So tonight I have returned from Spain, more specifically Barcelona & Benicassim's FIB Music Festival. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

Day 1 - Barcelona
We flew in to Barcelona without any idea of where we were staying. Tourist Information helped us find a cheap hostel which was really really nice (I forgot the name) just off the Ramblas and next door to Gaudi's Cathedral which was pretty cool. We went exploring on the Ramblas and down to the seafront. I love Barcelona, its an amazing city but the only problem is the amount of money that you spend there. For example, the 4 of us (Me, Jack, Jenny & Claire) all sat down to a meal, we got food and some Sangria and before we knew it the bill was 96Euro which is crazy money!

Day 2 - Barcelona To Benicassim
We all got up pretty early, I had a little sleep incident (a recurring theme of the holiday) where I woke up screaming "Where is Matt Gray?!?" and "Where is everyone else?!" I was a bit delerious and must have still thought I was in Zante!! We tried to go to Gaudi's cathedral but the guard stopped us because the girls were dressed too slutty (short shorts and strap tops?!) which was a bit of a joke because he let in middle aged women who were wearing the same. Its just because our girls were hot!
We headed down to the beach and stayed there with all of our stuff for a good couple of hours getting some rays and going in the sea, then we got a taxi back into the city to our coach terminal to get to Benicassim.
The coach journey itself wasn't too bad, we were just surrounded by muppets, namely 2 snobby southern girls and a drunk babyfaced Irish guy who engaged in a loud, ridiculous conversation all the way there. Then one guy tried to be all macho and piss in a bottle at the back because the driver wouldn't stop.. but then he lost his nerve because "everyone is watching", sat back down and didn't say a word for the rest of the journey! Gimp.
When we got to the festival we headed for Camp FIB (close to the festival) over Camp Beni (close to the beach & supermarket) and everywhere we looked was rammed. We found two spaces next to a shower block and while we weren't right next to eachother we were close enough so set up there.
That night we gathered round and got smashed with our neighbours, a big group of 24 year olds from Cheltenham and some 18-19 year olds from Ireland, and we all made pretty good friends and formed a good bond throughout the festival.

Day 3 - 1st Day Of Music
We basically chilled all day at the campsite nursing our sore heads and getting used to our surroundings. The Showerblocks were ice cold and were an absolute life saver in the mornings and around midday. The heat always woke you up around 8.30 so they were a necessity and I had about 4 per day on average. Surprisingly I was cleaner there than I am at home!
We found the best cure to our hangovers was basically to get straight back on it so after a trip to the supermarket in town (a killer 25minute walk which had to be done at least twice daily) us and our neighbours all gathered again and got our booze hats on. It was Oasis so we were really up for it, I headed down with all the Cheltenham people early to watch all the bands.
First on were The Bishops who were enthusiastic but very samey.
Next were The View who I've seen a couple of times before and was impressed by, but I much prefer the first album.
Next were The Mystery Jets whom I love but had never really considered seeing live but they were fantastic, one of the best performances of the festival.
Between sets we got talking to everyone around us, and there were two Spanish girls I was getting on with pretty well.. I was talking to one in particular and she seemed sound as, and we were dancing when the mystery jets came on and then they played a slow song and all of a sudden I was getting off with her which was a bit unexpected and a first for a festival! Getting pats on the back from the Cheltenham mates was a bit of a surprise but yeah, she was getting really into it. We swapped numbers and stuff but she was going back home to Barcelona the next day and was only there for Oasis so it just wasn't meant to be. Her friend started getting crushed aswell so she had to leave which was a shame but she said she'd find us all later and come back to our camp so it was all good.
Next on were Oasis. Not my first time seeing them, but I was in awe. The crowd were pretty rowdy, people were climbing 150foot high scaffolding to get a good view which was pretty dangerous and at one point it looked like the gig might be stopped because of it but Liam Gallagher basically said "Do what you want!" and carried on regardless. He was on top form, but lost his rag a bit when the sound went during Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova. It only made the crowd go mental though and started a massive singalong like nothing I've heard before. It was brilliant. My favourite song though was without a doubt The Masterplan as its one of my favourites, we'd been singing it in the day, and Noel got it spot on.
The only bad part of the night was getting my moneybelt stolen. It was hidden under my jumper but with arms in the air someone must have seen it and unclipped it which in the tight crowd, I didn't notice. It had everything in, my passport, travellers cheques (about 250Euro and 120 in cash). I only realised it was gone at the end of the set. I also lost one of my shoes in the carnage so when Marta (the spanish girl) found me at the end I was in a shit mood and basically said no (biggest regret of the festival) and walked back to the tent shoeless and alone. I've added her on facebook and stuff but I'll never see her again so its a bit of an opportunity wasted because she was really keen.

