Since Mean Fiddler stepped up security at the Leeds bit of their Carling Weekend, the festival season has lacked a good riot, so presumably it was with that in mind that a handful of Download festival-goers went on a mini-rampage on Sunday night as the rock weekender reached a close. About 12 people were detained by police after trouble broke out. Police were called to the site following reports of fires being started, and when they arrived they were set upon by a barrage of "missiles" (bottles and things, I'm guessing - I'm assuming no cruise missiles were involved here). Police say that some of those detained might face charges of assault or criminal damage, and to that end they appealed for anyone who caught the incident on their mobile phones to hand over pictures or video footage.
It's not entirely clear what kicked off the violence, though it's possible the rioting minority were annoyed at just how well behaved most of the rest of the 75,000 people at the event had been. In fact, prior to the mini-riot, police had commended Download-goers for their good behaviour - with only four arrests having been made at that point. And even headliners Guns n Roses seemed to participate in the good mood of the proceedings with Axl Rose et al being joined on stage by former and somewhat estranged bandmate Izzy Stradlin - who, for the second time in a month, joined the new Guns n Roses line up to play guitar on three songs. Of course, I say Rose was entering into the general good mood of the festival - that didn't stop him storming off stage on several occasions - but who'd want to watch a Guns n Roses gig without some drama queen antics from the frontman? (Unless, of course, yesterday's gossip about Axl was true and he was going off stage for an oxygen top up - in which case presumably he was more wheezing off stage than storming).
Anyway, back to the mini-riot. Commenting on the incident, Festival Director Stuart Galbraith told reporters yesterday: "There were 75,000 people per day at the event, and up until last night, there had been no major incidents over the weekend. The trouble involved a small number of otherwise fantastic customers who attended this massively successful event. This type of trouble is very rare and is completely out of character for Download fans."