Benicassim 15-16/7

We set out for Benicassim from San Sebastian on Wednesday 15th. Not too much of a long drive compared to some, around 500 kilometres. We managed to have a couple of dramas on the way though, firstly we had to refuel (carefully) without stopping the engine and then secondly we had a tyre blowout on the motorway, about 200 km's from Benicassim. Many of the countries in Europe require safety equipment so I put out the reflective triangle on the side of the road, put on the reflective vest and set to work changing the tyre which had blown a huge hole in it. Fortunately we've been traveling at pretty modest speeds, under 100 km's an hour so we don't strain the van too much. I had pretty much finished the tyre change when a bloke pulled up, a Brit who saw the GB sticker on the back of our van and wanted to lend a hand to who he thought were his fellow countrymen. He helped me push the van while Kirsten roll started it and... success! When we arrived in Benicassim it was slightly better organised than Bilbao in that there were signs, but unfortunately the staff and police manning various checkpoints or roundabouts weren't very helpful. We eventually learned that the carpark was closed in the evening and we'd have to come back Thursday morning. We managed to find a park in the very busy city centre (on a slope for the next morning) and tried to get some sleep amongst all the racket being made by people coming down from the campsite in the hills to party central in the town. On Thursday we set back out to the campsite after a late breakfast and got the van onto the site at last. Thankfully we were able to hook up to some power for lights and a fan (thanks to Garry our van neighbour!) - in Spanish fashion they'd under estimated the amount of sockets needed for the vans on site so we piggy backed next doors. Once we had our wristbands on we felt a bit more settled. While the main site opened up we relaxed listening to the first Spanish band of the day, The Coronas. We then saw The View, who we don't know a lot of but they sounded ok. They certainly had a family of Brits near us rocking out, the dad was encouraging his kids to rock out with abandon. Next up were Mystery Jets, who seemed to have a little trouble with their sound but they came across well. Later we saw Gang of Four on one of the smaller stages, the more intimate setting suited them and we were pretty pleased to see one of the seminal 'Post-Punk' bands, especially (in retrospect) as we missed seeing Magazine the night after. The band area was a bit smaller than Roskilde and fairly open so it was quite easy to get around, something we were glad of as everything was on quite late. We ended up skipping Oasis to see New York band, The Walkmen. You might remember this song:

One excited punter said it made his night on the way out, we were also pretty impessed. Final band on opening night (that we were staying up for) was Glasvegas - putting in a great effort in front of a mostly British crowd, covering 'Be my Baby' and 'Wonderwall' as well as a huge singalong to their hit 'Daddy's Gone'. Returning to the van we thought our proximity to the band site might cause a bit of an issue but thankfully it wasn't too hard to sleep, helped by the fact that not many of our neighbours seemed to be partying hard. Woo hoo!