Live Review

Benicassim – Valencia, Spain

• 25th Jul 2008

After already attending two welly-addorned English festivals this year it was time to try something slightly different…. A festival with guaranteed sunshine.

Jetting off to Spain and staying in a four star hotel for the duration of a music festival may seem a little like cheating, but this is my holiday, two festival campsites are open for those that want to rough it in the mediterranean heat but I’m more than happy to be goin back to my air-conditioned room, sleeping til noon and feasting at the full-board buffet, knowing that I never get this level of luxury at Glastonbury.

Now in its 14th year, the Festival International de Benicassim has been proving more and more popular with Brits travelling abroad, with recent years featuring heavyweight headliners such as Oasis, Arctic Monkeys, Muse and The Cure. This year’s line-up has failed to arouse quite so much hype, seeming to be without the huge names that scream sure-fire festival headliner.

The initial disappointment that perhaps we’d picked the wrong year soon opened up to a sense of freedom, allowing us to flit around as we liked, sampling a few more eclectic delights along the way and keeping an open mind as we watched bands that either we had missed or would not even have been on the English festival circuit.

Perhaps the biggest shock was that the more recognisable and supposedly dependable names on the bill often came across as a little lacklustre, Morrissey, The Raconteurs and Tricky all failed to truly command my attention. Tricky’s set in particular had people leaving in droves at any given point, with only a patchy audience remaining by the end.

Both Gnarls Barkley and The Ting Tings put in commendable efforts. The pop tinged pairing of DangerMouse and Cee-lo Green closed the main stage on Saturday night, drawing from their two albums to date, although possessing a rapturous energy onstage, their electricity didn’t always carry over into the audience that only really know the hits. Another odd atmosphere greeted The Ting Tings’ set, placed early on the bill while the sun was still beating down outside the tent they were performing in, any right minded person would still be on the nearby beach but they still managed to attract a large crowd, although the usual reaction that awaits The Ting Tings was slightly diminished as even the hardcore fans seemed to be wilting in the heat instead of throwing themselves around and dancing.

The opportunity to try something slightly different from the norm proved to be a real saving grace, acts completely new to us such as Facto Delafe y Las Flores Azules and La Casa Azul showcased a Spanish love of feelgood pop music that transformed the festival into an out and out party and El Guincho proved to be a real revelation to those watching, proving himself to be a one-man carnival that nobody expected. Talking of unexpected, it is embarrassing to admit that Mika provided one of the festival’s main attractions, bouncing onstage with boundless energy and with a stage show to match, all watching seemed to be engulfed by his pop-hits which proved a perfect antidote to a very long day as Mika closed his set, and the first day proper of the festival, at 4 o’clock in the morning.

The highlights of the festival though, were those that have been pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable as dance music in the past few years and blurring and distorting perceptions with their own experimentation. The polar opposites of Calvin Harris and Battles both knew how to make the crowd move and French electro songstress, Yelle had people dancing far outside the tent she performed in but the true champions of the festival were Hot Chip and Justice, both greeted with adulation and proceeded to have throngs of people give up everything they had got to have a good time and dance, even despite the potentially dehydrating amounts of sweat that poured from each and every reveller in the crowd.

At the opposite end of the spectrum was Sigur Ros, hardly likely to have people dancing but providing a spellbinding precursor to the festival as it threw open it’s gates on Thursday evening. The Icelandic band brought a breathtaking energy to the opening of the fourteenth annual Festival Internacional de Benicassim with their sonic soundscapes and near mythical music that captured the imagination of everyone present and eased them all into the start of a long hot weekend.