We had been talking about going to Benicassim for about four years before we finally did it in 2023. Every year something got in the way - work commitments, a wedding, the pandemic, another wedding. When we finally booked our tickets for 2023 we both felt a slightly ridiculous level of excitement for something we had been planning for so long.
Here is what we wish we had known beforehand, for anyone else in the position we were in.
The schedule is back-to-front from UK festivals. Nothing really gets going until 10pm, the headliners are on at 1am, and you will absolutely still be on your feet at 4 or 5 in the morning. Sleep in the afternoon. Seriously. This is not optional advice.
The days are yours. We spent them at the beach, at the Aquarama water park (€13 after 4pm, excellent value), eating long lunches in town, wandering around. It is a holiday and a festival simultaneously and that is a genuinely wonderful thing.
Take less than you think you need. Budget airlines, hold luggage fees, carrying everything in the heat to the campsite - you will thank yourself for packing light.
The atmosphere is unlike anything in the UK. Bastille on the main stage in 2023, with thousands of people singing along under a clear Spanish sky, was one of those moments we will still be talking about in twenty years.
