3 weeks ago I went on my 2nd holiday of the year, however this one was very different from my trip to Ayia Napa two weeks previous. It was a lads’ holiday of sorts but for a start I’d fully paid for this one (well, with a bit of help from my mum) and it was essentially just a music festival – albeit in another country. However it was much more than that, we were there for 7 days, with 3 of those days to ourselves and for the other 5 lads I went with (Tevans, Gary, Zeller, Marcus and Scott) it was their first lads’ holiday. As a result there was a buzz of excitement around the group, even though our first day would be mostly spent travelling.

Firstly, we had to make our way to the Airport. The plan was simple, we were flying from Liverpool to Alicante, stopping in a hostel and then getting a train from Alicante to Benicassim in the morning. However with lads’ holidays, nothing’s ever that simple. We arrived at the airport and checked in without any relative fuss, however as I was queuing for security I dropped my passport and boarding pass, luckily someone picked them up and shouted me and I got it back. This didn’t help my reputation for being a ‘bag of nerves’, especially when I also left my passport in Burger King on the way home from Napa.

After we’d got through security, we had the standard pre-flight Burger King. Everybody went ‘super’ apart from me who just stuck to large because of my very limited funds. However, nobody managed to finish their supersized meal so needless to say, I had the last laugh. I almost left my passport again which would have been somewhat of an inconvenience.

After an hour or so of waiting around and contemplating buying some apple vodka between us, we boarded the plane. It was an Easyjet flight, which means two things; no legroom and no ticket numbers, leading to a chaotic every man for himself free-for-all. I ended up in a row with Marcus and Gary whilst the other three were in a row together two rows infront of us. So not exactly disastrous, and we were all closer together than we were on the way to Napa. The plane journey was spent chatting about Benicassim and football and the 2 and half hours flew by.

When we landed in Alicante it was late, and so we made our way to the aforementioned hostel, we’d already paid for the night so it should have been a pretty quick check-in. Unfortunately Tevans had made the schoolboy error of booking the hostel for the wrong night and so we had to cough up for 2 nights instead of 1. Me, Tevans and Marcus made our way to one room whilst the other 3 went to another. We dumped our bags down and were immediately faced with a terrifying prospect – a cockroach loose in our room. After many minutes chasing it, Tevans managed to trap it with an ashtray and we could all sleep easier. Foolishly, however, we spent most of the night staying up and talking.

The morning came and it was finally time to make our way to Benicassim. We made our way to Alicante train station and visited subway for some brunch. There was only one guy working there, smacked off his tits, making all the sandwiches at once and being far too enthusiastic with the sauce. He did, nevertheless manage to outbanter Tevans despite not speaking the best English. We then boarded the train and I was sat in a completely different carriage to anyone else so I listened to my Benicassim playlist and tried to catch up on some sleep for the 3 hour duration.  We arrived and it was incredibly humid, we decided to walk to the campsite – a terrible decision, especially in the heat. However about half an hour or so later we finally arrived and got a camping spot under some shade.

As we got our tents out, a common problem appeared, neither mine or especially Scott’s tent were big enough to sleep two people comfortably. Marcus and I could just about get away with it but Scott’s was tiny, wouldn’t even fit him in. Zeller’s on the other hand was huge and was more than adequate for 2 people. Scott bought another tent for him and Gary and once that was done we went go-karting and then off to Mercadonna (the largest supermarket chain in Spain) and got some supplies, both alcoholic and foodstuff. Eric, the man on the tills didn’t speak a word of the Queen’s though, which made asking for a certain number of bags a liability. After what seemed like the furthest walk back of my life with several stops to get a breather, we sat by our tent and started drinking.

After a couple of hours drinking and playing music; me, Tevans and Scott decided to wander off to the beer tent to soak up the atmosphere, me and Scott necked 2 litres of Vodka and Coke between us which led to both of us getting drunk, speaking to some Welsh girls, meeting some whizzhead called Rainey who showed us his colossal tent and ‘liberating’ copious amounts of toilet roll from the storage cubicle. After our mischievous antics we went to bed.

