After a couple of months of volunteering at the campsite down in El Chorro, we decided to treat ourselves and do something fun, so we booked ourselves some tickets to a music festival with camping for 4 nights.
I'd never done a mainstream music festival before, plus one of our favourite bands, Bonobo, was playing, so we decided to go to Benicassim Fib 2017 - Spain's second biggest music festival.
Our friend Rina decided to fly over from London and join us. Red Hot Chilli Peppers, The Weeknd, Years & Years and Kasabian, were among the 'big names' playing, and it was promising to be an exciting and fun experience.
We had a small 'emergency' tent that we brought on our travels, which we decided to use at the festival while our big one was set up back in the Siurana campsite with all of our stuff.
When we arrived to Benicassim, a coastal town, with a very pretty seaside, we followed the signs for the festival parking, and eventually pulled into a big desert-like dusty car park. The walk to the tents with all of our camping stuff under the scorching sun was tedious and painful, to say the least. When we were finally showed to our camping spot, we tried to keep the disappointment of lack of space to ourselves and focus of the positives. At least they gave us a spot in the man-made shade under the canvas they have set up in sections of the camping ground. However, putting the pegs into rock-hard soil was a massive mission, and only half of them stayed in.
The heat and lack of shade was the main issue, as there was simply no respite from the blazing sun. The temperature was in mid-thirties, and the air was hot. Also a day before we arrived, we realised the festival ran from 6pm till 6am! So sleeping was going to be an issue.
We managed to survive the first day, and had a good time watching Bonobo and The Weeknd, ending the night and crawling back into our tent area at around 5am. I was dreading waking up next morning, after hardly any sleep on hard ground and with a hangover in the heat.
This is me falling asleep watching Stormzy
The morning after was as dreadful as expected. We queued for the communal showers for about half an hour in the sun, occasionally slashing water on our arms and faces. The shower did offer a bit of respite from the heat, and woke us up a bit. After that, we decided to head into town to the beach, and look for shade there as there was none in the camp.
The next day we decided to have a chilled day and skip the festival, as mainly Spanish bands were on, and no one we recognised. Sleeping in the camp was close to impossible, as many others had the same idea, and instead of being in the festival arena, decided to party outside their tents.
After two sleepless nights, we all decided to just have one more night at the festival, skip the fourth night, and go home a day early.
As the third day approached, we spent most of it on the beach, catching up on lost sleep in the shade of some trees, then having dinner in town. The plan was to head back at around 9pm in one for the main bands on stage.
After walking for hours in the heat (our longest day was around 31,000 steps - in flip flops!), we finally made it back to the camp to get changed and head to the stage in time to see the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. However, on the way to the arena, Nadia felt really sick, and we realised she was suffering from heat exhaustion. She suddenly jumped under the cold shower, then was shivering the next minute. It was obvious something wasn't right. We had to take her back to the tent, and lay outside on a mat, trying to recover.
Thankfully the whole camp was at the stage, as this was the main night, and we actually got a bit of sleep, being the only ones in the tent area.
This was the end of us, and as soon as the morning came, we packed up and left that horrible place!
Both Nadia and I decided we're over festivals, and if we were to ever do one again, we would only get a one-day ticket, and stay in a hotel nearby. Four nights of no sleep due to noise and heat, no proper showers, crazy heat and no comfortable bed to recover on - don't think I fancy repeating the experience. I'm glad I got to try it out and realise it's not for me.
