and roll on the stage, Juliette Lewis is a great actress, but not even she could act this well.
Her music making is the real deal and Juliette is unstoppable today.
“This is a new song about sex called Anyway You Want,” she says before slinking and kicking her way around the stage, channelling her performance side.
And that she does it while wearing healed boots is just that bit more endearing.
Or are we jealous? We can't make our mind up.
But watching her at work you get an idea of what it'd be like to join Juliette for a session at the gym. We've she a couple of pounds just watching it.
Her band are pretty darn formidable too, as they journey us through their stage time with the classic oldie Hot Kiss, and the cover, Proud Mary.
Rolling on the river? Yep, that's akin to the journey over to this stage to catch Lewis giving it large, as it happens, but it was worth that sinking feeling - she's got this rock n roll malarkey well and truly licked.
We slip, slide our way back to the Lemmy stage to catch Megadeth rounding off their set. Giving a lesson in metal survival, we make it in time for the ass end of Symphony of Destruction.
This is Megadeth by numbers, and hey, there ain't nothing wrong with that when it's as perfectly placed as this.
It's still dry for now, Download is on the up, and festival eyes and ears stay in place for the set finisher Holy Wars, a song more than a quarter of a century old, but lyrically and musically sounding more on the money than ever.
Rain had been promised all day, and the heavens cut loose for Deftones as a slowly recovering site is pounded again.
It' a momentous day today; the last time that Black Sabbath will ever grace the Download stage.
This tour of theirs isn't called The End without reason.
The fans want classic hits and the band have a steady stream of 'em, a real crowd-pleasing delivery this is; Black Sabbath, Fairies Wear Boots, After Forever, Into the Void, Snow Blind...like the rain which is now on terrific form, the songs come fast and heavy.
There's a bit of stage encouragement and a couple of heartfelt thank you's to his crowd from Ozzy for unrelenting support over the years, but by and large this is Sabbath spilling slab after another, with Geezer and Tony bringing those riffs and feeling those frets with the necessary urgency.
“This rain just adds to the atmospherics!” shouts one lass to her buddy behind us.
Dirty Women plays out: 'I need a lady to help me to get through the night, if I could find one then everything would be alright.'
The world of rock owes these guys such a debt, and as the pyros precede Paranoid and the fireworks call time on this particular show, it's probably just as well that the weather has, not the first time this weekend, turned Download into Drownload.
It means any teary eyes and wet faces can be blamed on the rain, not on the emotion of seeing one of Britain's finest bow out of this festival forever.
