I've been to Benicassim twice now, and it really should be on the roadmap for any serious European…read morefestival goer. Slightly too commercial for my usual taste (i.e. you can only buy Heinenken), it more than makes up for the shortcoming with the guaranteed 30 degree weather and fantastic location just 10 minutes from the beach. After two visits, I have a couple of tips for prospective newcomers: - If you arrive on the Thursday afternoon, you tend to be able to get into the campsite that is right next to the festival. Any earlier, and it's not yet open, any later, and it's full. This is important, because the other one is a bus ride away, and who can be bothered with that after dancing all night?! - It's hot. Really hot. Take some shade. Take a gazebo - it'll be the best 20 euros you've spent in a long time. - There used to be a public beach party on the Monday night after the festival was fairly classic, everyone in the sea all night etc, but not sure it's still going so worth checking before you book your flights. Quite a few people I've spoken to have rented apartments instead of camping, which seems to be a good option but there's not much with air conditioning around, so it's still hot, and not as fun. All in all, very different to a British festival but well worth the trip. Easy to get to - about an hour out of Valencia airport, and there's a cheap shuttle bus laid on for you.

Smack-dab in the middle of Valencia, Benicàssim is the perfect place for this summer music…read moreFestival. On the Costa Azahar, it is hard to imagine a better setting for the emotional rush of summer, right on the sea, sharing emotions and experiences with people from all over the world, where the friendliness and hospitality of the locals and the gorgeous natural surroundings make for a truly unique experience. The blessings Mother Nature has bestowed on Benicàssim make this a very special setting for a one-of-a-kind music festival. And there are so many other advantages: centrally located bus and train stations; its proximity to the Valencia airport; its wide range of hotel and restaurant services to ensure that your stay in this city by the sea is as comfortable as possible and that you have the opportunity to savour the succulent culinary traditions of the region. Many are the good reasons to take part in the Festival and the whole Benicàssim experience. Many are the good reasons to summer here, with an unbeatable mix of music, sun, surf and sand. Benicàssim is all this and much more!

Every single market in Valencia opens their doors at night and has insane parties. These are my…read morepeople! Even if you don't get there early enough, the outdoor concerts will treat you right. Great music, plenty of drinks, and festivities galore.Just bring some cash, buy some drinks, and enjoy the atmosphere. Vale!

La Tomitina!!!! The funniest food fight you'll ever have…read morewith 20,000-50,000 people from numerous countries like UK, Australia, Japan, India, and even peeps from Hawaii that come together for one thing! Tossing over 100,000 tomatoes at each other and having the best time of their lives! You have to add this to your bucket list, it's a must do!

La Tomatina is the annual tomato throwing festival in a little town called Bunol, an hour out of…read moreValencia. A must-do for any traveller into experiencing the weird and wonderful! Here's the history from what I learnt: It all apparently started in 1945 at a festival when a group of young people grabbed tomatoes from a nearby stall and started a harmless food fight. Police came and stopped the troublemakers, ending the battle. A year later and each year onwards, locals returned on the same day in August, taking tomatoes for their own version of La Tomatina. In the 50s it was officially banned but villagers continued and got locked up in jail. In '59 the council allowed the event to take place after public demonstrations for it, but they introduced rules, such as how the food fight was to begin. It all involved a greasy pole and a ham, by this I mean a full little pig, dead and hanging from the top of the pole. It was not until the locals retrieved the ham from the top that the food fight could start. By 1980 tomatoes were being provided by the city council and the international participants began to grow. Last year there were 30,000. Viva La Tomatina! My story: Sarah and I went nuts with the other 30,000 people, we fought our way to the top of the street where we could see the greasey pole, which meant we were in the very thick of it, and then pushed back out a bit where we had some breathing space. The crowd followed each other and so did we, chanting Ole! Ole!, clapping and singing. The locals had begun the one-sided water fight, drenching us with buckets of water and hoses from their balconies, and we just shouted for more! Crazy Spanish guys were ripping shirts off any males that crossed their path with a shirt on, no one got past alive! I watched as Trev, Joycey and Erin came battling through the crowd, and in one fell swing Trevor had lost his shirt ripped to shreds. It is a rule that you not tear t-shirts but one that cannot be controlled in such a mad craze. The crowd went wild when the horn went off to signify the ham had been got and the trucks of tomatoes would soon be making their slow path through the crowds to dump tomatoes at our feet. It took another fifteen minutes for the trucks to push through the crowds to grace us with its load. You can imagine all the people who had squished into this 20 foot wide street then had to squish into four foot on either side of the truck! They came, they dumped, they rolled on out again. And it was war. Tomatoes were going in every which direction, and I soon lost Sarah amongst wiping the tomato acid from my eyes, pelting tomatoes at random people and staying afloat. The water and the squished tomatoes turned into a pulpy puree of salsa about six inches deep. It got so tight at times that I couldn't even reach down to get tomatoes so i just jumped up and down splashing them everywhere, grabbing handfuls off the ground and sending them anywhere. Afterwards I was exhausted and out of it. I got one of the locals to hose me down a bit, the final ritual of the festival, and kind of felt like a footy player after a rain-struck match being pummelled about. A hose was pulled over an old factory so I lined up to remove the majority of tomatoes from my hair that had dried and gone crusty in the heat. I wasn't without my battlescars - both shoulders have bruises, I got a tomato in the eye, I banged up my bad ankle with everyone stepping on it, and after a few days Lija and I both came out in tomato rash from all the acid. I read somewhere that the town of Bunol sparkles after La Tomatina because the acid is a natural cleaner and they don't touch it again until the following year. How true?

Wow, just WOW! They call it a gunpowder concert but it's an understatement as it is done with both…read moreground and aerial fireworks. There is both the rhythm and just pure spectacle of it all. I went for the final 3 days and the finale was slightly longer with launching colorful barrages at the end of aerials. Someone told me to keep my mouth open or risk eardrum rupture, but I am probably the only one other than first responders wearing hearing protection.

Oh. My. Gosh. This was sooo much fun! I went on the Saturday of the fair, and I could not believe…read morehow many people had turned out. There were so many craftsmen, book sellers, demonstrations, and conservationist groups that I really enjoyed walking around and constantly seeing something new. For those of us vegetarians, this was right up our alley. The food section of the fair offered a wide variety of vegetarian and vegan fare, including some lovely surprises like vegan sausages. This was definitely a fun event and I hope to go next year!