Anybody who went to last year’s Benicassim Festival is likely to remember vividly the freak storms that hit the town on the Friday night. This is the first time in the festival’s history that such a storm, nearly bordering on a hurricane, has happened. We’d put money on it not happening again for a long long time. So definitely don’t let it put you off attending this year’s festival.
Those of you that were there for the 2009 festival will remember the upset caused by the Kings of Leon not coming on stage due to the high winds whilst other acts battled on. Well a recent interview published by Time Online sheds some interesting insights into what discussions went on back stage, Vince Power, Benicassim’s new owner comments on the discussions that went on with the Kings of Leon’s tour manager about their concern at going on stage in such high winds, Power had successfully persuaded other bands to play instead to try and prove to the Kinds that it was safe to go out there and perform:
“At the end of their set [the other bands], I was talking to the Kings of Leon’s tour manager, telling him it was perfectly safe for them to play, and at that exact moment a scaffolding pole flew through the air like a spear, over my head and straight into their tour bus.”
As one of the members of the crowd disappointed at the Kings of Leon’s failure to appear despite other performers battling on I can now appreciate why they bailed.
Check out the full Times article, it makes for interesting reading with a brief background on Power’s history in organising festivals and the costs associated with running a gig with so many people attending.
If you haven’t bought your Benicassim tickets yet, then make sure you get them soon!
Image below shows campers coming back to the Benicassim campsites after the freak storms died down.
Amazingly almost everybody managed to get their tents back up and running like nothing had ever happened. Rumour has it that the ASDA £10 tents performed particularly well throughout the storms. Tell us your stormy Benicassim 2009 story using the comments section below.
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