Monday, July 23, 2007
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.
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.
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
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
Friday, July 20, 2007
Ciao Ciao, Baby!
It is early Friday afternoon as we sit and look back on a brilliant first night of Spain's best summer festie, FIB.
As we predicted, Iggy Pop did it again and invited the audience of Thursday night's FibStart to storm the Heineken Green Stage for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dance sing and jump around with the long-haired rocker himself. The security guards were apprehensive but, we are sure, more than prepared after Glastonbury and after Iggy yelled, Let them up, Asshole!, couldn't really do anything but let the Fibers climb the barriers and jump up with the Stooges. Getting them down again was another story as both girls and boys tried to snog Iggy's face off on the way down to the pit, much to the disgust of their (we thought) rather aggressive bodyguard. But then we are talking about Iggy Pop. The screens either side of the stage showed one excited fan taking a photo of himself with a grinning Iggy and then one girl shoved her tongue right down his throat. Nice. We both agreed that had we been closer we couldn't dream of a better way than starting the weekend than getting up there and joining in on the fun. It was just a little too far from the press stand...
Aldo Linares, Jonston and Mando Diao had welcomed the first FIB evening in with a mix of rock pop and indie tunes and the crowd were more than warmed up for the headlining act of the night. Iggy and the Stooges did a brilliant live set, as ever, their energetic, frenetic rock and brilliant jumping all over the place.
Being the fans of MTV's Johann Wald that we are, there was no way we were going to miss his FIB debut as a DJ in the Vueling Pista Pop tent, so we ran over to catch the end, just in time to boogie to a bit of Bloc Party with the MTV staff.
Vacaciones Diyeis took over with their happy 60s pop and we danced like mad things before heading off to talk to some of the crowd. We met some bananas (literally), a group in hawaiian skirts and some lovely people from Ireland (who wanted Lolita's digits as his girlfriend looked on unamused) and were hustled for "weed/pills/charlie?!!!" several times on the way round.
Saying that, the vibe in Benicassim this year is better than ever, the nicest people from all over Europe have come together to just have a good time and party, and seeing everyone lazing on the grass, chatting away, sitting in little groups or in huge possies of pals just makes you smile.
Dancing as we went, we headed back to the Green Stage for Bright Eyes and Los Planetas, but were really looking forward to the not-so-Brazilian Brazilian Girls. I swear Jesse Murphy was checking me out in the Photo Pit. Sabina Sciubba came out in a gold body suit and a wing-like costume, opening with Lazy Lover and filling the crowd with her beautiful voice.
We danced to Londoner DJ babe Jojo Le Freq on our own on the Press Stand before heading back home on our bikes to rest up for today.
We shall love you and leave you now, Antony and the Johnsons, The Rapture, Ok Go and the Klaxons await! More tomorrow
xxx
A&L
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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
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
Saturday, July 14, 2007
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
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
less than a week to go!
Lolita here - just packing my bags to take myself off to benicassim for a few days of R&R before the big event.
Cannot wait! Yet another year full of amazing music, tears, sweat, yummy festival boys, fab atmosphere and all in all fun!
1 and 3 days tickets still for sale - get them here - http://fiberfib.com/tickets/info.php?txt=363&lan=en
see you there
yay!
L x
Cannot wait! Yet another year full of amazing music, tears, sweat, yummy festival boys, fab atmosphere and all in all fun!
1 and 3 days tickets still for sale - get them here - http://fiberfib.com/tickets/info.php?txt=363&lan=en
see you there
yay!
L x
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