Pretty sure the guy at the front just wet himself Credit: FIB Heineken

Two of our esteemed freelancers braced the wind and sand storm to attend Benicassim festival, headlined by Oasis, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, in Spain this year. While Alasdair endured the wrath of Noel Gallagher and was genuinely surprised by the togetherness of Pete Doherty, Ivy found herself physically exhausted by the unpredictable weather conditions and genuinely surprised about the relatively mainstream line-up.

Here’s Alasdair’s first-hand account.

Alasdair Morton

Sunburnt Mancs, gale force winds, bush fires, oh, and a few bands as well, this year’s Festival Internacional de Benicassim was as unpredictable an event as we have come to expect from the Valencian festival.

Celebrating its fifteenth birthday, this year saw one of the biggest and best line ups to grace the festival yet, with a quartet of headliners in Oasis, Kings of Leon, Franz Ferdinand and The Killers, and a host of other acts spread cross a variety of stages and tents.

Thursday kicked things off in decent enough style with the likes of The View and the Mystery Jets warming things up, but sound problems ultimately hampered the Gallaghers’ main stage set. Hit-laden for sure, but a lack of conviction soured the experience; Oasis have the arrogance of a prize fighter, this has been part of their appeal for many and there was no shortage of fans in the audience, the problem being though that this bravado looks a little less impressive and a whole lot more foolish when said fighter is floored midway through the first round (just ask their home town native Ricky Hatton on that score!) and this is more the sort of performance the brothers gave – uninspired and uninspiring. For Noel, Benicassim was ‘a waste of time’, and while for Benicassim Oasis were not such a folly, they were not the all-conquering heroes they so clearly thought they were, or deserved to be.

On the delightfully quirkily named second stage, FiberFib, meanwhile old school post-punkers Gang of Four reminded everyone of where Bloc Party and the like might have got some of their inspiration and Spanish pop-fetishists Fangoria delighted and bewildered in equal measure, while Glaswegian indie miserabilists Glasvegas delivered a main stage performance of simplicity, sincerity and gusto, lead singer James Allan taking to the stage seemingly intent on capturing the spirit, or at least the appearance, of Combat Rock era Joe Strummer. Sticking to a set of singles and hits, they played it safe but played it well, ending with a rousing Daddy’s Gone.

If Thursday night’s opener was hit and miss though this couldn’t prepare the Beni crowd for Friday’s events. As evening moved in, the apocalypse seemingly set up camp in Benicassim, with bush fires erupting a mere couple of hundred yards from the festival site. If this raging inferno wasn’t enough to cause hearts to flutter, then the gale force winds that accompanied it certainly did, as they swept through the arena and campsites, razing most of what lay in their path – stages buckled, tents blew away and the power went out. With sandstorms sending folk fleeing for cover, Beni called it a night in the name of health and safety, with Paul Weller calling short his main stage set amidst the carnage and chaos, fires still a-raging in the distance.

As dawn arrived, the devastation was clear to see, but the festival went on, albeit with the realisation that most of Friday night’s acts would have to be sacrificed, but those who weathered the storm emerged with a sense of triumph, and no small amount of good fortune, to battle another day. Business resumed, slowly at first, and it wasn’t until Elbow took to the main stage that thoughts of the previous night were banished once and for all. Beginning softly and with some understatement, singer Guy Garvey endearing himself to the crowd with a Spanish language introduction, albeit it one that was read (poorly) from a sheet of paper, the Lancashire troupe built up a head of steam with a crowd-sing-along Grounds For Divorce providing a mid-set pinnacle before a heartfelt closing One Day Like This restored Benicassim’s heart and soul.

Elbow live at Benicassim 2009

Peaches’ arrival was, in itself, something of a tempest and one which almost equalled the events of 24 hours previous, the riotous agent provocateur laying waste to the second stage while Franz Ferdinand entertained the crowd main-stage-ward before 2 Many DJs took all and sundry stratospheric. Suddenly, as night became morning, the cataclysmic previous evening’s events faded into the obscurity.

In what was becoming something of a Beni tradition though, so it would seem, Sunday saw mad-hatter-ed mischievousness return to the fore. Kings of Leon were gone, but a determination to fit in some of Friday’s acts (Maximo Park were lucky enough to receive a reprieve) saw a reshuffle of the running order. Regretfully though, this information wasn’t passed on to too many of the punters, and so large portions of sets were missed. White Lies, who had played in the calm tranquillity of the Norfolk countryside at the Latitude festival only the day before, brought their black-decked anthemia to the main stage, but with confused fans arriving often two thirds into bands’ sets, there was a growing sense of frustration. For this very reason, we can report that the final two songs of TV On The Radio were mind blowing but have little else to say about any earlier parts of the New York five-piece’s set. Even more curious though, was the decision to put Friendly Fires on the FiberFib stage – they attracted a packed out crowd and didn’t disappoint with searing renditions of recent single Jump In The Pool, Paris and White Diamonds – while Eighties outfit The Psychedelic Furs toiled away to a half empty and predominantly disinterested main stage crowd. A more balanced climax was found though, with The Killers, headlining the main stage and a surprisingly yet refreshingly coherent Peter Doherty playing a blinder at second. A handful of Libertines tracks delighted the faithful, while a cover of Stone Roses’ classic I Wanna Be Adored showed the former red top fave’s sense of humour was as spiky as ever, and as a barely contained Fuck Forever closed the set, before you had noticed it, Doherty had played the gig of the festival.

As much about endurance as enjoyment, as some punters were heard to proclaim, Benicassim may be smaller in scale than some of its Brit-based counterparts, but it’s just as large, if not larger, in ambition and atmosphere.

So what did Beni ‘09 have in store for this intrepid Catalan festival first timer? Everything, from excitement and mystery, and head-scratching bafflement. There were lost tickets, a lack of trains, a lack of logic, tropical storms and roasting temperatures and, of course, a little bit of music here and there. The end of times, or the best of times? Benicassim was a bit of both. And all the better for it.

By Alasdair Morton