F.I.B Feistival 2007 - Benicassim, Spain

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Fiber F.I.B Festival 2007

The Festival International Benicassim (FIB) is the most important music festival in all of Europe at this time! This festival is the amalgamation of the latest rock, pop, alternate and electronic music from all over the world! It is held in a city called Benicassim due to the amazing landscape and nearby Mediterranean beaches and mountains. This is the setting for my 3 day music extravaganza! Let the good times roll!

Day 1.

I´d like you all to meet Jay Neven, Photo Journalist from from australia, who is contracting to the Catalan music program hosted on Catalan TV! Ok, so you´ve figured out Im not a photo journalist but hey… this was my undercover brother outfit for getting VIP passes to the festival! Ferran is the director of the music festivals and programs for the Catalan music channel here and being a big name, was not hard to secure the tickets.

So after picking up my super trendy ¨Press¨ photo identification and uber awesome wrist band (with hundreds of jealous looks from the common festival goers) I made my way to the backstage quarters!

Here I saw the press rooms for all the interviews and it was explained to me that I had unlimited access to these interviews! So after picking myself up off the floor I was given an exclusive tour throughout the media tents and saw all the television stations areas (MTV Spain etc) which was a blast and finally arrived at the HQ for Catalan TV.

Here I met Jordi, a good friend of Ferran and also the director for all things media wise for this festival! But more on that later… This press room was packed to the walls in the latest high def video tapes, all pre labeled, ready to record all the concerts in preparation for the DVD release of the festival and also a program for television (similar to big day in on V)

Ok, so on to the concerts! First up I saw a group called Anthony and the Johnson's. I´d never heard this music before and at first was not really impressed but after the first half of the set I started to warm to the radical movements of this crazy group.

Then off to the main stage to see a simply awesome group from Denmark called ¨Who made Who¨ this electronic rock mixture blew me away with their energetic stage presence and full on drum beats. They played a remix of Satisfaction by Benny Benassi which was awesome to dance to (with all the nice Spanish girls!)

Then on to see Wilco, which was gold. I was standing on the side of the mosh pit taking photos of the singer when I was approached by Ferran who had a big smile on his face and a sticker in hand… He ripped off the sticker and whacked it onto my photo ID and said ¨there you go, now you have photo shoot pass up the front for every band at FIB!!!) What this means is between the mosh pit and the stage there is an area reserved for bouncers to pick off all the hopeless who cant handle the pit and also for photographers!

Armed with this new almighty sticker I shot off to stumble my way through some bad Catalan conversation with the bouncer who then let me through!

... a few hundred photos later...

Ferran took me into the media HQ van (a big trick with a studio on the back… it was gold) where the director (Jordi) and the film and television crew actually make the switches between cameras on the fly which is then displayed on those massive screens you see next to the main stages at the festivals! This was an experience. Its hard to explain if your not there but it was a mixture of smooth transitions, screaming directors, brilliant camera work which all came together to create an awesome film clip! It was amazing to see how they do this, its the same at football and any major event, but for music, the director must know the beats, the band, and also when all the solo´s are and highlights of the song so he can choose the right camera to select the best shot. Jordi, if I had a hat I´d take it off to you mate! A job well done!

I wont go into to much detail on all of the concerts cause I think the pictures will speak for themselves! So on to day 2 commentary! (commend added, sorry guys, when I get time to upload them all)

FIB is unlike the festivals in Australia that start at 12 and go till 12 or so… they start at 4pm and don't stop till 5am! (yes it gets a bit messy towards the end… bright lights and fashion sunnies all over the shop! Eheh) So for the entire day Ferran and I took off to Valencia for a day trip but you can read about that in the other blog.

Day 2

Arrived around 6 when the big acts start to open up. I saw a heap of artists this night but the surprise was the B52´s. This is the group that sings ´Love Shack!¨ Yep that's right… it was great, got some great pics but sadly they had no press conference. I did not know the next group until I saw them… they are called DEVO and I met them at the press conference. The show was amazing and its good to see this old school group making a come back!

Day 3

Ok, so this was the day I was waiting for… can you say Kings of Leon, Muse and Arctic Monkeys? Eheh, I can and did! Front row, for Kings and the Monkeys and saw the press conference with Muse.

Kings of Leon - After missing their private concert in London (because I am a dosh bag and messed up my return dates from Ireland and did not secure a ticket in time!) and listening to their new album for a month I was hanging to see them! Since the Pearl Jam concert where I saw them last, the singer has cut his hair and looks a heap better! They smashed out a heap of brilliant songs from all albums and mid way played ´Fans´which I just went nuts over. I took some brilliant pictures which you can check out in this blog below!

Arctic Monkeys - These young British hooligans tore it up with all the smash hits and had the crowd begging for more! I´d never listen to their music much before FIB but have since got the album and cannot take my Ipod out of my ears!

Sadly I had to miss Muse cause it was 12am and we had a 3 hour drive back to Barcelona ahead of us. I managed to snag a heap of pics at the press interview before we left however which was gold. (Luke I know you will love these pics mate!)

These past 3 days have burnt some wicked memories into my mind that I will never forget. I was so very stoked when it all came together and I was able to get to this festival. Thanks Ferran! I owe ya big time!

So its time for this very weary photo journalist to put down the camera, close the lid on the MacBook and finish that bottle of wonderful Spanish red to my right!

Hope you all enjoy the pics and are totally envious!

Peace, J.

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