Lockdown has had me reminiscing those summer days spent at festivals, demolishing delicious street food, dancing with friends and blasting out song lyrics as loud as your lungs will allow. with this in mind, I thought I would create a blog on my favourite festival experiences To date. Before listing my top 3, I must give honourable mentions to Sziget (2016) and Isle Of Wight (2017), both of which will always hold a special place in my heart.
3. Citadel- London (2019)
Now, the first thing to note about Citadel is that it is only one day long. There are some definite pros and cons to this. On one hand, one day is not enough to fully explore the area and try all the foods. On the other hand, a one day festival makes it so much more affordable and at the end of the night you get to be back in your own bed. It's easily accessible on the underground too, which is a bonus.
Me and my friends visited Citadel in July 2019, which showcased performances from Catfish & The Bottlemen, Bastille, Bears Den and the Teskey Brothers, to name a few.
The weather was very decent for London (although my friend who got sunburnt may beg to differ). There are loads of aesthetic little areas if you're a fan of taking 'candids' with your friends, and the food selections are on point too. My street food of choice this time round was crispy duck and chips. A real contender on my ultimate street food list. It was also very noticeable that there was just a very positive atmosphere going on at the festival.
The highlight of the day? For me, it would have to be watching Bears Den. Certain songs by Bears Den mean a lot to me and it was such a pleasure to be able to hear them live. To top it off, they were playing as the suns was setting (another thing I love).
A very solid 8/10 for Citadel, coming in at 3rd place on my festival showdown list.
2. Reading Festival (2015 & 2016)
Now, what kind of festival list would this be if Reading wasn't on it? Reading was my first Festival, I went in 2015, and then again the following year. The great thing about going to Reading when you are 17 is that you don't really care about the camping conditions.
Fast forward 5 years and Reading is a little blurry now, but there are a few highlights I still remember. First up, is the people. We made camp friends at Reading and after 2 days of knowing them, it had felt more like months. It was great, everyone is so sociable there. Second was the amount of food and drink stalls available. So much so, my friends and I decided that the Giant Yorkshire Pudding food stand would be our meeting point in case we ever lost each other.
My favourite memory? Foals.
In 2015 Foals were the secret set at Reading. Now, at the time we had no clue (hence the term secret). Me and my friends had ventured down to the main site pretty early because I wanted to be on the barrier for Nothing But Thieves. After Nothing But Thieves were finished, we started to make a move when all of a sudden our friend shouted "That's Yannis's guitar". It wasn't Yannis holding it, but low and behold we waited and not long after that the stage filled with people who had just heard the news that Foals were this years secret set. It was mental. I can safely say I will never forget having my ribs crushed against the barriers as I listened to 'Red Socks Pugie' from the front row.
Reading comes in 2nd place, purely for the fact it took about a weeks worth of showers before I felt clean again.
1. Benicà ssim (FIB) (2018)
Oh Beni, you have my heart.
Beni is a four day music festival located in Spain. The festival welcomes people from all around the world, making it such a wonderful place to be. You might not understand everything that's going on due to many different language barriers, but that just makes it so great, because you're all just there, together, for your love of music. You get to learn so many new things. You are introduced to new artists who are popular in other countries (my favourite from that year being The Parrots), get to admire so many different fashion styles, and try out new foods (safe to say there was no Giant Yorkshire Pudding stand at this place).
Because Beni is located in Spain, the festival never starts earlier than 6pm, meaning most acts are performing in gorgeous golden hour sunlight. To add to this, you are surrounded by endless mountains in the distance. I am telling you, the people and the place cannot be faulted.
Yet another great thing about Beni is that there are coaches at the end of every night, which go back to
various hotels and apartments, near the festival.
What this meant for my friends and I is that we were able to stay in our own little apartment nearby. We would spend all day by the pool, or the beach, making things cheaper for ourselves by doing a big supermarket shop and actually having a fridge to store it all in. On one of the days we just popped over to Barcelona for a bit of an explore!
You get so much time to just recover from the night before and enjoy whats around you. The only thing you could say about this, is that it does limit your chances to meet fellow camping friends, which is often considered a very important part of the true festival experience.
So let's talk music. I have to admit that I seem to have seen Nothing But Thieves, The Vaccines and Catfish & The Bottlemen at most of the festivals I have been to (this is not a coincidence), and their performances have always been magnificent. Beni was no exception.
But the first artists that comes to mind when I first think of Beni? Hudson Taylor & Madness. A very odd combination I know. Thinking back to the crowd for Madness still makes me chuckle. The dance moves, the outfits and the pure enjoyment on everyones faces was unmatched.
I would go back to Beni in a heartbeat, and very proudly award this festival the the number one position on my festival showdown list.
