¨Ugh, not another festival!¨ Those words actually came out of my mouth. But I'm taking them back! While I had been longing to just stay at home for the weekend, we already had plans. The Vendaval Fest of rock music in Ribadeo. It turned out to be a well-balanced weekend away at a well-organized music festival in its third year.
The festival itself was really cheap (around 20€ for 2 days of concerts!) and the camping was practically free at just 2€ per person for 2 nights. As one of our camp neighbors observed, you can barely go to a regular campground for that price and have hot showers. Throw in the added bonus of music and it's a steal! Part of the fun of music festivals is camping out among other attendees who evidently share the same taste in music. I can't always tell if this is a good thing or bad thing, being in close quarters. But in this case, we set up our tent next to a friendly couple and ended up chatting with them quite a bit.
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| Indiano in Ribadeo |
Ribadeo is just a great town to walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. It has tons of bars and shops (which open on Sundays!) and lots of lovely indiano architecture. But on a sunny, Friday holiday during a music fest? That combination meant a lot of people were milling around. At lunchtime in the center of town, a very upbeat DJ spun songs in Galician as part of the festival's opening celebrations. The 25th of July is Galician National Day, after all, making it a 3-day weekend.
After taking in the pre-festival fun, we went the cheap route and had sandwiches at our tent and rested up before the concerts around 7. I felt bad for the openers because hardly anyone was around for the first concert. Cuarta Xusta is a Galician band whose violin sets it apart from other rock groups. They were followed by a Galician grunge band (Sandford Music Factory) that sings in English. We had seen them at Resurrection Fest last year. Next was a big-name Spanish punk band which no doubt attracted a lot of people to the festival: Lendakaris Muertos. Their spazzy singer jumped into the moshpit several times despite being in his 50s. After their set, the crowd died down quite a bit, leaving us plenty of room at the front. Perfect, because someone had been listening to Rienda Suelta's CD on repeat in preparation for their concert. Afterwards, we turned in at the very responsible time of 1:30 AM, missing the last act which surely drew a good amount of fans.
Saturday we got up relatively early, but thanks to noise throughout the night, I was still sleepy. A trip to the beach for a morning nap was in order! We weren't sure how sandy the beaches of Ribadeo would be, so we got in the car, crossed the bridge to Asturias, and landed on Arnao Beach. Wide and pretty, with rock formations in the middle. The water was way too cold to go in for me. Instead I opted for walking around the rock formations where we spotted a few little crabs, some tiny fish, and even a little shrimp. Then a little nap under the sun.
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| Playa Arnao |
We couldn't spend all day at the beach, though, because around 1PM the day's sesión vermú was underway. I was tempted to blow it off, but I'm glad we didn't! Mekanika Rolling Band is just that...a rolling band with guitar, drums, trombone, and saxophone. Playing energetic hits throughout Ribadeo as more and more people joined in the party. We had a blast singing along and dancing around with them.
After lunch and a nap, by 7 it was day 2 of concerts. Saturday opened with a classic rock-n-roll band from Asturias. They were followed by two bands emulating a similar time in the early 70s (they sure dressed the part), the main difference being the second was led by a woman with an amazing voice. Curiously, all of these Spanish bands sung in English. Then came an electro-rock band from Galicia that sung in Spanish. And lastly (for us) Reincidentes, a classic in Spanish punk rock. After jumping around with them, it was time for bed! We missed the last ska band, but that's ok. And being the second night, I think people were just too pooped to be up all night chatting like the night before. Thank goodness; I slept all night long.
To conclude: rock + camping + beach = way better than staying home!
