Having just got back from Summercase in Barcelona, I have to say I’m becoming a fan of the humble Euro festival.
For starters, there’s the insanely great weather. Yeah, Barcelona’s Parc Del Forum was essentially a tarmacked car park with beer tents, but I see Glasto’s green fields and raise you the Spanish sun.
But what was most impressive was the lack of Fawlty Towers styled chaos that we British seem to thrive on back home. For example, when Richard Ashcroft decided The Verve would grace the stage 30 minutes later then scheduled, did they croak? Hell no – they merely popped a little screen announcement over the main stage an hour before they were due on. Whilst this may seem obvious, rest assured that back in old Blighty, organisers would’ve hid behind the sound desk until the stage was pelted by plastic bottles amidst a cry of “VERVE!” come midnight.
Best of all was the recycling inititative they stamped on the site – top marks for forcing us to buy plastic cups for a euro each before we were even allowed to start necking the beer. I know I’m sounding like a poncy Guardian reader now, but it seriously did cut down on so much waste. (Although I’m not sure what the beer token scheme was all about…having to queue to buy tickets for beer every half hour did NOT agree with me. Especially when the Spanish bar man in question seemed incapable of understanding my simple plea for “BEER”…)
For anyone wondering how the Summercase lineup went down, click on the Clash Magazine website here and read me harping on about The Verve for 90% of it:
