We have arrived!

Dear readers, here we are at the Festival Internacional de Benicassim one year on, and boy are we having an amazing time so far. The sun is shining, the people are smiling, and we are just getting ourselves glammed up for another night on the tarmac/grass/gravel.
Unfortunately I was forced into slave labour at The Bank Friday morning, so we missed Thursday's antics- Nada Surf, Lightspeed Champion and Sigur Ros were just a few who kicked off the festival with what we hear was a huge bang - but PJ and I rocked up into town yesterday afternoon as soon as I could get myself out of that dingy office. With our suitcases in the boot, we went straight into the festival to see what was cooking, pushed past Alaska and her flame-coloured hair and grabbed our press passes, and headed to the house to leave our luggage. We made it back to the festival as fast as we could so as to not miss a single minute more and it was straight over to the FIBClub tent for some seriously trendy electronic punk-rock with the crazy Devon-born Metronomy, the latest group with an enormous myspace fanbase. With touch-sensitive bedside lights taped to their chests, they put on an impressive show and the Spanish "popero" crowd bopped themselves silly to tracks like Holiday and Radio Ladio. But alas, it was time to catch Babyshambles in action. Friday's first band to storm the Heineken green stage, the sad truth is that a sober Pete Doherty does not put on an especially exciting performance, and the crowd looked slightly bored if we are perfectly honest. Personally, I thought it was a lovely and relaxed way to begin the evening, even though we were expecting to be shaken and stirred by the infamous frontman's raucous behaviour.
We met some friends to rock out to the New York Dolls, veteran guitar slinging 1970s glam punk band who reformed in 2004. We grabbed some beers and marvelled at how rock and roll the whole affair was, and wished we could have seen them in New York back in the day when they were just starting out and probably jumped about a bit more. They played Janis Joplin's Take Another Little Piece Of My Heart in tribute to another star of their time, and the whole crowd was singing along, which I love at concerts. I find it quite moving when everyone is swaying together in perfect harmony, screaming the words at the top of their lungs.
Something seemed to be seriously wrong with the sound on My Bloody Valentine, PJ was convinced they weren't singing at all as all you could hear was the music and no vocals whatsoever, which made it hard to enjoy so we bounced over to the FiberFIB stage for some of the incredible Hot Chip. We danced with Johann Wald to Over and Over, and PJ fell in love with a fellow photographer in the pit who was dancing all over the place with absolutely not a care in the world. She was fabulous, all skinny legs and converse and red lipstick, and almost distracted us from the excellent Alexis Taylor and co., who ensured there was not a single person standing still on the whole tent. And who couldn't have fun watching the entire band enjoy themselves so much they looked like they were about to explode? Joe Goddard (see photo) kept PJ highly entertained - almost as much as skinny photographer girl!
She was wearing red geek-glasses but as was predicted by Lolita and myself, this year the Kanye West-style sunnies, coloured plastic grills, are absolutely everywhere, and if you don't own a pair of wayfarers you are nobody.
La Casa Azul in Moby-style played an array of instruments all on his own, and even though we didn't know the words, we felt truly happy as we jumped about to the best feel-good music on the planet. PJ was getting more and more into his photographer role and using it as a bit of a ploy to talk to girls, if you ask me - one even offered him money to put her photo on the web! (He didn't accept, of course).
I left the others getting drinks by the FIBClub tent and couldn't have run faster over to see my most favourite lady, the wonderful Roisin Murphy. I got there just in time for the Moloko track, Forever More. Murphy and her two backing singers danced and jived all over the stage together, and the audience was ecstatic as they felt the emotion in Ruby Blue and gazed at Murphy as she changed outfits once per song.
Mika was up next, and the stage was alive with a fairground backdrop, Maypoles, and fairy lights for a magical set. Opening with Relax, Take it Easy, Mika strode all over the opening his enormous mouth to roar into the mike in sparkly white trousers and plain tee. Two of the girls from the video for his Croydon-filmed Big Girls came out for the track, and that they were- jumping on the stage just as Mika asked the crowd if there were any Big Girls in the house. Confetti, bunny suits and feathers filled the escenario verde for an amazing show in true Mika style- fun fun fun!
Tonight we have my new loves The Ting Tings, Gnarls Barkley, The Raconteurs, The Kills, Lori Meyers and more to show us how the festival will fold out in what tends to be its busiest night.
Check out http://www.thisisvalencia.com for the full gallery of photos and come back tomorrow for a full review of tonight's malarkey!

