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Benicassim Festival, Spain 2010

hallelujah

Ok, glastonbury is taking a break for the cows this year so I need an alternative festival...
Benicàssim near Valencia in Spain seems the coolest. The problem is getting there. The festival is on from Fi til monday. I can only get flights with ryanair and aerlingus on the Wednesday before, departing the following wed. Has anyone on here been to the festival and travelled from Ireland? Are there other airports to fly into, a long train journey with tired legs and hangover may not like me

Jeff

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p.pete

Maybe put a post up on the travel forum with regard to the best way of getting there, at worst go for the week. It's a festival by the beach, you can spend a day or two before / after preparing and recovering in the sunshine! Or you could go to Valencia which is supposed to be extremely cool, though maybe not to be appreciated when festival weary.

Also don't rule out flying through London - if you can get a cheap flight to there and a cheap flight to spain it may not cost a lot more and could find something to fit your timetable better.

I've thought about going but haven't made it yet, the lineup is usually good and I'd imagine it's a rather cool festival

RBX370A

howdy im livin in valencia at the moment ryanair and aerlingus dont fly directly here but they will start at the end of march til about september so if you wana go to benecassim now you d have to fly to reus from dublin and get the train to beneC whichd take about 90 mins, but if you wait to get a direct flight to valencia from dublin its just a 45 min journey to BeneC on the train you could probably survive that with a hangover!

bazwin

Thinking of heading over there next year....Does anybody know if Ryanair fly nearhand or somewhere not too far away ........

homerun_homer

I went there a few years ago and flew to Valencia. Train/bus is just an hour away from festival and cheap as chips to travel. We would get the train out and taxi to the site. Didn't camp when we went so we got a €5 festival bus home each night.

Dr.Winston O'Boogie

Went there this year, flew into Barcelona, spent a couple of nights there and then got the train down. Only 2 hours away from Barca.

A few of my mates flew into Valencia and got the train from there, its pretty close (closer than Barcelona) anyway. Both flights were with Aer Lingus though. Ryanair go to Salou and you can get a 5 minute taxi ride to the train station from there, and the train will take you to Bennicasim in about an hour.

One more thing...if your booking apartments don't go with a company called Dansfib! We and hundreds of others did last year and they were an absolute sham from start to finish. Avoid at all costs!

JCDUB

Was just checking out flights for this and it seems Ryanair have either pulled out of flying to Valencia or else there are NO flights available in or out of Valencia for two weeks either side of the festival.

The route is still available to pick on the Ryanair site, but there's nothing available when you go in to look at dates.

Just wondering what other airports are nearby that ryanair or aer lingus fly into?I know alicante is nearish, and Barcelona to the north, anywhere else though?

Also anybody who's been, any good recommendations for accommodation etc in Valencia?
Any general information at all??
thanks

nxbyveromdwjpg

JCDUB wrote: »

Just wondering what other airports are nearby that ryanair or aer lingus fly into?I know alicante is nearish, and Barcelona to the north, anywhere else though?

Reus is the next closest, flew in there last year with Ryanair, got the train down to Beni. No problem, cheap too.

Agree with previous poster about Danesfib - worst shower of ***** ive ever come across.

Joe_Dull

We're camping for 5 nights during the festival - any tips on how not to melt/die of exhaustion? And we're also not sure whether to pitch our tents in FIBcamp or BeniCamp...

Thanks for the help!

Samhain

5 of us flew into Alicante from Knock which is very handy for us in the west. Ryanair fly into Valencia and Reus but the latter was very expensive. We rented a car and drove up to Valencia for a night. Excellent city, buzzing at night but still chilled, not too rough.
Made our way up to our apartment in the Marina Dor complex in Orpesa about 4 miles from the festival site. Same place as those Danespfib cowboys use for their accommodation but as we booked direct the only dealings we had with them was the shuttle bus which was a disaster. Would recommend booking direct as we paid €200 less for our 3 bed beach front apt than people we spoke to who paid Danespfib for a 2 bed a good bit back from the beach.

