FIB 2005: Who needs Mud and Rain? The best bands are out in Spain!

• 21st Jun 2005

With festival season about to be in full swing and all of the UK festivals having virtually sold out, what’s a Glasswerk reader to do with himself this summer?

For those that have been the answer is obvious and tickets were probably snapped up on the day they went on sale. For those that haven’t been let us enlighten you!

Bennicasim is a sleepy little seaside town situated on the Valencian shores of the Mediterranean. Sleepy for most of the year that is, but for one week in August the town comes alive with music and good vibes as Festival International Benicassim and 35,000 festival goers hit town.

Now in its 11th year FIB has everything you could want from a festival and much much more.

Where do we begin? Guaranteed sunshine, rarely a cloud to be seen. Free Camping for nine days, allowing you time to kick back and relax in the warmth of the Mediterranean sun. Beautiful beaches to chill at in the daytime. A pre-festival party worthy of the admission price alone and a post festival beach party. Oh and did we mention how brilliant and diverse the line-up is this year?

This years festival runs from 4th August, kicking of with an opening party featuring Underworld, The Tears, Polyphonic Spree and The Posies. And for the three main festival days you get to see the likes of The Cure, Nick Cave, Oasis, Basement Jaxx, Hot Hot Heat, Dinosaur JR. , LCD Soundsystem, !!!, Kaiser Chiefs, Doves, Devendra Banhart, Matthew Herbert and more, plus clubs hosted by Wall of Sound and DFA. The line up is immense and has something for every Glasswerk reader and you’ll no doubt have fun discovering some of the Spanish bands jostling for attention on the festivals five stages.

Each day the festival kicks of around 4 in the afternoon and keeps rocking until sunrise, when its time to hit the beach for some sleep. At the end of the first four days, if you’ve still got the energy there’s a beach party featuring Layo & Bushwacka and Erlend (Kings of Convenience) Oye which is free to all festival goers.

Check out link for the full line up, to buy tickets and for all other general info. They’re adding to the bill all the time and have just announced who’s playing on which day.

Once again Glasswerk will be bringing you in depth reviews from the festival site, so hopefully we’ll see lots of Glasswerk readers there!