I woke the next day, full of enthusiasm and lacking a hangover (the same couldn’t be said for Scott) and we headed for the Water Park. We had an amazing day going on pretty much every single ride, the highlights being the rainbow slides, the kamikaze and some sort of zip wire thing that flings you into the water. Well, that was a highlight until one time it didn’t fling me off so I was just suspended in the air before falling and bellyflopping from a great height. This is the first day I really caught the sun with my shoulders getting very red. We made another trip to Mercadonna and made our way back to the campsite where we heard the news that Thursday night headliner Florence + the Machine had pulled out. We started drinking at the beer tent and Tevans went mingling (basically informing people that Florence had cancelled, walking away and repeating the process) whilst Marcus and I got chatting to some girls (Emily and Peta). The girls had Sangria and me in my infinite wisdom thought it would be a good idea to down some. Bad move. I felt very sick and rushed to the toilet, luckily a false alarm. Tevans also got talking to two girls from Bolton and headed off back to their tent. We did the same and had a little drink before heading to our tent.

It’s fair to say that I wasn’t displaying the same level of enthusiasm on Thursday morning as I was the day before, I was very hungover and Tevans coming knocking on our tent first thing didn’t help. However hilarity ensued when he told us that he stopped the night in the girl’s tent… and spooned her to sleep!  Thursday was quite laid back, I spent most the day recovering and Tevans spent most of the day dying.  The first band we took in was Los Tiki Phantoms, a Spanish instrumental band who wear skull masks and cover Take on Me. Surreal. Scott managed to catch one of the drummer’s drumsticks though… well, run as fast as he could as it bounced along the floor to get it before anyone else. After these, we headed back to the camp and had pre-drinks with the girls from the previous night before heading back to the arena to watch The Horrors.

I’m not the biggest fan of the Horrors but their set was very impressive and the one song I do like (Still Life) was amazing live. We were also very near the front, which is always a good thing, well it was until At The Drive-In came on and everybody started moshing which was very painful on the sunburn, and my newly sunburnt legs after I foolishly didn’t put any suncream on them due to them not catching any sun at the waterpark. I also had a close call with losing my wallet between The Horrors and ATDI but luckily some guy handed it to Marcus, albeit without my debit card. I had about a quid in my bank anyway so needless to say, I had the last laugh. Then came De La Soul who had been moved up from the Trident Senses stage and they really got the crowd going with a series of crowd competitions and they played a large chunk of their classic 3 Feet High and Rising album, before ending on Feel Good Inc. which the crowd loved. Last but certainly not least was Example, who absolutely smashed it, he’s gone onto say on Twitter that we were the best crowd he’s played to this year and Kickstarts was a particular highlight. All in all, a great first night, even though my legs and feet were in severe pain.

After a very uncomfortable night’s sleep I woke up on Friday morning, my feet swollen, purple and even cut from people jumping on them last night. Friday was the day I was most looking forward to; Miles Kane, Bob Dylan, the Maccabees, Bombay Bicycle Club and Chase & Status. However, Friday mostly consisted of me sleeping in the beer tent, sat on a chair, with my mouth wide open that led to various random people laughing at my misfortune. However, a shower perked me up and I was ready for Miles Kane.

Miles Kane was sensational, he brought so much energy to the stage and the audience were still singing his songs long after he’d left the stage. Next up was Bob Dylan who I was very excited for, he has so many classics; Like a Rolling Stone, Blowin’ in the wind, Highway 61 Revisited, Ballad of a Thin Man, Tangled up in Blue. However the Bob Dylan that took to the stage was unrecognisable from the one who recorded these classics as he croakily talked his way through his hour and half set. A few excellent harmonica segments and the audience sing-along to Like a Rolling Stone somewhat salvaged it but it was still a bitter disappointment. Next up was the Maccabees who I like but don’t know many of their lyrics. Their set was brilliant though. No Kind Words Feel to Follow and in particular Pelican (the song I do know all the lyrics to) were fantastic. Unfortunately though, I was too fatigued and in pain to carry on watching from the barrier so I left the crowd, got myself a drink and sat towards the back in time for Bombay Bicycle Club coming on. I only like a few Bombay songs but I still thoroughly enjoyed the performance and wished I could have been at the front for it. I was even more gutted I couldn’t be at the front for Chase & Status as it looked mad from where I was stood and although I enjoyed it, not being part of the crowd definitely detracted from the experience.