What can I say about the Festival? Well if a festival full of obnoxious English lager louts is your thing then you will love it. I don’t have anything against English people but a lot of those at this fest had a real “s**t in someone elses backyard” mentality and they seemed to be the source of much of the aggro. The lads with us got started on so many times for being Irish (2 of them have long red hair) the final straw was on the Saturday night when my fella was coming out of the jacks and he got a clout on the back of the head. He turned and boxed the fella that did it and legged it from his 3 mates who were standing behind him. We decided to leave at that point and didn’t bother going in on the Sunday night.

Now, we aren’t festival virgins by any means. We have been to 7 or 8 different festivals around Europe and countless others in Ireland so we know the story but the type of crap we encountered at this was ridiculous. The line up was a bit poo also, the only good acts we saw all weekend were Peaches, Gang of Four, 2 many Djs and Elbow. Didn’t camp but from what I saw of the camping id say it was fairly claustrophobic as there are canopies over all the camping areas and no room between them at all.
I wouldn’t recommend this when there are other European festivals like Pukkelpop and Sziget which have better lineups and less hassle.

aflib

KASABIA,IAN BROWN AND THE PRODIGY ADDED TO BILL

ItsAWindUp

aflib wrote: »

KASABIA,IAN BROWN AND THE PRODIGY ADDED TO BILL

The Specials also! Would have loved to have seen them in the Olympia last November, but I was in Portugal when the tickets went on sale and couldn't get any:(

el cule

Does anyone know if tickets sell out quickly, especially now that some headliners are being announced?

Joe_Dull

As far as I know tickets don't usually sell out, but you'd want to get them soon as they could be hiked up as more bands are announced.

Pretty lukewarm lineup so far, but it's only 6 out of around 50! (Don't think PiL were mentioned up there)

Crystal Castles or Biffy Clyro would make it for me.

oppiuy

Im going this year. First year but from all ive read its supposed to be great. flying into madrid on the 8th for a couple of days then valencia for a few more followed but camping in benicassim for 7 nights.. hopefully the heat wont be to bad..then off to barca for a few days.. round trip cost 450 so pretty chuffed with that..

Anyone camped before and have any tips on how to stay cool

WeirdoFreak

Hey people, just booked flights and festival tickets there today, probably gonna be about 8 of us heading over, just wondering has anyone ever been before and can you recommend any good apartments or ideally a villa as close to the festival as possible.:D

poteen

WeirdoFreak wrote: »

Hey people, just booked flights and festival tickets there today, probably gonna be about 8 of us heading over, just wondering has anyone ever been before and can you recommend any good apartments or ideally a villa as close to the festival as possible.:D

Ive been twice. Its a great festival. I reccommend you camp. Its good craic. It gets hot for sure in the tent but most people go to beach during the day and sleep in shade. That apartments are a mixed basket from what Ive heard. Friends of mine stayed in apartments last year out of town but the shuttle bus service was far from reliable and they aften were stranded. Stay on the camps. Its where all the fun is

Joe_Dull

Any thoughts on the lineup so far? The Prodigy, Kasabian, Ian Brown, Dizzee Rascal, Calvin Harris, The Klaxxons, Cut Copy, The Specials, Vampire Weekend all confirmed ...

Really couldn't have been more dull if they tried in my opinion

ItsAWindUp

I think it's a pretty bitching line up.

Van Occupanther

oppiuy wrote: »

Anyone camped before and have any tips on how to stay cool

Best thing is to arrive early, maybe by Tuesday and camp in the first campsite they open. Can't remember the name of it but its away from the actual venue and so its a lot quieter. This site has lots of shading from trees and the like and also has indoor showers and proper flushing toilets. Its about a 25 min walk to the festival site from there although they run buses too. This site fills up quickly though, we just about made it in when we arrived on the Wednesday night so it's well worth getting there early.

As for keeping cool, its pretty hard to be honest. We went in 2006 and it was so hot. I'm ok with heat but my girlfriend really suffered. After 9 or 10am its too hot to stay in the tent but the gigs don't finish until about 5 so sleeping ain't easy. Recommend to get to the beach early then spend as much time as you can from 12-4 indoors or in the shade.

In spite of the heat we had a great time. The beach is nice, the food is good and most of the people we met were sound. Even on the hot days its really tolerable after 5.00 and at least you won't get rained on!

