Benicassim Festival 2010 Fans Review

Before Benicassim 2010 we asked our benicassim readers to write reviews of the event, the first review we have received is from David Whittaker.

So Benicassim, this was my very first festival, as music Photographer I never hang around at festivals and thought it’d be a good opportunity to get some sun and enjoy a festival for the first time.

We flew in Reus which is a good hour and a half transfer to Beni, we took the EUfest.com bus which was £20 each way, it set off and hour late but coming back was bang on time which we were thankful for in all honesty.

There isn’t much at Reus Airport so if you’re thinking of getting duty free stuff you’re limited to a small number of fags,booze and perfume not much else really.

We stayed for a week, Tuesday to Tuesday… The walk from where the Eufest bus dropped us off to Benicamp was absolute MURDER at 3pm in 35 degree heat and on reflection would def have got a taxi as Benicamp is up quite a steep hill when you’re lugging stuff around.

I can’t really speak about Campfib as we never ventured over there but Benicamp was absolutely rammed on the Tuesday when we got there, we literally got the last two pitches for our relatively small tents, it’s probably a good idea to get there on the Sunday or the Monday if you want to get the pick of the site, although people were still arriving on thursday hopeful of a pitch.

Benicamp has a decent shower block, with 2 annex shower blocks in Portakbin style one located just outside the main block and one in a far corner which was always quiet so if you can get your arse down there for queue free showerage. The showers tend to be ice cold so be prepared for grinding your teeth on fresh sunburn, it soon brings you round from a stinking hang over though. All showers and toilets are cleaned reguarly which is def something you’ll appreciate on other festival toilets.

There’s also a bar which serves pizzas and other snacks, plug point to charge your phone or for the girly wirlies – Straightening your bloody hair and doing your bloody make up and generally making the place look untidy haha… some people who couldn’t get a pitch ended up sleeping on the bar floor randomly? I noticed a football pitch and Tennis court too i think?? Or maybe i was a little worse for wear?

Sleeping is something you won’t do, I reckon in the week i spent there the best sleep i had was waiting for the check in desk to open on the way home in the airport, it was the best 45 mins kip ever!!! It just never seems to cool down. Also if you do decide to eat at the camp try not to leave food on the floor otherwise you’ll soon be infested with man eating ants, and you really don’t want that. Lidl is a short walk down from Benicamp but they NEVER put water in the fridge annoyingly so we hid some bottles in a freezer under some peas or something and retrieved it each day before we went to the beach – You should’ve seen the envious faces mooohahaha… There’s a supermarket over the road from Lidl which we went to on the last day and i’d say is probably better than lidl but more expensive, a litre of vodka at Lidl was 4 euro’s :0)

The bus service that runs throughout the festival is BRILLIANT, and saved our legs on a number of occasions i would def get a bus card from the Fib guys when you go get your wristband exchanged at the festival entrance (which you have to do before the festival).

Thanks to the bus route we made it to the Aqua Park and Button;

Aqua Park – 20 Euro’s and is a wicked day out, great pools and slides and never really seemed to get too busy.

Button – 7 Euro’s entry to a grotty pool with grass and no sun loungers, but you get a free beer and a burger for that (WOOoooo). Whilst we were here a grass snake was seen slithering down the wall which was hilarious as some daft bird screamed in a scouse accent ‘dats fuchin disgustin da is’ – Made me proud to be British *sigh*. I wouldn’t really recommend this place to be honest when you can get yourself down the beach and spend 5 Euros on a Sun Lounger and snooze the day away.

Benicassim itself it a bit of a non event, the only place i’d recommend is the Corona Bar which was great fun 2 euros a bottle ice cold – Life saver! You can walk for about 2 miles along the sea front and see probably 3 bars (which you wouldn’t want to go in), the majority were houses and flats it really doesn’t seem that tourism is part Beni, i think as more Brits invade the event it’ll come round, but a good bar on the beach would make a killing, anyway i digress…

So you’re on the bus and you get dropped at the festival entrance or at least you think you do, you’ve got another maybe 500/750metre walk to the actual entrance which after the 3rd night becomes harder and harder (I was in a world of pain with blisters after all the walking it’s not a fashion show look after your feet!!!), there’s a large area where you have to finish any booze you’ve brought with you then you get searched and go through. The search is hardly a ‘search’ to be honest nevertheless you’re in…

There’s plenty of bars inside so you won’t have to queue, there’s a ticket system for booze which has been mentioned before i’d stick to the small beers as the large beers get warm pretty quick the measures of vodka etc are quite generous so it makes paying £7 a drink a little more bearable. The food is great loads of stands so you’ll never be short of choice, i can recommend the Argentinian grill, a steak sarnie with mint sauce – Gorgeous, ruddy should be for the price like.

The music was great although Gorillaz in my opinion just doesn’t work live so for them to headline the final night was a bit of a let down especially after Dizzee Rascal (whom i despise) who absolutely blew everyone away he was superb. My acts of the festival were;

Two Door Cinema Club
Mumford and Sons – I hate this lot but they were great
Calvin Harris
Kasabian
Klaxons
Ellie Goulding (Played main stage after Lilly Allen cancelled for the second year running)
He’s a Rascal – Dizzee Rascal
The Cribs

So that’s about it, in summary if i were doing the festival again i wouldn’t camp, going into the fourth night i was knackered and couldn’t enjoy it as much as i probably would’ve having had a decent nights sleep, if you are going to camp make sure you get there early and take a fan because there’s a 2 hour window for sleep between 5-7 then it’s HOT HOT HOT again.

PS Don’t forget the silent disco, was a right laugh and there was a chill out area outside for those who ‘could do with a coffee’ hahaha

So what did you think of Benicassim? add you review below