Saturday was another day of catching up on sleep, everybody was at it on Saturday though, the week of sleeping in a tent on rocks had caught up on us and we needed a chill day so we’d be ready for Noel Gallagher and Stone Roses. One highlight though was meeting Skittle Boy from Boom There’s Yer Dinner who was impressed with the shaving foam graffiti on mine and Marcus’ tent.

It was soon night time and we decided we’d go to the Arena a little earlier than usual to check out some of the other attractions. We went to the Silent Disco for about 15 minutes which was a good laugh even though it was pretty empty and then we made our way to the main stage to watch Jessie J. We could have watched the Buzzcocks on the Trident Senses stage but we made the sacrifice so that we’d be near the front for Noel and Ian. And what a great decision it turned out to be. We were just behind the barrier for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and he was far and away the best of the week so far, his set was littered with Oasis classics and even ended on Don’t Look Back in Anger, allowing the audience to sing the chorus that everybody knows and loves. Other highlights of his set were If I Had a Gun and Dream On. But then came the Stone Roses. Wow. They far surpassed any of my expectations.  Ian Brown’s voice was immaculate, even though it doesn’t need to be. Reni played the drums like nobody else I’ve ever seen whilst still looking laid back and cool. Mani was amazing on bass, the classic riff in Fools Gold was one of the highlights of the entire festival and you don’t even need to say anything about Squire, the guy oozes class and luckily he didn’t make any slip ups like he did at T in the Park. Unfortunately they didn’t play Elizabeth My Dear (“The best song of all time under a minute” – Thomas Evans) but they did play pretty much everything else you’d want to hear. I Wanna be Adored, Made of Stone, Waterfall/Don’t Stop, She Bangs the Drums, I am the Resurrection all phenomenal and they even completely blew Noel out of the water. I wanted to end my night on a high so I left before Crystal Castles went on knowing that they wouldn’t be able to touch Ian and co.

The last day came and my early night meant that I was feeling considerably better and even had the energy to leave the campsite for some food, I got a burger from a café whilst Gary, Scott and Zeller went Go-Karting again and then we head back to the camp again and just chilled by the beer tent for our last few hours. We requested a couple of Arctic Monkeys songs and just lay in the shade reminiscing on the week.

We made our way to the arena for the last time after a pre-drinking session and Scott was very drunk by this stage, he tried relentlessly to get his wristband replaced but nobody would take him on and we ended up missing the start of Spector on the Trident Senses stage. We left just before the end of the set so that we could get to the main stage in time for The Vaccines but we still saw Celestine, Chevy Thunder and What you Wanted. The Vaccines were solid, the instruments seemed to drown out Justin’s vocals though. Songs like If You Wanna, Post-Break Up Sex, Wetsuit and Norgaard always get the audience singing along though. Next came Ed Sheeran who blew me away with his use of looping and his 15 minute version of You need me, I don’t need you. Followed swiftly by the headliners New Order who were playing on the late Ian Curtis’ birthday. They dedicated their superb set to him and ended on Love Will Tear Us Apart to the delight of the audience. After that I had to make it back to the campsite and miss David Guetta due to me and Gary having to get earlier flights home than everyone else.

I got back to the campsite to see Scott collapsed in his tent after passing out and Gary and I got our stuff and set off to catch the coach. We both fell asleep on the coach and embarrassingly got woken up after everybody had already left the coach and were staring at us. We got another standard pre-flight Burger King and boarded our plane, both sleeping pretty much the duration. We got back to Liverpool and made our way back to the train station before realising neither of us had enough English money to get a train back to Bolton so we had to wait a couple of hours for Gary’s uncle to come and pick us up and drive us back to Bolton.

Overall, Benicassim was a great week, the sunburn ruined it a little but I’d definitely contemplate going again if I could properly afford it.