Benicàssim 2014

[Fozzy Foster]

Also, Muzzy, whilst I cannot compare it to years gone by, the heat was not that bad to camp in at all. While it did get hot in the afternoon I was able to sleep in until midday quite easily.

Yeah I didn't think the heat was that bad this year, I'll call a truce with you on that one.

[dsbeale]

Yeah I didn't think the heat was that bad this year, I'll call a truce with you on that one.

My tent was 40°+ every morning. I would wake up at 9 and be wet head to toe with sweat. Guess it depends on which area of the campsite you are and how many people in your tent.

[RossTC]

Are we generally in agreement that despite initial reservations and a lack of potential headliners the bands they had in the end totally delivered and this was actually one of the best yet? Certainly the top of the 4 ive done!

[millyman77]

Even though my passport, debit card, drivers licence, railcard and European Health Insurance card was stolen, it was the best week of my life.

Definitely going next year.

Peace.

[millyman77]

Also Evian Christ, Chase and Status and Tame Impala were by far my favourites.

[popuptent]

Camped twice now at the same resort and although it was bearable il definitely get a hotel or chalet next time, absolutely class week, think I'm gonna try that fest in Portugal next year (depending on the line up) Kasabian are the best live band in the world.

[RossTC]

Kasabian have without doubt cranked it up a notch on this tour ive not seen them this lively since they brought out Empire! Long may it continue!

[dsbeale]

So are we due another deafening silence for the next 7 months from FIB Facebook and twitter?

[jackmca]

So are we due another deafening silence for the next 7 months from FIB Facebook and twitter?

i hope not. hopefully theyve learned from this year.

anyone have any idea if videos are going to be put up and if so when ?

[the salmon]

have to say the whole weekend was great.

James smashed it on thursday and Ellie Goulding was great. Probably the best ive seen Kasabian and Jake Bugg they were both unbelieveable and Weller was very good. Manics and Example were great as well Lily Allen and The Libs were amazing. The Presidents of the United States of America got a great crowd and were good and was surprised how good Nina Nesbitt was.

Hozier, Kodaline and The Charlatans were all impressive and Travis was one of my highlights of the weekend. The crowd and sound was just spot on. Paolo Nutini was a great act to finish it off

Agree with a lot of that, James were the perfect first act, and for me (big James fan) nobody else touched them.

That said, I saw the manics, travis and presidents of the usa for the first time and really enjoyed all 3, Travis in particular were quality. Really enjoyed Courteeners, Kasabian, Charlatans, Kodaline, Weller, even Jake Bugg and Razorlight. Probably best set of acts I have seen in the 3 years I have been going.

Low point had to be the mindless and the sheep in the toilet block who dashed in there to avoid the rain after Wellers set and decided to chant about german bombers and the raf, such a classy set of people........

Said this year would be my last, I wouldnt say its 100% my last but they would have to pull a great line up out of the bag!

[Mokes]

Agree with a lot of that, James were the perfect first act, and for me (big James fan) nobody else touched them.

That said, I saw the manics, travis and presidents of the usa for the first time and really enjoyed all 3, Travis in particular were quality. Really enjoyed Courteeners, Kasabian, Charlatans, Kodaline, Weller, even Jake Bugg and Razorlight. Probably best set of acts I have seen in the 3 years I have been going.

Low point had to be the mindless and the sheep in the toilet block who dashed in there to avoid the rain after Wellers set and decided to chant about german bombers and the raf, such a classy set of people........

Said this year would be my last, I wouldnt say its 100% my last but they would have to pull a great line up out of the bag!

To be fair unless you were in the toilet block for any other reason than going to the toilet you have to be a bit of a mong anyway. It was 5 minutes of rain and probably the best performance of the weekend was going on at the Trident stage at that time. It's not like the ground was turning to mud or anything and anyone who got wet was dry 10 minutes later.