Day 3 - Day Of Wind
I was pretty gutted still about last night and spoke to my mum and dad. Basically it was bad because without a passport I needed to get an emergency one from the Consulate in Barcelona which was a real hassle. We headed down to the beach (45 minutes away!) and me and Jenny met up with some guys I know from my school and we got some rays. It was good because there was a slight breeze so while it was sunny we were never too hot. On the way back to camp I went to the police station and filed a report for last night. Basically from here every day included a trip to the police station to see if my passport had been handed in but there was always nothing. Devastated.
When I got back to camp I was absolutely wrecked so konked out and when I awoke it was to the sound of sirens. I looked outside and everyone was stood around, the wind had picked up and the sky was red. There was a fire just the other side of the campsite, which was a bit scary and actually made the news. It was while Paul Weller was on stage and was just over the fence and across the road. He cut his set short so we missed out on him dueting with Noel Gallagher, and he has since said he "feared for his life!" which is pretty crazy. The winds got worse and worse as the night went on, kicking up loads of dust and debris so it was like being in Michael Jackson's Earth Song Video. I've never seen anything like it. It turns out it was a hurricane in Central Spain that we were just on the edge of. Half of our campsite was evicted, the beer tent nearly collapsed, and all the rest of the bands including headliners Kings Of Leon had to cancel which was a real shame. It was like being in a tornado, I can't believe no-one was killed. Our tents poles snapped, and in the morning there were dozens of tents which had gone over the fence onto the railway line.. it was insane. In the morning the place was like a third world country/refugee camp!!

Day 4 - The Saturday Night
Saturday daytime was good, after the customary trip down to el policia I went to the train station and booked a ticket so I could head to the consulate early on Tuesday to get an Emergency Passport. I returned to camp but everyone had left to go to the waterpark. They'd left me a note saying to come down and call them but when I rang the number was dead. I was left alone in the campsite so I did a bit of sunbathing on my rollmat and had a couple of showers but I was getting pretty bored. Its good then that all the Irish returned and in the end I went with them to the beer tent (now repaired after the wind) and things quickly got very messy. The Irish sure can drink. What was meant to be just a little tipple to pass the time soon became a full on blowout. I learnt one of the Irish who I'd seen in a United shirt (I made a mental note) actually went home and away games every week, and spent £10,000+ annually on this habit which was pretty impressive. He goes not when its convenient, but when its cheapest, flying from Dublin to Birmingham then renting a car to drive up to M-town. He then explained it was only because Ireland's domestic standards were so poor that he did it, and it was his father which had started him on United. He had some pretty interesting stories and reasoning behind his supporting the dirty reds.. and he knows his stuff about City aswell and also hates Cockney reds as there is "no excuse when you have top teams like Arsenal,Chelsea,Tottenham,West Ham etc. etc." which I agreed with. He was a top bloke.
We met everyone else back at camp and chilled there for a bit.. the rest is all a bit of a blur. Me and the Irish were messy messy messy... We then headed into the festival a bit later as the lineup was pretty weak (Foals & Lily Allen cancelled with illness) so we got to see Maximo Park and Elbow instead.
Maximo Park were fantastic, I loved their first album but had never seen them. The frontman was really animated, interacting with the crowd. I was stood with a guy on his stag do who loved me to bits for some reason and kept buying me drinks for some reason which was pretty good. Maximo were amazing, and like Mystery Jets, were one of my bands of the festival. They closed on my all time favourite song aswell, Acrobat, which they rarely play live so I loved that.
Elbow followed and were really good too.. I love them. It was so chilled out and really special in the sun. Guy Garvey has a brilliant voice and their performance was scintillating, another highlight of the festival for me.
From there we headed into the dance tents and watched a selection of DJs who were all good but I was dead on my feet. I was hoping to stay awake long enough to watch 2ManyDJs on the Main Stage who I've wanted to see for a long time and are incredible but starting at 4am proved a little bit much and I wandered home to bed before they came on. :(

