Let's clear up a few things about Fib Benicassim

A longer summary is on its way but we would like to clear up a few facts about last weekends events at Benicassim. There was no hurricane. The festival was not cancelled. On Friday night there were horrific winds. There was a fire in a field across from the festival site but it was under control and put out within half an hour. The winds were so strong that the site was evacuated for the safety of everyone attending. The organisation did all they could to get everything in order for the next day, and things ran pretty smoothly the rest of the weekend, considering the fact that the kind of weather that hit Benicassim on day 2 of the festival was completely unprecedented.
Perhaps the only thing that could have been bettered was the information given out by the organisation, as it was unclear when the bands from Friday would be playing if they could reschedule them at all, but general feedback is that everyone had a pretty good time considering! There are several reports flying around the internet that it was all a disaster, mainly fuelled by Oasis' technical problems onstage on the Thursday, but by all accounts this has been happening during their whole tour. We also have heard reports of hundreds and hundreds of passports being stolen, but the British Consulate Press office in Madrid have confirmed directly to us that they have issued around 160 emergency passports around that weekend - from Barcelona down to Alicante, so could be anything from 1 to 160 in Benicassim only.
....And we can only begin to wonder what Bianca Gascoigne got up to between Friday and yesterday - if you're one of the boys she hitched to Calais with we would love to hear from you!

fib Benicassim, day 2. what a fibbing disaster!

photos from gtvone photography
fib, day 2. what a fibbing disaster!
Getting here later than we wanted, what with me Lolita, just giving up my job, and Anita doing a long day at the bank, we arrived to catch the beginning of Paul Weller, and were evacuated within the hour.
Quick resumen, as i am trying to catch 5000 concerts at the same time, whilst anita is catching up with twitter friends (we luuuuuuuuurve our twitter! http://twitter.com/thisisfib!) and childhood boyfriends (yes, you read right!); Friday night, was the worst night of our lives. Starting with a fire just outsite the festival site in some old vineyards, that got so big the organisers canceled the concerts on the escenario verde, the sky getting smokier and smokier, the press and vip stands being blocked off, security and organisation people screaming at each other via walkie talkies (how does a walkie talkie make you look sooo big and important?!) the next thing we know, the wind has picked up, the fib grounds are a sandstorm disaster, people are wearing their sunglasses to protect their eyeballs, and within half an hour, the green stage is falling down. 200,000 fibers come to a standstill, security guards have been called in to hold up the walls - no music, no screens, and no news. Apart from god knows who from FIB organisation, coming on every once in a while to tell us they are doing their best to sort everything out and they will be with us soon....
And then we were told to leave the grounds. all those people leaving at the same time, in a hurricane-like wind storm, 70KM/20degrees, which felt like -10 and a not a very happy, slightly tipsy and confused bunch of people. Directed towards benicassim town. All in all, we spent 4 hours trying to get a taxi, eventually getting home at 5am, after waiting 4 hours for someone to pick us up.
Got in to bed.
And now its Saturday. And saturday is brill. No Lily Allen, she has a tummy bug (or a 2 day hangover), no Kings of Leon from yesterday (which is crap as they have tried to re-schedule most bands that didnt play yesterday), but the vibe is AMAZING. It feels like every other year, people have got over the hump from last night, Maximo Park were fabby, Elbow got the crowd moving and us covered in goosebumps, and we are now about to meet up to watch Peaches strut her sexy stuff. More from us tomorrow, after the press Vs. artists football match which has been moved til tomorrow, (do join us for a midday paella and beer, its at 12 at the polideportivo in Benicassim!)
Lots of love kiddys, missing those that aren't here with us.
Lolita (and Anita, if i ever find her!)
Ps. 2manydjs 2 hour set tonight at 2am, i am soooo excited i could cry!

Huge fire and High winds force the lights (and Sound) off at Benicassim Day two

photo Juan Vicent/El Mundo

The Festival Internacional de Benicassim was forced to close early tonight. A large fire (looked like a brush fire) across the road from the site and extremely high winds meant that the fib organisers had to literally pull the plug on the event, plunging the entire site into darkness. The 70km winds have apparently damaged the stages. The Fib Club - a plastic bubble, was closed earlier in the evening.
It is very dark and the extraordinarily high winds are causing a dust storm. It is apparently mayhem and thousands of people are leaving the site, Queues for taxis are huge and the formerly happy crowd are more than a little disgruntled. Tom Tom Club were apparently in the middle of their set when the PA and lighting rigs started to wobble. Paul Weller's set was cut by 10 minutes it was at this point the power went off . There is a rumour that tonight's headliners, Kings of Leon are considering trying to appear tomorrow as they were previously scheduled to have a day off.
More as we get it ...

thisisfib - on twitter and tumblr

Anita Darling and Lolita Devine will be your eyes and ears and FIB Benicassim this year, they'll be tweeting from now on here and tumblring photos here and writing here - gonna be fun! We also have coming, over the weekend a guide to visitors to FIB and a forum here
FIB management say that tickets are now sold out and that they have now finalised the line up with the heroes of Spanish indie rock, Los Planetas, as the crown jewel of what is without doubt the most important programme of Spanish bands in FIB's history, and with Tom Tom Club, the perfect ending for this summer party.

The FIB Heineken 09 Line-up Starts to Take Shape

Franz Ferdinand, Kings of Leon and Paul Weller are the first confirmed names for the line-up of the most exciting and excellent summer music festival in Spain. This is going to be a line-up that you definitely do not want to miss!
Here's a reminder that 4-day tickets are on sale at a special launch price of ₤140 until January 15th. Tickets include free camping between the 13th and 21st July.
For more information go to tickets.fiberfib.com