As much fun as I had, I probably wouldn't go back to Beni, purely because the organisation is so fucking pathetic. We pre purchased the coach tickets on the internet, then when we got there were told we could not use them until we exchanged the confirmation for the card so we had to pay for the bus to get to the campsite.... The campsite that was promoted with a picture of a gazebo in amongst a bunch of trees, did not have trees, or allow gazebo's. On top of that when we got there we were told we had to pitch our tents on a slope amongst a pile of rocks and next to a group of about twelve 18 year old idiots, when we asked why we can't set up camp in the lush grass under the shade cloth we were told that they wanted to fill up this block and that the next block was for people coming later.. So getting there early to get a good spot is pointless. In the end we just took down our tent and walked back to the front and pretended that we were just arriving the next day and got to camp in a decent spot. The extortionate price for water is a bit outrageous considering the heat especially given there is no alternative. Unless you got on the bus at the first stop it was borderline impossible to get on the bus to the arena as well, as they were all full and just driving straight past the people wanting to get on from the villacamp stop, we had to walk down to the beach to get the bus and even then we had to let 2 or 3 go past before we could get on one. And as good as the Courteeners were it can't be forgotten they shafted us 50% of the headliners.

As I said before, i don't want it to take away from a great weekend but for the money you end up shelling out there are better alternatives. What it did confirm for me though is festivals on the continent are waay better than festivals in the UK.

[JackSssmith]

What a wuss ^

Book coach with eufest next time

Why would you need a gazebo under the shade cloth?

Buy water from supermarket & ask for a cup of ice at campsite bar

And just walk back?!

Top weekend. I'll definitely be there for the 3rd time next year, no complaints.

[Michael The Work Geordie]

A group of us are going back next year for the first time since '11 and I genuinely couldn't have cared less where I camped as long as I had shelter for the four hours I did get my head down, wasn't entirely bothered about comfort as we just headed back into the town every morning for the majority of the day anyway.

The walk from the arena to the town / beach really isn't as exaspertingly long and arduous as people like to make out, I never caught the bus because it was painfully obvious they were going to be sweatboxes and probably a worse bet than just travelling on foot.

Can't wait to go back to "Pinguins" take away, if that isn't still there I'll be inconsolable.

[RossTC]

Pinguins is still there and still bloody great!!

[Michael The Work Geordie]

Pinguins is still there and still bloody great!!

Supoib, can't wait to get my chops round a Doblé Pinguin Burger.

[popuptent]

Hardly ate anything for 5 days cos the restaurants in town were terrible but found a place just down from that pinguins on the last night with a DJ playing outside? Burgers from there were boss...

[Mokes]

What a wuss ^

Book coach with eufest next time

Why would you need a gazebo under the shade cloth?

Buy water from supermarket & ask for a cup of ice at campsite bar

And just walk back?!

Top weekend. I'll definitely be there for the 3rd time next year, no complaints.

Coach with EUfest? I'm talking about the coaches that ran from the campsites to the town to the festival.

The shade cloths fucking sucked too, sure they are better than nothing but why not allow you to bring your own if you want it. I wasn't all that bothered by it as I had a high roofed tent so it didn't get that hot in my tent. It's just false advertising by the organisers. A gazebo would have gone down a treat and there was ample room for it as the Villacamp was only about 70% full.

You can't take water into the Arena... They make you tip it out. We tried filling water up in cups from the warm fountains in the arena but they refused to give us ice in the bars. You're permitted 2 ice cubes per cup, no more.

Obviously we bought water and Ice and other drinks from the supermarket and took it into the campsites and kept it in an esky (or whatever you call it in England).....

I'm not saying it was a bad week, it was a fucking great week. But aside from the arena itself the organisation was non existent.

The walk from the arena to the town / beach really isn't as exaspertingly long and arduous as people like to make out, I never caught the bus because it was painfully obvious they were going to be sweatboxes and probably a worse bet than just travelling on foot.

