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Benicassim is a must for a festival-goer, particularly as you are almost guaranteed great weather, an excellent line-up, access to the nearby beach, and festivities continuing late into the night.
If you aren't lucky enough to book one of the apartments in the local area (they are often booked up months in advance), then the camping areas have blackout awnings set up to protect tents from the early morning sun. My main advice to anyone going would be to get to the campsite early enough to bag a spot under the awning if you don't want to be woken up by the blazing heat shortly after you have headed back to your tent! Remembering to pack an eye mask and some earplugs will help you get some sleep.
Avon's Skin So Soft Dry Oil body spray is also supposed to be one of the best insect and mosquito repellents around, so it could be worth stocking up on this before heading off.
fiberfib.com/en/line-up/benicassim-festival-2009/
Unoffical English fan site: benicassimfestival.co.uk/
If you're over 25 and like to party hard (festival starts at 8pm, winds up around 5am with the main acts on at 1am) but still value a few good hours shut-eye do yourself a favour and rent an apartment. They're not cheap for what they are - approx 200euros each for a week in Beni for a two twin bed, one lounge apartment with sofa bed and a balcony. However you won't regret it because;
1) day time temperature regularly tops 35/38 degrees. No one can sleep in that, especially under canvas in the sun.
2) In said temperature, a proper and private shower is a wonderful thing (albeit camping showers are remarkably good too).
3) you can chill your beer/water in the fridge/freezer.'Nuff said
4) you can relax in your own personal shade between festival/swims. If you camp, you need to find any bit of shade in town you can - you will see campsite refugees scattered in any bit of shade around parks/beach town.
5) you can make your money go further by cooking at home
If however you do decide to camp, bear in mind the following:
1) Buy a beach umbrella on the first day - approx 10-15 euros on the beach and will be a godsend - it can be errected by your tent for daytime snoozing, or on the beach to prevent sunstroke.
2) Campsite toilets are cleaned frequently and excellent compared with UK festivals
3) Take a couple of decent swimsuits/bikinis - easiest to have a shower in, and you will wear nothing but this in any daylight hours you're awake in
4) ear plugs. Get them free from the festival or bring your own unless you want Surrey's finest students keeping you awake all night
A final word on getting out of Benicassim. You need to fly into Valencia, Barcelona or Alicante and train/bus down. Highly recommend Valencia as closest with best connections. If you can, ensure you have one night in valencia on the way back. The bus (most reliable) is notoriously packed and it can take literally four hours to queue up to get on a bus to make the 40min odd journey. Don't even think about getting the train no matter how early - it's a massive crush, desperately hot and uncomfortable.
We are standing in searing 38ºC heat in a small Spanish village square with goggles on. We are amongst a staggering 30,000 people and are being doused with water, buckets of it, from the flats above. Meanwhile, there are people trying to climb a greasy pole to reach a Serrano ham at the top.
BANG! A cannon fires.
The crowd roars and dumper trucks arrive, tipping tomatoes into the street. The crowd surges, grabbing tomatoes and hurling them at anything in sight. Within minutes we are ankle deep in tomatoes, water and assorted t-shirts. All three are also hitting us from all sides.
This is the madness that is La Tomatina, the biggest, messiest food fight in the world. For just one hour, the streets are filled with half-naked people covered in the sticky smelly mess. Then, the cannon fires once again and the wonderful Tomatina is over for another year and the cleanup begins.
Just where did it all begin? The story goes that one day in the 1940s a resident of this little town was walking across the town hall square singing, badly, and through a makeshift megaphone. Market stallholders and shoppers expressed their views of his bad singing by hurling tomatoes at him and a salad fight ensued. It was such fun that they decided to do it annually. It has survived bannings and public uprisings over the years to become one of the best known of the Spanish Fiestas of the year.
Oh, and why the goggles? Just try rubbing squashed tomato in your eyes!
Long live La Tomatina!
Buñol, Comunitat Valenciana, Spain
www.thisisvalencia.com/latomatina.html
The festival of La Tomatina in Spain gives new meaning to the expression 'playing with your food'. For most of the year, Buñol is a ho-hum industrial town, about 40km (25m) from Valencia, quietly going about its own business. But come the last Wednesday of August, the town's streets turn into a salsa riot, with over 20,000 revellers pelting each other with large, red, squishy tomatoes.
There are lots of theories on how the festival started; one is that it began in 1945 with anti-Franco protests, although any link between Franco and tomatoes remains ambigous. Another theory is that it started when two friends had a stand-up knock-down argument while sharing a meal. The argument quickly reached food-throwing proportions, infected acquaintances and nearby diners, moved out into the street, spread through the suburbs, progressed to neighbouring towns and eventually wound up as an annual event that attracted 'mata throwers from all corners of the the world.
The most likely explanation is that it started as a juvenile class war between bare-footed Troskyist macarras and el-ivy leaguers staying at Papa's summer house, the latter passing the former in a provocative way - that is to say, within tomato-throwing range. Like gangs of adolescents anywhere, it soon became a point of honour and a mark of tribal loyalty to make a stand at the tomato-stained barriers. As the event turned into a national event it lost its hostile political edge and became, instead, an unbridled Dionysian riot of flesh-baring bodies covered head to toe in tomato goo.
