SOME may have prayed to whatever god they believe in that the three days of the 2009 Download Festival would be blessed with beautiful weather.

On day one, they were not disappointed.

The whole arena was bathed in brilliant sunshine as Hollywood Undead kicked things off on the main stage with a nice line in rap metal.

The layout of the festival seems a lot smaller than previous years, which makes for a tight atmosphere. Nonetheless it is conducive to creating appreciative crowds.

Unfortunately, glorious weather and a good audience do not always equal a good performance. Staind were a non event, going through the motions in their 30 minute set.

While Billy Talent did their best, they didn't really engage the crowd too much.

Kudos goes to Kill Switch Engage who made the most of their late afternoon session.

On the second stage, a decent sized crowd had amassed for Italian rockers Lacuna Coil. But, although singer Christina

Scabbia looked gorgeous, sadly her vocals were let down by a poor sound system.

Fairing much better on the main stage were recently reformed nu metallers Limp Bizkit, belting out a string of hits and nicely preparing all of us for Korn. The California rockers were maybe not as brilliant as their stint in the second tent two years ago, but thoroughly good value.

Finally, thousands of us anticipated the second coming of Faith No More. And while a tongue in cheek rendition of Reunited was a nice touch, I personally thought the rest of their show drifted along without much drive apart from brief highlights like Epic.

Overall, a mixed bag of a day and maybe too much sun wilted my enthusiasm. I am hoping for an awesome Saturday.

joel.wainwright@nottinghameveningpost.co.uk