They were nice, comfortable, air conditioned coaches.. I don't know where you got the idea they would be sweatboxes from. If you were heading from campfest to the beach or the beach or anywhere they were brilliant. 5-10 minutes and you were where you needed to be. The only part that sucked was trying to get from Villacamp to the arena before the bands started, even then if you could get on one, the coaches were still very comfortable... Walking would not have been that bad if they didn't make you walk that huge loop just to cross the road.

Edited July 29, 2014 by Mokes

[jackmca]

Hardly ate anything for 5 days cos the restaurants in town were terrible but found a place just down from that pinguins on the last night with a DJ playing outside? Burgers from there were boss...

agree with that. stayed in Castellon and there wasnt 1 decent resteraunt we could find. there was a burger king around the corner so that had to do

[radder5]

Top festival again this year. Highlights - Kasabian, Couteneers (very lively, but marred slightly by a few dickheads wanting a rumble in front of the mixing desk), Of Montreal (agree with previous on this - great fun in the storm), Kodaline (surprisingly good), PoUSA (great fun and did a grand job of getting crowd going for such an early slot), Travis (good new stuff and classics), Tame Impala (great light show too), Libertines (not too wasted they couldn't perform - unlike Primal Scream last year), James (bossed it as usual - great start up act - why the fuck on so early I don't know). Surprise acts were some of the foreign ones - Triangulo de Amouro Bizarro (or something similar) were very good as were Francois & Atlas Mountain.

Hats off too to some of the fill in music - Alternative TV, Love Comes in Spurts etc. and some of the earlier DJ sets played some classics.

Arrived on Wednesday and got a great pitch - grass and shade so wasn't too hot in morning, but couldn't stay in tent past 10, but much better than last year. Was in left hand camping area - why no mens open air piss pots I don't know - had them in the right hand area three years ago and saved queues for sit downs. Great crowd again with no trouble.

However, why the fuck did they change Razorlight on the Saturday and then continued to fuck around with the order the rest of the night? Really this is my only complaint..

As to those complaining about the food in the town, clearly didn't look hard enough or don't understand european eating. My wife and I probably ate the best we every have done on holiday - 3 (sometimes 4) course lunch menus for 12 euros with a drink. Top quality food - not chips and chicken or burger or mass produced paella. Had whitebait, hake, cod, lamb stew, pork medallions (with cheese), squid (or small cuttlefish), steak (thin flash fried) etc. etc.

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/spanish-gastronomy/ (this is the one we ate in loads - but we did stay another week)

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/all-quiet-in-garyskitchen-but-heres-a-little-taster/

do your research folks!!!

And on a totally different matter, this has been my third time at Benicassim and am now looking at trying something different (better hopefully but I don't know how you could been Beni), so looking for suggestions - fancy Portugal.

Music tastes as above - like the last three years' line up, but not a fan of the more poppy stuff - Lily Allen, Katy B, MIA (really shit), Tine Tempah etc. Other criteria is near nice beach and hot and sunny - any suggestions anyone???

[Dom Wall]

Top festival again this year. Highlights - Kasabian, Couteneers (very lively, but marred slightly by a few dickheads wanting a rumble in front of the mixing desk), Of Montreal (agree with previous on this - great fun in the storm), Kodaline (surprisingly good), PoUSA (great fun and did a grand job of getting crowd going for such an early slot), Travis (good new stuff and classics), Tame Impala (great light show too), Libertines (not too wasted they couldn't perform - unlike Primal Scream last year), James (bossed it as usual - great start up act - why the fuck on so early I don't know). Surprise acts were some of the foreign ones - Triangulo de Amouro Bizarro (or something similar) were very good as were Francois & Atlas Mountain.

Hats off too to some of the fill in music - Alternative TV, Love Comes in Spurts etc. and some of the earlier DJ sets played some classics.