The standard uniform is an old T-shirt, old shorts and eye goggles. T-shirts with bullseyes printed on them are not recommended. Nearly 140 tonnes of tomatoes are trucked in from around the countryside and the argy-bargy begins with the firing of a rocket. An hour later the end of the festival is announced with the firing of another rocket and the clean up of the tomato-slimed streets begin.
La Tomatina takes place in Buñol, a small town about 40km (about 25 miles) west of Valencia and well connected by train and bus.
On the last Wednesday of August, at the peak of tomato season, between 10 am and 1 pm. Everybody enjoys and the streets turn into rivers of tomato juice.
www.latomatina.org/
Nit in Vela is Valencia's answer to the White Nights that have taken pace in other European cities, such as Rome, Paris, Madrid and Barcelona in recent years.
On the 31st of March, from 8pm, for over eight hours several of the major thoroughfares and plazas, and particularly the Rio Turia, Valencia's wonderful Park, will see over thirty spectaculars. From theatre to music to dance to acrobatics and fireworks. It's all to celebrate the beginning of the America's Cup, which takes place from April to July in the port.
The historic centre of Valencia, For much more information on the event and all things Valencia. www.thisisvalencia.com/newinvalencia.html
Up to 2 million visitors in Fallas to watch some of the most incredible firework displays, both day and night.
Yes, daytime fireworks, or Máscletas, a display of noise and smoke mainly, so loud you are advised to keep your mouth open to avoid bursting your eardrums!
To see examples of a Mascletà, click the link, if you are not at work, turn the volume up to experience them properly!
The 15th of March sees the beginning, in Valencia, of what has to be one of the most spectacular and exciting five days in the whole of Europe.
Fallas is the most extraordinary festival, celebrated only in the Comunidad de Valencia and mainly in the city itself. Supposedly originating from a time way back when carpenters would chuck out old offcuts of wood into the street and set fires to welcome spring - the festival has grown into a feast for all the senses.
www.thisisvalencia.com/fallas-intro.html or for a really in depth look at Fallas www.thisisvalencia.com/news4.html
Great fun and a wonderful occasion (despite all the Australians). But a few useful tips...
1. Catch an early train (if based in Valencia). The trains run every hour, but on Tomatina day they run every half hour. They don’t tell you this, but the trains get full quickly (20,000+ people!), and they only allow a certain number onto the platform for each train, so you pretty much inevitably miss your train and end up on the next one. Not a problem, but Tomatina starts at 11:00 and if you assume you will get on the train you want you might miss it.
2. Don’t take anything! Everyone we met afterwards had something stolen (including us) from pockets, bumbags, rucksacks, cars. Take 10 euros for a beer and the train home, put it somewhere very safe (and very waterproof) And that’s it!
3. Don’t hang around in the town after the fight has finished, looking for where the action is... everyone is back up at the train station partying.
4. Wear goggles! At least when it gets a bit wild, and the ripped t-shirts and sandals start flying. My love got hit in the eye within the first minute and spent the next days getting sympathy for a blackeye, while I got dirty looks!
5. Have fun. It’s the best experience ever!
Bunol village about 30 minutes' train ride from Valencia (7.5 euros return) - although the journey can take 50 minutes on Tomatina day.
A pleasant and cheap hotel located in a quiet town. Located 5 minutes from the small but nice beach, it is handy for commuting to the FIB festival (provided you have a car - there are buses though). Friendly staff and it's disabled friendly (there were a group staying there).
It is a music festival held every year in Benicassim, which is around 50 miles north of Valencia on the coast. It attracts around 35000 people, with bands as diverse as Franz Ferdinand, Madness, Placebo, Soulwax, and Rufus Wainwright. I recommend it as it is the best organised festival that I have been to. There is a diversity of music, good facilities, free camping and 3 miles of beach. There is a great atmosphere at the venue, with around 60% of people Spanish, 30% British, and 10% from other European countries. A 3-day pass costs £99 and flights from the UK are £100 approx to either Valencia or Barcelona. It is like a combinaton of Glastonbury and Ibiza, and there is generally a great vibe!
Likely to be one of the more popular festival options for the Glastonbury exiles heading overseas this year.
A combination of four-day festival, campsites practically on the beach plus after-show party on the beach on the fifth day, diverse European crowd, Spanish sunshine, numerous stages, a broad range of music genres, plus other contemporary arts such as film, theatre and fashion also represented, oh and did I mention the beach?!
Headliners for Summer 2006 include The Pixies, Depeche Mode, Morrissey, Scissor Sisters, however the big names seem to be in the minority, with the festival more in favour of championing more alternative artists to cater across the musical spectrum. With some quality bands and DJ talent performing, this year is guaranteed to be a stormer.
www.fiberfib.com
Benicassim is located on the Costa Azahar, one of Spain's less-developed Costas. About an hour north of Valencia and a couple of hours south of Barcelona, flight options are plentiful.
Can't believe this hasn't been posted yet. Glad to be the one. Annual tomato fight lasting about two hours. The last Wednesday of August. About 10.30 in the morning. Bring old clothes, a change of clothes and a disposable camera. That's all I can say. Just go.
In the town of Bunol, about an hour west of Valencia on the train. Just get yourself to the train station in Valencia early in the morning. Follow the crowds;
www.thisisvalencia.com/thetomatinafesti.html
Is this your business?Search Been there