It´s Friday Night!

Fib. Day 2
Oh my, oh my, too much excitement to sleep. What a night. Fib is just getting better and better and its only day 2.
Anita and I arrived mid afternoon, red and hot after quite a long trek on the old bikes, and ran to see Antony and the Johnsons in the fiberfib.com tent. Having been number one fans of his since thisisvalencia.com’s Gooru gave us his whole repertoire, we were rather excited about seeing him live. Amazed at the crowd he had gathered, we squeezed through the hundreds of people to the front, and waited for the band to come out. Antony in a long sleeved black woven jumper and the musicians all in white, he stood behind the mike and nervously jiggled about as he sang. We slipped in and took some photos in the pit and then danced and sang with some other Johnsons fans, completely moved by Antony’s enchanting, beautiful voice. Looking across the audience, you could see people close to tears by Antony’s piano,and the haunting string and wind accompaniment to Hope There’s Someone.
Having set next to the Herman Düne boys in the Press Tent earlier on and passing them several times in the corridors, we weren’t about to miss this Swedish band’s live set. A mad band – the lead was in a blue linen dress with a Jesus beard and hair style, singing wicked indie pop to his passionate crowd they closed their set with a thank you and a goodbye and we ran off to watch who we thought were The Klaxons. Dressed in skeleton costumes, and singing their little hearts out, we realised they weren’t actually the Klaxons. Who were they?? We looked around the puzzled faces, people dancing but looking slightly confused. Klaxons fans trying to look annoyed but actually really enjoying the show. Who was this amazing band on the Green Stage? Where had they come from? And where were the Klaxons? Running as fast as our Havaianas would take us, we got to the press tent to find out who was playing. Whomadewho was the answer! A crazy band from Denmark that was supposed to be playing at 00.35 on the Fiberfib.com stage and had swapped over with the Klaxons. Nobody knew or understood why. But Whomadewho were obviously very comfy in front of the Klaxons crowd, and the Klaxons crowd were overly comfy in front of them. They did a great cover of Benny Bassi’s Satisfaction – Push me and then just touch me until I get my…” and cleared the confusion in the air by closing their set with ‘We are not the Klaxons, we are from Denmark, thanks for listening’. Fantastic.
We then caught the beginning of Wilco, with Jeff Tweedy’s fantastic voice and country-style tunes and watched on as a group of English Fibers did a jig in a circle as the green stage area kept on filling up.
The Rapture took even longer to come out on stage than Antony and the Jonsons. In the excitement, all kinds of objects got thrown forward from the people (Anita ended up with some chewing gum in her lovely long hair. Nice) and even the actual people threw themselves over the front barrier, only to be carried off just as quickly by the security guards. Finally the boys from New York trundled out and filled the Fiberfib.com stage with their electro-punk-rock-pop. Grinning from ear to ear they jiggled all over the stage, and we have to admit it was hard to keep the camera still enough to take a decent photo with all the dancing we wanted to be doing. We stuck around for a bit of Alright Yeah Uh-huh (“People don’t dance no more” – At FIB they do!) and went off to see if we could spot the artist/photographer/Dior Homme genius Hedi Slimane. Calling in on the Vueling Pista Pop tent we decided we would go and see DJ Jesus Ordovas anywhere and stayed around for a boogie before watching The Horrors and their energetic dark music, loving the black outfits and makeup but incredulous at how ANYONE could wear skinny jeans at Benicassim. We were sweating like chickens in our short short shorts!
The Klaxons finally made an appearance at half past twelve – Alaska, Spanish 80s icon of Green Stage band Fangoria begged the press not to ask too many questions at her press conference as she was missing their set to be there – and by the time we got close it was impossible to even enter the tent. The crowd they had drawn was incredible and nobody could understand why they had possibly swapped slots with WhoMadeWho when they would have been right at home on the Escenario Verde. We hear Najwa Nimri, The Arctics and even Hedi himself were in the crowds as these young boys from the UK got everybody dancing.
We walked around the festival and took a look at the FIBMarket, getting everything we could for free – badges, magazines, beach balls, condoms, even porn!
Anita got jealous of a group of friends from London and their neon makeup she had been trying to get her hands on for months and we both stared in awe and envy and the skinny minnies slim enough to get away with the bikini top/waistcoat/hot pants combo.
We have to admit it is the English who have excelled themselves in the wardrobe department this year – we have never seen such amazing outfits. All nationalities are mixing together in perfect harmony and no one can put their finger on what it is but there is a vibe this year like never before. It is just a lovely atmosphere and we don’t want it to end.
Can’t wait for tomorrow and Cansei de Ser Sexy, Nouvelle Vague, Arctic Monkeys, Magic Numbers and Ellen Alien!
L&A