Arrived on Wednesday and got a great pitch - grass and shade so wasn't too hot in morning, but couldn't stay in tent past 10, but much better than last year. Was in left hand camping area - why no mens open air piss pots I don't know - had them in the right hand area three years ago and saved queues for sit downs. Great crowd again with no trouble.

However, why the fuck did they change Razorlight on the Saturday and then continued to fuck around with the order the rest of the night? Really this is my only complaint..

As to those complaining about the food in the town, clearly didn't look hard enough or don't understand european eating. My wife and I probably ate the best we every have done on holiday - 3 (sometimes 4) course lunch menus for 12 euros with a drink. Top quality food - not chips and chicken or burger or mass produced paella. Had whitebait, hake, cod, lamb stew, pork medallions (with cheese), squid (or small cuttlefish), steak (thin flash fried) etc. etc.

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/spanish-gastronomy/ (this is the one we ate in loads - but we did stay another week)

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/all-quiet-in-garyskitchen-but-heres-a-little-taster/

do your research folks!!!

And on a totally different matter, this has been my third time at Benicassim and am now looking at trying something different (better hopefully but I don't know how you could been Beni), so looking for suggestions - fancy Portugal.

Music tastes as above - like the last three years' line up, but not a fan of the more poppy stuff - Lily Allen, Katy B, MIA (really shit), Tine Tempah etc. Other criteria is near nice beach and hot and sunny - any suggestions anyone???

NOS Alive (previously Optimus) has really good lineups, with less of the pop crap; might be more your taste. Sudouste normally has good lineups, if a little smaller than Beni.

[Mokes]

NOS Alive (previously Optimus) has really good lineups, with less of the pop crap; might be more your taste. Sudouste normally has good lineups, if a little smaller than Beni.

Is Optimus (or NOS) any good though. Sure it has great line-ups but my mate who I went to Beni with had just been to Optimus the week before primarily to see his favourite band (Arctic Monkeys) said the festival itself was crap and he didn't enjoy it. He said the crowd was terrible and the sound from the stages was really bad. He had a great time at FIB though and said that it was amazing, even bands he had never heard he said he enjoyed more than Arctic Monkeys in Portugal. He did say that Lisbon is an absolutely amazing city and worth going to just for that.

[Mokes]

Top festival again this year. Highlights - Kasabian, Couteneers (very lively, but marred slightly by a few dickheads wanting a rumble in front of the mixing desk), Of Montreal (agree with previous on this - great fun in the storm), Kodaline (surprisingly good), PoUSA (great fun and did a grand job of getting crowd going for such an early slot), Travis (good new stuff and classics), Tame Impala (great light show too), Libertines (not too wasted they couldn't perform - unlike Primal Scream last year), James (bossed it as usual - great start up act - why the fuck on so early I don't know). Surprise acts were some of the foreign ones - Triangulo de Amouro Bizarro (or something similar) were very good as were Francois & Atlas Mountain.

Hats off too to some of the fill in music - Alternative TV, Love Comes in Spurts etc. and some of the earlier DJ sets played some classics.

Arrived on Wednesday and got a great pitch - grass and shade so wasn't too hot in morning, but couldn't stay in tent past 10, but much better than last year. Was in left hand camping area - why no mens open air piss pots I don't know - had them in the right hand area three years ago and saved queues for sit downs. Great crowd again with no trouble.

However, why the fuck did they change Razorlight on the Saturday and then continued to fuck around with the order the rest of the night? Really this is my only complaint..

As to those complaining about the food in the town, clearly didn't look hard enough or don't understand european eating. My wife and I probably ate the best we every have done on holiday - 3 (sometimes 4) course lunch menus for 12 euros with a drink. Top quality food - not chips and chicken or burger or mass produced paella. Had whitebait, hake, cod, lamb stew, pork medallions (with cheese), squid (or small cuttlefish), steak (thin flash fried) etc. etc.

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/spanish-gastronomy/ (this is the one we ate in loads - but we did stay another week)

http://garyskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/all-quiet-in-garyskitchen-but-heres-a-little-taster/

do your research folks!!!

