Well... I survived! FIB Heineken 2010 was resoundingly awesome! A quality experience. Sure, I had a bunch of UK festivals behind me, but on departure to Spain, I was a bit unsure about what to expect of this much hailed Summer event - viewed as one of the gems in the festival crown! Time for some Euro-style...Nothing to worry about! After recovering from a couple of heavy nights in Barcelona (due to meeting two fun Aussie girls, and the small matter of a victorious World Cup final for Spain) Beni had a great deal to offer. The scrum for a spot to set up a homestead in BeniCamp on the Monday was interesting, as the Spanish stewards (trying to be hardline) eventually succumbed to the British willingness to wait!
After acquainting ourselves with the neighbours, and the shopping in the nearby Lidl (yes, Lidl) was done (Rachmaninoff voddy at €4!!! And, equally cheap rum!) the party began to commence! A solid 4 days of excessive drinking, occasional smoking, extreme partying, beach-towel sunning, new meeting, aqua-parking, paella eating, etc. This, all before the festival had even opened its doors!
Thursday night. The music starts! It was so weird being at a festival were everything literally goes on all night, and well on into the next day, well... the recovery anyway!
Big acts enthralled the crowds! Indie and alternative acts headlined the 9/10/11/12 PM slots, bowing out to let the dance/electro/d'n'b/teckno posse's to aggressively take over! Magnetic Man, Scratch Perverts, DJ Shadow, Scream, Funkagenda, Benga, and Boys Noize smashed the early hours to pieces! (The amount of people on Class A's it was unsurprising that the crowds swelled as each night went on!)
The Specials, Kasabian, Cut Copy, Midnight Juggernauts, The Prodigy, Vampire Weekend, Gorrilaz, Ellie Goulding, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Foals, Klaxons, among many others all took to one of the three stages, and subsequently tore them apart! The whole musical acts/surroundings seemed to fit quite poetically, and created a really calm and chilled festival vibe! Dancing was high on the agenda!!
The campsite, daily, kicked up new surprises, such as rats, snakes chucked in the shower, vom in places, loutish Scousers, swim-short theft, shit-sprayed toilet cubicles, angry Macunians, topped by the general mess of heavy boozing and littering proved testing. It seemed to become a non-issue though as each day went! I ended sleeping on a abandoned tennis court, gazing at the stars. Nice!
All in all, as I sit here, clean, I miss it. It was the best festival I have been to by far! The atmosphere, angry people aside, was spot on! People just seemed to want to chat with anyone, have fun, make friends, and be merry! 2011, hurry up!!
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