Benicassim-Festival

BENICASSIM has bagged its best line-up yet. What’s there to say about a festival where you spend your mornings at the beach and your evenings dancing in the Spanish heat? Well, when Arctic Monkeys, Palma Violets and Primal Scream are all topping the bill and with Tenement TV backstage and behind the scenes…. quite a lot actually.

It really is an eclectic line-up this year including top UK acts such as Jake Bugg, Bastille and Miles Kane. The stand-out performances from the weekend have to be Queens of the Stone Age, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Miles Kane. Each applying the right amount of electricity to their sets.

Queens of the Stone Age were well received by the crowd, and were well-accustomed to the blistering heat being desert rockers and all. The band have recently covered the mainstream hit Blurred Lines in their BBC Radio 1 Live Lounge set, and continue to bring their live act up-to-date in each and every performance. Highlights from their Benicàssim set include the awesome visuals and animations on the bands backdrop which changed to the mood of every song. No One Knows, Sick Sick Sick and Make it Wit You all made it into the fifteen-strong setlist.

The band of the moment, CHVRCHES hit down in Spain fresh from a celebrated set at T in the Park festival. It’s great to see up-and-coming Scottish acts like Chvrches play to a great crowd and receive such a positive response on foreign land. The band closed with The Mother We Share, and their punchy, loud and energetic set went down a treat with the Benicàssim crowd.

Another British act stepping up the plate was Noel Gallagher’s favourites, Temples signed to Heavenly Records. Heavenly have a whole host of buzz-bands on their books including Charlie Boyer & The Voyeurs and Toy. Temples may have played the opening night, but the buzz about their set remained throughout the festival.

Miles Kane spoke of his set backstage to Tenement TV, saying that he totally ‘had it’ and he hopes that people walked away from his set wanting to see it again. The latter something that we can most definitely agree with. The Scouser is no stranger to playing live, from his small and intimate gigs back in 2007 with The Rascals, to the arena venues with pal Turner and their super-group Last of the Shadow Puppets- Kane has managed to get the whole ‘awesome front man’ thing down to a T. Rearrange was a stand-out from the set, making way for Kane to jump into the air as the base kicked in, in true rock star behaviour.

Knife Party had festival fans going crazy, their performance creating a hyped-up club vibe in the open festival site. Their set included some epic remixes, with the dirty base transcending throughout the crowd. Their light and visual show also a highlight, with blinding red and green strobe lights piercing throughout fans bouncing up and down to the beat.

The crème de la crème of the weekend, however, had to be Arctic Monkeys. Their Glastonbury performance was hard to beat with an enormous crowd fluttering to the Main Stage for their headline performance on Friday evening. Their Spanish-esque set was much different to Worthy Farm- but still utterly fantastic with a perfect set list to please the crowd. The (now) legendary AM lights lit up their stage as they played the likes of new single Do I Wanna Know and indie hit Mardy Bum from their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. 

It wouldn’t be crazy to crown this the best Benicàssim festival yet, with a tremendous line-up and outstanding crowd the festival organisers will have a tricky task to top 2013’s FIB.

You can catch some of the acts that played at FIB at Electric Picnic in Ireland this August and September. The Arctic Monkeys, Johnny Marr and Miles Kane all feature over the weekend. For more information and to purchase tickets visit their website here.