Best Audience Ever?

Saturday night fever was running high as we got to the festival yesterday.
We had spent the morning enjoying the annual Artists v. Press football match at the Sports Centre in Benicassim and a nice plate of Paella to go with it and found ourselves asking, Who is Gorka?, as the crowds went mad for him. He turned out to be press, of course! No offence, but the Artists tend to be pretty rubbish when it comes to football, having spent the entire day drinking by the pool in the renowned backstage area. Reknowned for its utter luxury and amazing atmosphere. Each yearwe tend to sneak in at the end of the weekend so we´ll keep you posted on that one.
On arrival we saw Cansei de Ser Sexy, the crazy brazilians, and got to the Vodafone FIB club tent to whistle along to the excellent "Young Folks" with Peter, Bjorn & John with an overflowing crowd, caught some happy vibes and ran back to the Green Stage to not miss a single moment of The Magic Numbers. Not the most elegant, good-looking or trendy band at the Festival but without a doubt the highlight of the weekend so far. Opening with Take A Chance, the die-hard Numbers fans at the front must have all lost their voices as they sang along at the top of their voices. We danced and jiggled the whole set through with our gorgeous friends Ralph and Mr M. who had driven up for the night and found their sweet vocals to be the perfect start to the evening, making us forget poor Albert Hammond Jr.'s bad luck with the power cut at the end of his set that plunged the whole recinto into darkness for just a little while.
The B-52s put on a fun show for all the over 50s in the audience, and we noticed people trying to have a bit of a dance but trying just a little bit too hard. It was time to see our idol Najwa Nimri and her band Najwajean. The artist/singer/actress memerized the crowd in a skin tight Chinese-style dress and as I climbed up on a speaker you could feel the emotion in her voice. Stamping her foot like a mad thing the people sang along with Ms Nimri, filling the Vodafone Fib Club with love and song.
Oops! Ralph had lost his shoe for a minute, but all was well and a lovely boy from Huddersfield with a black eye gave it back to us, along with a fistful of neon bracelets. Yay! We were eyeing them up the whole set and it was finally time for us to wave our wrists in the air and have them glow in the dark. You know, in case we had another power cut.
Over on the Green Stage, the Arctic Monkeys were starting up and pump it up tey did. Cool as anything, they sauntered out onto the stage as if it was their front room and struck up View From The Afternoon. We couldn´t have asked for a more appropiate song than Dancing Shoes as we jumped around in the crowd. As much as we could, of course, there was a delightful girl in white who insisted on putting her bum in our faces the whole time. Not to worry, nothing a bit of dancing with our elbows out wouldn't fix.
Desperate to hear Mardy Bum, we were more than happy with Fake Tales Of San Francisco and as they closed with Certain Romance it was a perfect end to the set. Turner and his boys, still prepubescent and spotty but soooo cute, left the stage proclaiming the audience was fantastic.
We spent a good while dancing to the indie and rock set of DJ Rojiblanco, another New Generation Artist brought to FIB by Vueling and spent the rest of the night before heading home to bed at dawn between the truly amazing Ellen Alien and the electric and energetic Lo-Fi-Fnk.
Still no sign of Hedi Slimane though he is still supposed to be around, maybe he'll be more visible tomorrow when Amy Winehouse and her huge as huge beehive grace the Fiberfib stage.

FIB FIB FIB - it's all we can think about!

Lolita and I are like schoolgirls before the end of term disco.
Just. So. Excited.
Tomorrow we head up to Benicassim to check out the accommodation and to enjoy a morning in Benicassim in all its beach-town glory. (Though it's back to work in the afternoon though, boo hoo.) With my week off just around the corner I can barely concentrate as I sit at the computer and stare into space dreaming of FIB nights. It feels like it was months since I last had a holiday - oh wait, it was!
At home we have made a pile of CDs to be played before the festival to get us into the groove - we have a new flatmate moving in this week and she won't know what hit her! Starting with The B-52s Love Shack through to Iggy's I Wanna Be Your Dog to The Hives' Walk Idiot Walk back to Amy Winehouse's You Know I'm No Good, we're looking forward to an exciting, varied and fabulous lineup.
Lolita and I have bets on who of the groups will venture most out into the crowds - sharing a kebab last year with Queens of Noize was definitely one of the highlights! Spotting the performers with their A for Artists passes has us in giggles as we try and guess what band they might be from - they usually turn out to be the drummer from one of the Proyecto Demo winners and we feel better about not having recognised them straightaway!

FIB has a myspace!

Myspace has revolutionised the whole music scene, making bands infamous before even being signed. So, what better place for FIB to be but on myspace themselves with nearly all the groups to be gracing the festival's stages having one.
Here's a few of our favourites, listen to new releases and exclusive covers (amy winehouse does a a great one of The Zutons' Valerie), watch videos and interviews and read their blogs:
here
here
here
here

Fib Benicassim starts on 19 July!

Yes, it's that time again!
Spain's answer to Glastonbury, without the rain and the mud, the wonderful Heineken Fib Music Festival at the seaside resort of Benicassim. Bigger than ever, with yet another stage, Sponsored by Vueling, the new budget airline, this year's Fib promises to be the best ever!
I am Anita Darling and I'll be there from start to finish, with my good friend Lolita Devine (it's my fifth Fib and Lolita's third already!) to bring you all the news, reviews, gossip, interviews, photos and a podcast or two!
It will all be here and on thisisvalencia.com
Fib officially starts on 20th July but get there early, on the 19th and you'll catch Fibstart - a great bill headlined by the legendary Iggy and the Stooges, and featuring, amongst a host of others, Bright Eyes, Los Planetas, Mando Deao.
The rest of the fest has great names almost too numerous to mention but here's a few for you Devo, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, the B52's, Antony and the Johnsons, Kings of Leon, Amy Winehouse, Rufus Wainwright- well just take a look at the poster, you'll get our drift.
So if you can't be there, be there with Anita and Lolita, you can be assured of a great time and quite a few surprises...