Joe_Dull

This is more like it! Acts announced today include Foals, the Temper Trap, Mumford & Sons and Ellie Goulding. More where that came from please.

Twee.

I camped for the whole festival in the site nearest the venue two years ago. It wasn't as bad as I'd expected, there wasn't a lot of noise. Flew to Valencia and got the bus to the site.
As regards the heat, obvious point, but it is SO important to have water at all times. It gets VERY VERY hot. Being of the pale ginger breed, I was covered in sun cream at all times, had light shirts to cover and hats as well. Not worth the risk of being burnt when you're camping for so long. Don't be stupid and you'll be fine.
We ended up camping next to a bunch of "lager lout" types, but it was fine. They had a hammock

And played Disney tunes.
Furniture is also handy, but get it as soon as you arrive as stocks tend to run low in the local shops. We had a couple of camping chairs which were great for the early evening drinking and attempts at dinner (crisps and parma ham). The food in the arena area is great though. Paella, yum!
The showers are ICE cold. Perfect for cooling down. They're also communal. I found the camp site toilets to be in very good condition, cleaned a few times a day, which is more than I can say for any other festival I've been to.
The locals don't have much English, so know a few words to get by and be polite.
If you're getting the train to Barcelona on the way home I'd advise being at the station for the first one, or leave the day before the camp sites close. We were stuck in the station for three hours (siesta time, shops and restaurants closed). There was very little shade and it was 38 degrees. When the train finally came, it took four hours (stopped at every stop, there is an express train though too) and I was standing for all this time, very squashed! Bring snacks and water for the journey.
But what a week it was!!

opr

Anyone suggest good websites to book apartment/villa from ?

Even PM links of places that you have stayed in before please.

Opr

Innervision

opr wrote: »

Anyone suggest good websites to book apartment/villa from ?

Even PM links of places that you have stayed in before please.

Opr

We booked ours from niumba.com, got a very good deal for a place on the beach in Benicassim, but I'll reserve judgement for when I actually see it :P

paddylonglegs

line up looking really good so far.if only i wasn't saving for a wedding.....

Any key?

Innervision wrote: »

We booked ours from niumba.com, got a very good deal for a place on the beach in Benicassim, but I'll reserve judgement for when I actually see it :P

Hey after seeing your post I decided to check niumba.com DESPERATE for accomodation! emailed a load of the apartment/villa owners and heard back from none. Did you ring them or were they slow to reply??

Innervision

Any key? wrote: »

Hey after seeing your post I decided to check niumba.com DESPERATE for accomodation! emailed a load of the apartment/villa owners and heard back from none. Did you ring them or were they slow to reply??

Some of them were quite slow to reply alright, I literally emailed about 50 of them I'd say! I filtered it by 'latest calendar updates' and then seemed to get quicker responses from those as they used the website more often.

Another place to try is benitravel.com, we almost booked a place in Marina D'Or with them but then we found the place in Benicassim itself which was cheaper, plus no messing around with buses.

WeirdoFreak

I've already bought my ticket from them (www.benicassim2010.com), but while looking around for accommodation I've heard a few different stories saying it's a fake site, but yet again some people say it's ok.

Some people have rang them up and have had there money refunded, which sounds strange if it's a fake site!!!

I just don't want to be left with no ticket in July.

Innervision

The Benicassim Festival Fan's Page on Facebook is full of people saying it's fake, apparently they're finding it very hard to get refunds too.

WeirdoFreak

I bought a ticket in ticketmaster just incase, and asked for a refund, they said it should be going through in the next day.

They seem quite friendly on the phone, Benicassim 2010 are partners with GoodTimeEntertainment in England which I rang. The reason people are thinking the site is fake, because they've just changed there site this year.

The man I rang at GoodTimeEntertainment said it's a legit site and have been selling tickets for the last 8 years.

I don't know, hopefully I just get my refund and I'll be a happy camper:D

Giggernaut

Looks like the admin dept. of the site is a mess. My mate booked with them upon receiving an email confirmation he noticed that the wording and T&C's seemed dodgy. The email looked like a scam.

I havent seen the email myself so I'm going by my mate.

He's a straight shooter something spooked him because he was on to me quick smart in a panic.
He cancelled credit cards and re booked with lastminute.com.