we're here!

Yes, you read right. We are finally here, back in Benicassim, one more year.
And so far, it's better than ever.
We've settled into our little house, had a swim in the pool, been to the beach, been slightly sunburnt from riding our bikes - rented from the ayuntamiento and now we are getting ready for action.
People are arriving by the busload, laden with rucksacks, tents, camper gas stoves and plenty of alcohol, supermarkets are over flowing and have already sold out of most tinned goods, hundreds of different languages are being spoken on every corner and the vibe in the air is electric.
We couldn't be more excited.
If you're here check out the infomation stand on Benicassim high street and in the train station for everything you need to know about the week ahead - the line-up, timetables, bus routes, etc...
More from us tomorrow, keep checking in for photos and interviews with our dear fellow Fibers.
Lots of fibbing love

L & A
x

Get to FIB - for free!

Getting to and from the festival site is as easy as pie.
If you're flying into Valencia airport from Monday 16th all you have to do is pop downstairs to the FIB stand and sign up to FIBERclub when you arrive and you can ride a free bus to Benicassim and make friends with a load of other festival-goers on the way up! There are buses departing the airport FIB-ward pretty much all day right into the evening from Monday morning up until 6.30pm on Friday. On Monday and Tuesday they'll even drop you right at the campsite, whereas the rest of the week the stop in Beni town is at the train station. You can also join FIBERClub in the train station at the festie's information booth, and once a member, you'll also be entitled to ride all the FIB-run buses you like within Benicassim to and from the campsites.
Oh, and on Monday and Tuesday the following week, they'll even run you back to Valencia airport for free. Now how's that for a festival, hey?
Wicked!
you can take a look at the bus timetables right here

What Will Iggy Do?

Did Iggy Pop set the precedent at Glastonbury for all his future summer festival behaviour?

In a moment of madness, and, I'm sure, much to the irritation of the security staff on shift at the time, Iggy Pop and the Stooges invited fans onto the stage during their set at the infamous Devonshire festie for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to boogie, live, with the band themself. For about a song-and-a-half, muddy Glasto-goers jumped around all over the stage, sung with Iggy into the mike and did just he said - "Come on! Take over!" He introduced the stage-invaders at the end of the song asking for a round of applause for the World-famous Glastonbury Dancers. Looks like sheer mayhem to me, but cannot wait to see if they've been warned off such behaviour for FIB or whether the whole thing is to be repeated in just under two weeks.

Check out the video below!