And on a totally different matter, this has been my third time at Benicassim and am now looking at trying something different (better hopefully but I don't know how you could been Beni), so looking for suggestions - fancy Portugal.

Music tastes as above - like the last three years' line up, but not a fan of the more poppy stuff - Lily Allen, Katy B, MIA (really shit), Tine Tempah etc. Other criteria is near nice beach and hot and sunny - any suggestions anyone???

I agree with everything you said, especially the changed set times with absolutely no mention of it. They could have put some signs up in the campsites at the very least informing people. I met a guy who was inconsolable because he arrived the the time Weller was supposed to be on only to find out that the set was swapped with Buggs and he had missed it.

After doing a fair bit of extensive research into what festival would be best for my tastes I think I will do Best Kept Secret next year, 2013 had a near perfect line-up for me and this year had some great acts too. If the line-up is right for 2015 it looks like the pick of them if you want to be able to swim.

from their website- Best Kept Secret festival focuses 100% on music, with a strong, sharp line-up in which big names are alternated with many new discoveries from indie, folk, hip-hop, rock, electronics or a mixture of styles. The gorgeous festival site with forests, beach, swimming water, nearby holiday park and campsite, excellent food and drink all contribute to our goal: your perfect festival. It doesn't seem like the type of festival that you would get a lot of douchebags starting fights and has no mention that they have any interest in having pop acts on the line-ups.

Edited August 1, 2014 by Mokes

[radder5]

I agree with everything you said, especially the changed set times with absolutely no mention of it. They could have put some signs up in the campsites at the very least informing people. I met a guy who was inconsolable because he arrived the the time Weller was supposed to be on only to find out that the set was swapped with Buggs and he had missed it.

After doing a fair bit of extensive research into what festival would be best for my tastes I think I will do Best Kept Secret next year, 2013 had a near perfect line-up for me and this year had some great acts too. If the line-up is right for 2015 it looks like the pick of them if you want to be able to swim.

from their website- Best Kept Secret festival focuses 100% on music, with a strong, sharp line-up in which big names are alternated with many new discoveries from indie, folk, hip-hop, rock, electronics or a mixture of styles. The gorgeous festival site with forests, beach, swimming water, nearby holiday park and campsite, excellent food and drink all contribute to our goal: your perfect festival. It doesn't seem like the type of festival that you would get a lot of douchebags starting fights and has no mention that they have any interest in having pop acts on the line-ups.

The only sign that was of any help was the one on the Pringles set saying that they had run out of waterproof ponchos after the downpour when Of Montreal was on! I agree, it wouldn't have been beyond the wit of man to put up some sort of sign - it isn't as if they don't know where everyone is!!

I will look into BKS festival then - sounds ideal.

Thanks

[radder5]

NOS Alive (previously Optimus) has really good lineups, with less of the pop crap; might be more your taste. Sudouste normally has good lineups, if a little smaller than Beni.

Yeah, Optimus Live was the one I was thinking of, but given what Mokes has said, I might consider BKS too.

Still welcome any more suggestions though to at least give me a greater choice.

Ta

[Millar95]

Is Optimus (or NOS) any good though. Sure it has great line-ups but my mate who I went to Beni with had just been to Optimus the week before primarily to see his favourite band (Arctic Monkeys) said the festival itself was crap and he didn't enjoy it. He said the crowd was terrible and the sound from the stages was really bad. He had a great time at FIB though and said that it was amazing, even bands he had never heard he said he enjoyed more than Arctic Monkeys in Portugal. He did say that Lisbon is an absolutely amazing city and worth going to just for that.

Fair enough, this is on personal preference, but your mate is talking absolute shite! NOS/optimus alive is twice the festival Benicassim is!

And the sound is so much better than Beni! If beni didn't have sun, I genuinely wouldn't think of going back, amateur in comparison to my experience at Optimus Alive!