Over the past weekend, the Download Festival in Donington Park, England was hit with rain storms and hundreds of cases of food poisoning. The legendary three-day hard rock festival was headlined this year by Queens of the Stone Age, Fall Out Boy, Avenged Sevenfold, Pantera, Limp Bizkit, and the Offspring. But instead of the live performances being the talk of the festival, it was the muddy terrain that covered the festival grounds, as well as bouts of food poisoning which afflicted hundreds of music fans and even Sean Smith, frontman of the band the Raiders, who tweeted, “Got food poisoning. Been sick ALL night. … I’ve got to go to hospital to be put on an IV apparently.”
Health officer Paul Sanders shared this statement: “We worked with the event organizer to investigate two food vendors, both of which were closed by the event organizer over the course of the weekend. We are aware of reports of people feeling unwell and will continue to investigate.” (Consequence of Sound)