Benicàssim: The Greatest Music Festival in Europe – Campfest

In this post I will talk all about Campfest; what to expect, how to ensure you make the most of it and a few simple tips on how to survive the exhaustive heat. For more information on Campfest be sure to check out FIB’s official website!

What to expect when you arrive

Depending on the day you arrive to Campfest you might think it quiet or crazy busy. We arrived on the Monday before the festival started which was the first official day of the camp opening.

The ground of the campsite is quite dusty and stony so flip-flops wouldn’t be the most comfortable shoes to wear unless going to the showers.

When you’ve setup be sure to go explore both sides of the Campfest. Campfest is split into two parts and is available to those with a four day ticket to the festival.

There were two main bars and numerous food places, a camp shop and little shops where you can buy hats, flip-flops and sunglasses.

The food places are pretty standard and what you would expect. There’s a vendor that does hot-dogs and burgers of all variations as well as chips/fries and other fast-food type items. There was also another food shack beside it that did toasted sandwiches and these were pretty decent for €5.

The camp shop like mentioned in the first instalment to this series sold all camping related items: tents, air-beds, lilos, water/beer-coolers, pillows, and lawn chairs. From that shop I ended up buying everything except the tent, air-bed, and pillow. The lawn chairs and coolers are extremely handy and highly recommended! But I will get more into how to actually survive camping in the next instalment of the series!

Drink!

The first thing you should get when you arrive is a drink because you’ll more than likely need it. From the time we got up for our flight to the time we had setup our tent it had been twenty hours and we only went from Ireland.

To buy a drink at all bars available at FIB, you have to buy drink tokens first. They accept both cash 24/7 but card only from 10am-10pm.

Drink tokens cost €3. The vendors in the bar do not do cashback so don’t do what I did and accidentally buy 20 drink tokens thinking I was getting €60 cashback!

You will see signs on the wall for what you can get for your drink tokens but typically: 1 drink token will get you a bottle of water, soft drinks, slushy drinks, a can of red bull, a 330ml cup of beer or cider or a shot of any spirit they have on sale.

For two tokens you can get a small bottle of white wine which with a couple ice cubes in it was rather tasty! Plus it came in a cool cup!

For three tokens you can get a litre sized cup of any of the available beers or ciders, this thing was a beast! It broke down to basically €4.50 per pint which coming from Dublin and taking into consideration the inflated festival prices this drink was actually quite reasonable.

For the entire festival when buying drinks in the arena or around the campsite I opted for the litre cups of Strongbow and double Jägermeister and Red Bulls, each 3 tickets. I love my Jäger so I was happy out!

In 2017 the available beers and cider were Heineken, Desperados, Fosters, and Strongbow to my recollection and the standard vodka, Bacardi, Jaergermeister, Captain Morgans, and Gordon’s gin were all there too. I can’t remember if there were any whiskey bottles there but I’m sure there were.

So when it comes to time to go asleep you’ll more than likely just pass out with exhaustion on your first night! I suggest you go asleep wearing the least amount of clothes as possible because trust me it’s going to get hot.. you can take that however you want!

I won’t get into camping in this piece I am going to wait until the next article in the series to discuss how to master camping at Campfest and what to expect!

Showering

After waking up you’ll probably want to go for a shower! The showers at Campfest are probably the greatest thing about the whole site.

The water is cold but because you will be so hot anyways it really doesn’t matter and in actual fact you’ll welcome the cold water!

Go light down to the showers – go in your swim suit, bring your towel over your shoulder and your toiletry bag in hand. When the showers are less busy people tend to brush their teeth however once the festival actually begins Campfest can get quite busy and people will often line up behind other people showering to get the shower next.

At the beginning of the week all of the showers had nozzles on them and had good water pressure but by the end of the week, 99% of the nozzles were gone or missing and some of the showers had really low water pressure. You won’t be waiting long for a shower so even if you have to wait, don’t worry!

Dry yourself there and then and walk back to your tent. I’d advise you to dry your legs as much as possible because when walking on sandy ground in flip flops you will kick the dust onto your legs, and if your legs are wet, you will end up with so much dirt stuck to you, you might as well turn back around and shower again!

You will inevitably get some dirt kicked onto your legs so that is where your baby wipes come in handy – to clean the bottom part of your legs and feet before putting on your shoes!

Keeping Your Valuables Safe

You might be worried about having your stuff stolen and it is a genuine concern. Over the week event my friend had her lawn chair stolen and on the final night my other friend had his shoes stolen, resulting in him having to wear my flip-flops on the two buses, train, and plane that brought us home! Which resulted in a lot of laughs!

The best thing to bring is a lock for your tent, whether it be combination or padlock! Generally the people that go to FIB are people just like you who are only just interested in the music and good experience however; it does pay to be on the side of caution.

I’d recommend that if going over in a group you buy a small locker to keep your passports and important documents safe. Once you put them in the locker then you don’t have to worry about it for the week and you all share the cost of it! This locker would also be a good place to keep your cash!

Cash & Card

In the Benicàssim town there are a good few ATMs however down by the coast the only ATMs available are beside a tobacco shop and then a ten minute walk away in Hotel Orange. Cash really is king in Benicàssim and if you are going out with friends for food then having cash and a lot of small notes and change makes life a whole lot easier!

Before heading out every day stop by your locker, pick up your money and then go out for the day! This is the easiest way to work your money at FIB.

Chargers, Power and Electricity

Like I said before, electricity will become more valuable than gold! Again, you can rent out a power bank for a €5 deposit and €3 fee which will probably get your phone to 30/40%, you can buy an official FIB charger for €18, or you can go without power.

The best solution is to buy a large capacity portable charger and use it sparingly with your phone. The only thing I wish I had more battery for was to take more photographs! I brought away three small portable chargers and they didn’t last me very long!

The break away from Facebook etc was quite nice but I wish I had battery to take more photographs!

Rubbish

When dealing with your rubbish, the best thing to do is put it in a plastic bag and throw it into one of the many industrial sized bins located around Campfest!

There will be a lot of rubbish in the actual campsites themselves because some people are messy and it is just as simple as that! The best thing you can do is just keep your area tidy and throw out your stuff every few days!

What to expect when the festival starts

When the festival begins the only impact it has on the campsite is that it becomes busier, obviously! Besides having to wait a few minutes for a shower the increased number of people there didn’t make much of a difference.

However if you are looking for chargers then the queues become very long so I’d just follow my previous advice on how to deal with charging your phone!

So now you know what to expect from Campfest! I loved camping in Campfest. The actually camping was a challenge due to my terrible lilo but the atmosphere around the camp was electric! You will have a great time there I guarantee it! However like I said the actually camping can be challenging – be sure to read the next instalment in order to know how to camp like a pro at FIB!