Benicassim 2012


Max Kane

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Will have to keep this relatively brief but here goes...

Flew out last Wednesday arriving into Barcelona late afternoon, few beers and then a 3 hour coach transfer to the tiny town of Benicassim. About a 20mins walk to the festival site and a further 10mins to our camp site.

We had decided to spend a little extra (little being about £45) to upgrade to "Glamping" (Glamour Camping) which got us a pre-pitched tent, sleeping matts all contained within a fenced off section of the site, closer to the festival with our own toilet facilities (priceless!) and a guy/girl on the door 24/7 to keep the riff-raff out!

Wednesday night we stayed on the camp site and hit the many bars,stayed out til about 4am.

Thursday we explored our surroundings and headed down to the beach (about 30mins walk). Day at the beach, then a stop off in the town for food. Back to the site to shower and get changed for the first night of music.

Got into the site around 9pm and watched The Horrors - have casually followed them so enjoyed chilling at the back with a few drinks, they perfectly suited the sunset slow and finished off really well.

At around 11:30 At The Drtive-In were on - not sure how familiar people will be with them, but they are a big favourite of mine and seeing as the split a few years back I didn't think | would ever get to see them - was massively impressed! One of my favourites from the whole festival.

Florence & The Machine were due to headline but (thankfully) she cancelled so De La Soul moved up from the second stage. Was pretty hammered by this point but loved their set, shame they got cut off half way through Feel Good Inc though.

Example ws on last, he was utterly shite, just came on and swore basically so wondered around and got chatting to some cool new people. Stayed in the site until about 8am, saw Dave Clarke hammering out some nails techno too which was a bonus.

Ended up spending the night in the general camping (no need to elaborate) and got back at 11:30am - winner of the "Last Man Standing" comp for day 1 \o/

Literally headed straight back out to a local waterpark for the day, stayed there throughout riding the slides and sleeping.

Friday night I was, understandably, nackered. Hit the festival about 9 again an saw Miles Kane - really impressive, he got the crowd going and was a revelation.

Bob Dylan followed - I am grateful I got to see him (legend that he is) but his set was a bit of a personal ego trip, playing new stuff no-one knew. Still he did play "Tangled Up In Blues" and finished with "Like A Rolling Stone" which were awesome. The rest of the night was a low key lineup so I went back for some much needed shut eye!

Saturday was the best day of the whole event - hit the beach in the day and took on all comers at volleyball and races to the top of one of those rope climbing frame things.

Got some vodka on the way back and sat around our tent with some cool Dutch and Scottish girls who were our kind of neighbours. Hit the festival about 10:00 and headed straight to the second stage to see Buzzcocks - seminal punk band. They were great and really got everyone up for the rest of the night.

Headed to the main stage after that for Noel Gallagher, who was absolutely fantastic, and then the big one - The Stone Roses! They were magnificent, flawless throughout and really went for it. They jammed so many of their songs (think Fools Gold last about 30mins) and were just on such great form. My highlight of the week.

After The Roses we hit a few of the other stages which had DJs playing, the JD tent did some damage and then we hit the 60's cocktail bar. Met up with some folks who had travelled in our the same coach as us and ended up sitting at their tent until 8am drinking whiskey - a second Last Man Standing triumph \o/

Sunday was a chill day for everyone. Got up late afternoon and hung around the site playing cards with our Dutch neighbours and having a few drinks.

Hit the festival a bit earlier and wandered around, first bandwe watched were The Vaccines at 9 - so-so, few friends loved them but not really my thing.

Ed Sheeran was on after that, he's one of the worst live acts I have ever seen so went for a few drinks.

New Order were headlining and were sensational - opened with Crystal and Regret and then reeled off the hits, it was Ian Curits' birthday so they played a few Joy Division songs too. True Faith was my personal highlight, sounded so good live. Blue Monday, Temptation and Love Will Tear Us Apart were the closers - was a great, great set.

Managed to check out a bit of Todd Terje and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs too - both were pretty cool.

Headed off site to meet up with folk from the first night and had a few drinks back on the site.

As our coach transfer back was at 6:30am we all decided it wasn't worth going to bed so stayed up, packed up and then went back to the coach pick-up. A third Last Man Standing trophy!

After a long day's travel; arrived home on Monday evening, very little sleep, a bit of sunburn and an awesome time!

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