Benicassim (festival)

georges

georges

georges

Soldato
Joined
5 Apr 2006
Posts
3,084
Hey,
Bought tickets for this a couple of days ago.

Is anyone else going/has been, and does anyone have any advice?

For those not in the know, it is a music festival with around 150,000 people(or so I have heard), on the coast of Spain near Valencia, with past acts including Radiohead, digitalism and bright eyes(ones I remember from the list).

Music starts at 7pm and finishes at 4am, so you avoid the sun somewhat. You then sleep in the campsites till the afternoon, go swim in the sea, and then go listen to more music.

It is meant to also be a bit of a holiday, since the tickets include a week of camping at the festival, while the music is only on for four days, which is ideal for students going with friends for a holiday and getting in on a festival too (as a group we usually go to Reading, but since this is our final year before Uni, we thought we'd do something a bit different and to remember.)

As for cost, the tickets are about £140, and return tickets to valencia airport from stansted come to around £100 inc tax, with you catching the train or a bus the 80km to the festival.

Beer is served in litre cups too.


A few things I've been recommended are:
Large pieces of fabric with paracord to tie between trees to make shade from the sun.
Not many clothes.
Make sure people in the group all go to the campsite on the first day at the same time, since the tents are given allocated spots from the marshalls, and are very close together, so you'll be separated otherwise.
Drink lots of water.


Personally I can't wait.
 
Yep, I'm going...ain't bought ticket yet though. Our plan is to rent a villa out for ten people, and live there, rather than camp. Then we can just dart back and forth to the festival. No way I'm camping for the nine days!

Hopefully the lineup will be good...although I'm already pretty excited at seeing MBV.
 
I just hope Digitalism play again really. Saw them at Reading and they were awesome so it would be nice to see them again.

Another I'd love to see would be Minus the Bear. They played here in Colchester and were the most tight band I've ever seen. Every song sounded almost identical to the album versions in quality and playing standards, despite the fact some of the guitar is pretty intense.
 
A few mates went last year and had a great time.

Early morning euro-techno porno 'n' pills fest by all accounts.

*n
 
was going to go to this last year but left it a little late to organise a trip down there, might see if we can fit it in this year though would more than likely drive down though good old euro road trips are awesome.
 
Carzy said:
Yep, I'm going...ain't bought ticket yet though. Our plan is to rent a villa out for ten people, and live there, rather than camp. Then we can just dart back and forth to the festival. No way I'm camping for the nine days!

Hopefully the lineup will be good...although I'm already pretty excited at seeing MBV.
Click to expand...

my sister did this, apparently there is a water park they spent most of their time their :p
 
I went last year, had a great time but I would have done a few things differently had I known beforehand. Hit a heat wave as well while over there. Waking up with hangover/comedown in 40c was not pleasant. :o

We weren’t planning on camping and rented a hotel in Valencia seeing as it was only about an hour on the train. However the Trains were only running between 12 and 8 so I’d recommend taking a tent anyway just so you have somewhere to chill out.



penski said:
A few mates went last year and had a great time.

Early morning euro-techno porno 'n' pills fest by all accounts.

*n
Click to expand...

Yep that was pretty much how most evenings ended. :p
 
I went last year and first and foremost I'd like to congratulate you on picking the best festival in the world (evereverever.)

It is basically a holiday with some music even though I intended it to be a festival with a bit of a holiday. The beach is absolutely brilliant, the sea is warm etc. the weather is perfect (apart from having to sleep/wake up in it, kinda sucks) and overall it's fantastic.

Basically Benicassim is a small town so there's the small town with a few supermarkets and restaurants and bars etc which are all reasonably priced like any other town and then there's the festival site just out of the centre. So you won't get ripped off whenever you want a drink or food as there's plenty of choice :). Some of the bars on the backstreets are great, the day after the festival finished we were shattered and just sat in a small local bar for 4 hours watching the Grand Prix amongst all the locals jeering for Alonso and us shouting for Hamilton :D great fun.

Basically, don't take a sleeping bag, I didn't even un-pack mine and it's a total waste of space. Instead I suggest you take a spare towel since after a week of showers/beach use mine was filthy. That's what I'm going to do this year.

Definitely book your method of transport from airport -> festival before you arrive, we arrived in Barca and had to spend the night there since all the trains were packed for the next two days, so we had to get a train to a tiny place called Vinaros and then another to Benicassim which was an inconvenience but we won't make the same mistake again.

There is a great atmosphere when you're there, there are no chavs and everyone seemed middle class (haha) and polite. Not a hint of trouble or drunken yobs.

Take lots of suntan lotion although I'm sure you anticipated that.

If you can get there as early as possible and get in the campsite that opens first (forgotten the name.) It's about a 20 minute walk to the actual festival but it's very close to the town and the beach and most importantly has the most shade! Also it's not next to the festival site so you can actually sleep when you want to.

I doubt you'll need any trousers etc, and even in the dead of the night it's way too warm for jumpers and other heavier garments, so don't really bother.

Most nights there are pretty big gatherings on the beach, especially the final night so if you're lost for something to do before/after the actual festival nights there is a suggestion.

Try and learn some basic Spanish since the locals will appreciate it and some just plain don't speak English, so just 'hello', 'can I have', 'please' and 'thanks' etc do the world of good when in a restaurant : ).

Can't really think of much more but feel free to shoot off any questions!
 
Have to say I'm pretty disappointed with the line-up. Only a few standouts, and apparently there's only 4 to be added. :/

Still, we'll be able to have a laugh.

Anyone have any info about booking train tickets from Barca Reuss (or other airports, just any info would be useful) to the festival in advance?

Thanks.
 
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