Desigual / Blog / Atypical Spanish Wear since 1984

Like every year around this time, the centre of Benicassim is teaming with “fibbers”, predominantly from the British isles, wandering about dazed and confused, t-shirt slung over shoulder. There’s no such thing as fashion for these chaps, whose only adornment is a shady straw hat, bermuda shorts/ bikini and flip-flops. The humid heat of the Levante breeze hits as soon as you get off the bus, car or train and wakes you prematurely at first light with the intensity of a midday sun. But, it’s the love of music and mayhem that draws the crowds year in year out for the four days of festive fun that is FIB.

The headliners this year are The Prodigy, back bigger and better than ever with the unexpected success of their latest album in the UK, to show us that rock and techno can go seamlessly hand in hand; Vampire Weekend, who wowed the crowd in Madrid and Barcelona a few months back; Gorillaz, with one of the best live shows of the moment; and Kasabian, who, due to festival politics (i.e. to pull in the British public) appeared in huge letters above the legendary Ray Davies of the Kinks.

There are fewer bands and stages than in other years, no doubt a consequence of the dreaded credit crunch, but the bulk of line-up is still more than impressive. We have the Specials, Peter Hook playing ‘Unknown Pleasures’ by Joy Division, PiL and Echo and the Bunnymen. The cutting edge is represented by the superb Dirty Projectors, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Midnight Juggernauts and Four Tet. And we can enjoy letting our hair down to the pop-tastic Lily Allen and Two Door Cinema Club, or dance our socks off to Hot Chip, Goldfrapp, Calvin Harris, Cut Copy and Yacht & The Straight Gaze, who, if they are even half as entertaining as they were recently at the Sala El Sol in Madrid, will undoubtedly be hailed band of the festival by many.

The founders of the festie, the Moran brothers, have renounced all organisational tasks and handed over to the capable Englishman, Vince Power and this year we see more British bands than ever in the line-up. Does no-one remember when there were almost nothing but Spanish bands to grace the stages? This year we get to see Triángulo de Amor Bizarro and Standstill on the Verde Stage, and Love of Lesbian, El Hijo, Sr. Chinarro and the Sunday Drivers (with their last ever concert) on the Fiberfib.com stage. We have Ilegales (unthinkable to see them at this festival a few years ago), Cola Jet Set (same goes), Parade and the unsigned Marcus Doo & The Secret Family in the Eastpak FIB Club.

You get the impression that people complain about the line-up just for the sake of it. When they don’t invite so many Spanish groups, the festival is labelled a glorified guiri summer-camp. When they pull in more Spanish groups than ever, suddenly there’s an outcry for more international acts like Radiohead and Depeche Mode. There’s a rumour that the promoters wanted to get David Bowie, but his state of health is not at its best (apparently he has two pacemakers). In any case and as always, the Benicassim festival’s top moments will be had on the smaller stages, at some unexpected time-space co-ordinate. That’s certainly what happened with Go! Team, Scissor Scissors, Matthew Herbert, Patrick Wolf, Moloko, Yann Tiersen and Amy Winehouse before they made it big in Spain. There are so many more top examples, I could go on …

Sebas / Je ne sais pop.