Benicassim 2013: Day One

Photo: Lucy Hoang
It’s a welcome relief to be greeted by some warming rays of Spanish sunshine early Thursday morning. Such sweet relief is short-lived, however, as it quickly becomes obvious that attempting to sleep beyond 9am in this sweltering heat is a fool’s errand, lest you enjoy lying awake in a tent-slash-makeshift-paddling-pool filled with your own sweat. Vamos a la playa.

A fifteen-minute stroll from the campsite brings us to Benicassim town’s beautiful stretch of crystalline, turquoise waters and charming selection of beachfront eateries. We decide to spend the day as inanimate beach vegetables, ripening ourselves in the searing sun until reaching boiling point and intermittently rolling ourselves out to sea for a few seconds of cool relief.

After a quick stop at the secluded VIP bar for some much needed gin and tonics, we decide to brave standing next to the non-VIP peasants at the Maravillas Main Stage to watch La Roux kick things off. Sporting her signature bright pink swoosh-y hair and dark shades, she plays old favourites ‘Bulletproof’ and ‘In For The Kill’ to a delighted and ever-expanding crowd of sweaty youngsters, and a couple of new, distinctly darker efforts that are greeted with slightly less aplomb.

Meanwhile, Temples can be heard around the corner at the somewhat more modest surroundings of the Pringles Fibclub Stage. Despite playing in front of a smaller audience, ‘Shelter Song’ still sounds pretty damn special and is a spectacular musical accompaniment to the setting sun, currently sinking behind the rocky Spanish mountainside. Glorious.

With darkness creeping in, Beach House aptly take to the main stage with their well-established brand of chilled out downbeat anthems. ‘Zebra’ in particular sounds like a standout and fan favourite. They put on a good show, but the crowd seems to be growing increasingly restless as the set progresses, presumably anticipating the imminent arrival of the mighty Queens Of The Stone Age.

Just how mighty QOTSA prove to be catches us slightly off-guard, however. Maybe it’s those gin and tonics affecting our judgment, or even a touch of sun stroke setting in, but QOTSA seem to be absolutely on fire tonight. Clearly relishing this headline slot, Josh Homme looks like a frontman in his prime, comfortable with QOTSA’s now near-legendary status and truly embracing his role at the forefront. Opener ‘Feel Good Hit Of The Summer’ sees the crowd immediately energised as the entire site descends into delightful chaos. The old festival tradition of heaving anything you have to hand as far as possible is resumed, with an unending deluge of pints, shoes, shirts, underwear, and god knows what else flying past our heads at any given moment. It’s a truly remarkable performance and the band and crowd alike reciprocate feelings of utter enjoyment.

Feeling suitably tipsy and ever-so sunkissed by this point, we make our way back to the dreaded tent in an attempt at that thing called sleep, with ‘No One Knows’ and the incredibly befitting ‘My God Is The Sun’ still pleasantly ring in our ears.