★★★★★ 0/5

B430

Channel [V]'s own travel series visits some of the best tourist spots in the world to visit before you turn 30, including Spain's La Tomatina. It's Getaway on steroids.

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I dunno about you, but I always thought of Channel [V] as a music channel.

Apparently it’s a little more youth-based than purely music, as evidenced by replays of Taken Out, Flight of the Conchords, and its interstitial contest Cash Cab.

B430 is another show that broadens its horizons, literally, as a kind of hip version of Getaway. It’s the locally-produced travelogue that takes you to 9 hot spots around the world deemed must-see destinations before you turn 30.

It’s also a show that reminds you TV travel hosts have the best bloody job in the world and you don’t, sucker.

In the first episode, VJ Kyle Linahan can be found in Spain. Bastard. He is on a mission to check out La Tomatina -the annual food fight where 50,000 revellers pummel one another with 140 tonnes of tomatoes. If it isn’t running bulls it’s another death-defying challenge by those crazy Spaniards.

Before he arrives in the small town of Bunol, Linahan takes in Madrid. If you’re planning a visit, this is a must-see. In each city B430 gives you three options of accommodation: Rock Star for those after a luxurious stay, Mid-Range for the bulk of us who are somewhere in between, and Budget for the backpacker market.

This captures the local sights, restaurants and nightclub hot spots, Tapas bars, cute little alleyways with cafes, sexy girls and guys -Spain has it all. There are also options for intercity travel. The show even tells you the best spots for buying music.

There is also a stop-off in Valencia to soak up the art galleries and shopping.

But it is in Bunol where the action really lets rip as Linahan joins in the mayhem of La Tomatina, a ritual which started as long ago as 1945.

Thousands of shirtless tourists and locals partake of this manic 60 minute event as 150,000 tomatoes are thrown at one another in town’s tiny streets. Local businesses cover up with tarpaulins, or board up their facades, to minimise the red damage that is unleashed. Linahan is suitably in the thick of it, along with the camera crew presumably. He reckons he is loving it. I believe him.

Despite the show’s title you could no doubt get a kick out of this ‘B440’ too -any older and you have probably come to your senses.

Later episodes will showcase surfing in Mexico, Germany’s Oktoberfest, Halloween in New York, Thailand’s Full Moon Party and yes, even visiting our own Red Centre. Other presenters include Renee Bargh, Danny Clayton, Jane Gazzo and Billy Russell.

The first series of B430 visited some of the world’s music festivals. This second season challenges the adventurous amongst us, and is a little more hip than Nine’s short-lived Things to Try Before You Die without being as dangerous to wind up on the equally short-lived Trouble in Paradise.

Channel [V] also offers a good back-up website to the show.

B430 airs at 7:30pm Thursday March 18 on Channel [V]

9 Responses

  1. Well i think this style of show rocks, and it really motivates me to save and travel the world. And yes i am only 23 years old, too bad so sad suckers over 30! Antiques roadshow is still airing for you guys isn’t it? I Love my music, but it doesn’t bother me for it to be interupted by shows like this, and i agree with Chris about flicking for music if you absolutely can’t handle 30 mins without a music hit. Plus its great to see some Australian content from time to time in between 90% of American Music.
    Keep it coming b430!

  2. @Chris, We watch the 800’s for music… thier slogan is ‘It’s all about the Music’. When we see.. Taken Out / Flight of the Conchords / Cash Cab / B430 / Keys to the VIP / Spill ya Guts on, it’s not All about the music is it?

  3. Haven’t we seen all this before on various Lonely Planet shows – that Tomato festival must be made up of 25 locals and 1000’s of lame travel hosts being ‘crazy’.

    …..and the show title is a great way to alienate about 25% of your audience. (Yes I am over 30 seeing as you ask).

  4. You do realise that if you are frustrated with non-music shows on [V], you can simply press the channel up button once and find yourself a channel that has nothing but music videos with the occasional commercial. Even then, the main [V] channel still has music on more often than not.

  5. Ah I see, I didn’t read that properly, my mistake. I think there’s definitely a need for a travel show to explore places uncharted instead of the same old New York, Thailand, Tomato Festival, Oranges Festival etc. That’s what made Michael Palin’s New Europe a great series. There are so many great destinations that you never see on Getaway etc. like Croatia, Azerbaijan, Botswana, Greenland, Bhutan, Peru, Ukraine and others.

  6. Isn’t this an old show because I remember watching B430 early last year and they went to the Roskilde Festival in Denmark. It’s obviously for young people worried about not having fun before they get old but you’d be suprised at how adventurous some older tourists are.

  7. What’s [v]’s Slogan, “It’s all about the music”??

    What’s so music about..
    Taken Out / Flight of the Conchords / Cash Cab / B430 / Keys to the VIP / Spill ya Guts??

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