Day 5 - Last Day Of Music
In the day we headed down to the beach through the area which had set on fire which was pretty cool.. you could still smell it on the air. I was sunbathing for a while but the heat was literally sending us to sleep and my feet were killing. Since I'd lost my shoes at Oasis I had been making do with my flip flops and for Maximo Park had borrowed a mate's trainers (He's a 9, I'm an 11) so I walked 1hour15minutes into town and bought some shoes. I was taken into a skate shop by a friend where it was all really nice Vans, they were 30euro each so I couldn't really spend that much. I headed across the road into a bazaar and bought some "scuba shoes" (waterproof beach boots) for 3euros which put a smile on my face for the rest of the day.
That night we headed in to the festival as a massive group and all 20 of us stopped for some food. I bought some pasta, and we were all stood around eating. I finished, and went back to buy a drink and realised the unthinkable had happened and my wallet was gone. Pickpocketed twice in 4 days.. absolute nightmare. They must have watched me pay and put the wallet in my pocket and walked up and grabbed it out of my pocket. I can't believe I didn't notice, I was 100% sober so the gutted feeling was even worse. I couldn't comprehend it had happened again, all of my money, my driving license and train ticket were all in there. I had just got over the last one and organised myself and sorted myself out, it was so cruel. For TV on The Radio's set I was in a huge mood and to be truthful, was close to tears. It was made worse by everyone offering to buy me a drink,lend me money or have a whiparound the next day. I had known these people a few days and they were prepared to lend me money like this.. it made me pretty emotional.
Anyway, I stood a little seperate from everyone to get my composure back and rang my parents. They weren't angry, just devastated like me, I had to be the unluckiest person at the festival. That made me feel a little better.
Then Friendly Fires came on. I am obsessed with this band and love them to bits so I thought, I won't let this ruin this band or the last night of the festival. So I started dancing, and singing.. every word. Most people there only knew the singles but I knew everything.. got a few bemused looks but fuck it. Made me feel better. They were superb as I knew they would, and it was their last gig before being announced on the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize which is totally deserved for their debut in my eyes.
Next there was a slight change of routine before Pete Doherty so I wandered over to The Killers. I'm not a massive fan, they're a bit too glam for me but they were really working the crowd and looked good. I saw Somebody Told Me, my favourite song, and left for Pete Doherty. It was billed as just Pete but all of Babyshambles showed up and they played a full set, heavy with Libertines songs and tracks from Shotters Nation which I loved. They even covered I Wanna Be Adored by the Stone Roses which was an amazing moment. They were the best band at the festival hands down, exactly as they had been at Glastonbury 2007 when I hadn't even been a fan. Pete Doherty is so talented, he was really on form aswell interacting with the crowd and he looked reasonably sober which is good. A funny moment was one of the crowd shouting "Pete!! Spit on me!". After Babyshambles we all headed back to the tent to chill.

Day 6 - Cheltenham Leave, I Can't
Monday was a sad day. The Cheltenham lot all left. We headed down to the train station with them to see if we could get any tickets for Monday or the next day but there was so many people leaving we didn't stand a chance. There was like 1000 people queuing at the train station which was bad for me because really I needed to get to Barcelona ASAP to get an Emergency Passport so I could get home. We headed into town and there was another 200 people queuing outside the travel agents for coach tickets so as this would probably be my best chance I sat down with my bag and waited. After about 2 hours I hadnt made much progress and an Australian guy walking past was trying to sell his for the next morning so I literally bit his hand off. Cheaper than actual price, I was pretty lucky to get one. He seemed alright, even though he had a girl's name (Kym). I walked with him back to the campsite, got the ticket and headed to our tent.. meeting the Irish girls on the way. The boys they were with had left that morning so I went with them in the beer tent and we slept and slept and slept on our air beds. It was much needed.
That night was a chill as so many of us were up so early for coaches. It was fun though, we went through all the abandoned tents and made an airbed tower in our camp, and I gained a pretty good haul of a pair of shorts and trainers which were much needed because my scuba shoes were starting to hum

Day 7 - Beni-Barcelona
The Irish girls woke me up and I was a bit late for my coach. I basically got up, put on my bag, shouted goodbye, told people I'd meet them at the airport and that was it. The coach was fine, it set off at 8am, I got a little sleep and was in Barcelona for 12. I headed straight to the British Consulate and was lucky because by arriving late I missed the morning queues and most people had gone down the day before anyway. The lady told me that 400 passports every day at the festival had been stolen/lost which was pretty crazy. The passport was basically a piece of paper which had my photo on and had the consulate stamp. It cost 85euro which was basically all of my money. Originally the plan was to meet 2 of the Cheltenham lot in Barca and chill with them but I basically couldn't afford it and while they said they would lend me money I didn't really feel comfortable doing it because I'd only known them a few days. I walked from the consulate to Sants Train Station and got the train and then bus to Girona airport costing about 8euros which was wicked value for money. I arrived there at about 6pm.. a full 24 hours before my flight.

Day 8 - Girona Airport
I was on my own but was never alone because there were so many Benicassim festival goers doing the same as me. We were all in the same boat so everyone was really friendly and talking. I read all the newspapers from the last 3 days, and bought a book and finished that. I also chilled with some scouse girls, a guy from Birmingham who had been on a climbing holiday and loved me for my attitude of "its just one of those things" in relation to getting stuff stolen but hated me for supporting Man City. After that there was two gorgeous girls from Bournemouth, 1 of whom had a festival every weekend for all of August earning her a grand working for Pie Minister which I'm told is a famous Bristol-based Pie company. Then I chilled with a Scottish guy and an Italian guy who spoke incredible english.. and then just as I was starting to get a bit worried all my mates turned up!! We checked in and flew home no problem and I can proudly say I survived Benicassim '09!

But I'm definitely never going back.. the thieving by the Spanish, the extortionate beer prices, the long walk to town, the even longer walk to the beach.. to be honest the whole thing has put me off festivals abroad. The bands never would have cancelled and there would have been more effort put into their performances (with a few exceptions).
Also for the time we were there I didn't see as many bands as I would have wanted, but I have got a sick tan so its not all bad!!
I love my Benicassim homies, from Manchester and Beyond!!