After taking a bit of time to walk the festivals grounds and familiarise myself with the layout I took a seat on the grass at mainstage to see local boysCity Calm Down do their thing. Although only playing to a few hundred people at best they certainly weren’t lost for energy.

Watching them was like watching the movie Multiplicity. They were all sporting similar haircuts and although clearly different people, they had a sense of sameness about them.

Playing their self titled EP in full and even throwing in a cover of Joy Division's "Disorder" towards the end of the set failed to excite the morning crowd and the boys from CCD were sadly overlooked in the events of the day.
I then took a quick peek at the Roots stage to see a few songs of 360. His MC styling’s worked well on the sizeable crowd that had built up under the fake clouds of the tent, and despite a lot of the people there not knowing his music it didn’t stop them having a good dance. I however, had another band in mind: We Are Fans.

Walking towards the garden themed Mr J stage I heard the distinct disco dance punk (and at times baroque) sounds of We Are Fans. As was the case with City Calm Down, people opted to take a seat on the grass to watch them. Expressing their disappointment at the lack of heat before playing the title track from their EP Inferno, We Are Fans failed to win over those in attendance. After a handful more tracks including "Tropical" (which sounds exactly like you’d think) I’d had enough and took to The Chinese Laundry stage to see Grant Smillie.

Immediately upon arrival at this stage I was impressed at the amount of equipment there was. The front of the artist area was half a screen which continued behind the artist. Around that was a further 14 screens. This created a sensory overload in parts which I’m sure would have been amazing for stage headliner Sidney Samson

Unfortunately I’d read the timetable wrong and within 5 minutes of arriving Grant was announcing his last song and I was left regretting not making the trip over sooner.

Back on the main stage Perth’s Tim & Jean finally brought some life into the good vibes crowd. Playing tracks from their album Like That the four piece reminded everyone that they were at a dance festival and hence - should dance. Originally starting out as Tim Ayre and Jean Capotorto jamming out one night as teenagers, the duo soon found two like minded musicians and haven’t looked back since.

While the material was unfamiliar to me I’d heard good things about these guys before, and not knowing if they could pull off the slot they’d been given, I was a little sceptical going into this. However, they delivered a very impressive set of electronic/indie tracks and for such a young band I expect to see great things in the future.

Sticking around to see my first international act of the day in Britain's Fenech-Soler. Playing their electro-britpop to Australian audiences for the first time on the back of their debut self titled album (coming out in Australia just a week prior to Good Vibes) Fenech were clearly excited to be here and it showed in their set. Clearly having quite a small but diehard following the crowd sang along to tracks like "Stop and Stare" and upcoming single "Demons".

One thing I noticed during this set was that despite attempts by the band and crowd alike there was an almost complete lack of energy in the air. Due to the sparse nature of the festival (I could have walked straight up to the barrier) bands like Fenech-Soler didn’t quite get the response they deserved which is a shame because it could discourage bands like Fenech from making a return trip.

Friendly Fires were next up on mainstage and from the looks of it they were the ‘must see’ band of the festival. In the space between sets the crowd thickened out substantially as the anticipation rose. They came out and immediately I was impressed with the six piece band's sound. However, this wouldn’t last.

As the set progressed I found every song they played a slight remix of the last. Effortlessly the band played track after track of dance punk to the adorning crowd but to my ears it was all noise. Instead, I got distracted by two guys in front of me who’d each duct taped a sack of goon to their waist and, rather than watch the band like everyone else, they spent the majority of the set figuring out how to pour it into a drink bottle.

As the last few minutes of Friendly Fires one hour allotted time rolled around the temperature peaked for the day and I once again looked to The Chinese Laundry stage for solace. I wasn’t sure who I was seeing until later but it was no other than Rusko. Now here was a guy who was genuinely excited to be a part of Good Vibes. In fact, of all the people in the tent he was the most energetic.

Not a stranger to big audiences, Rusko (Christopher Mercer) knew exactly how to work the impressive crowd which had gathered to see him. With screams and chants Rusko led them through a varied set of dubstep and following their master, the tent jumped in unison in a dance frenzy. Unfortunately I had to leave his set early to catch The Ting Tings as I’d promised to meet up with friends there.

To say that The Ting Tings were met with generous applause would be an understatement. In reality the crowd just went nuts for them. Coming out separately, both Jules De Martino and Katie White were clearly very happy to be playing shows again after being locked away in Berlin recording their second album. A fact which they let us know more than once after previewing to us a handful of tracks from it. One of which was a bass heavy number I grew very fond of…

Opening their set with "Great DJ" The Ting Tings gave new meaning to the term energetic. I’m not a huge fan of the band but from the get go they were perfect. The band sounded amazing for the duration of their show mainly due to the majority of it being pre-programmed. On one side this took away from that ‘live feeling’ but on the other it meant we were guaranteed a pretty much flawless performance. On several songs such as "Keep Your Head" and "We're Not the Same" they included the use of two extra musicians onstage.

Finishing off their impressive set with a super extended version of "That's Not My Name", The Ting Tings really defined the shape of the festival and set the precedent for any acts to follow.

With the last notes of The Ting Tings in my ears I decided to take a break while I got a bite to eat (pizza, $9.90, delicious) and an overpriced drink (pepsi, $5, warm). Again taking refuge in the very smoke filled Chinese Laundry tent I found myself watching Sasha, and while he's not my cup of tea, his beats masked over what I can only describe as ethereal landscapes soon got me moving. You couldn’t help it really.

Tiring of Sasha I made my way to the Mr J stage where I would spend the rest of the night with Sweden's Miike Snow and France's Phoenix.

As the roadies prepared for Miike Snow it came to my realisation that they had the only themed stage of the day: silver and black. Obviously a nod to their 2009 self titled album, Miike Snow played in front of a backdrop of the album cover. All their instruments were silver and each member of the group came out wearing solid black and a silver mask to their ‘station’ which was crowded with silver antlers.

Having only been here less than half a year ago for the annual Splendour In The Grass festival Miike Snow’s set was very predictable. As a result, many members of the audience grew tiresome of them quickly and only really got excited for singles "Animal", "Sylvia", and "Black and Blue" which to the bands credit were performed exceptionally.

After another stage transformation and as the sun finally set on a long day French indie rockers Phoenix came out and wasted no time before launching into an extended "Liztomania" from their latest Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. No stranger to our shores, Phoenix are back in Australia for the third time supporting the album. Having only been here once before it came out I was hoping for a more varied set than the last two visits promoting it. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case and 8 of the 12 songs performed were off it.

Working through the set one can be nothing but impressed with Phoenix’s light show. And it can be said that more attention is paid to that rather than the band who more often than not performed in the shadows. One particular part, during "Love Like A Sunset" the band left the stage while lights slowly outlined each of the amps and drums onstage before the boys returned as the song climaxed.

Not neglecting the older fans Phoenix surprised the audience by dropping two numbers off their first album "United", "Too Young" and "If I Ever Feel Better" which were met with generous applause. The second of which was the penultimate song of the night and could only be succeeded by smash hit "1901".

As the first notes of 1901 rang across the field the place erupted. Obviously a favourite of those in attendance it at times became hard to hear the vocals of Thomas Mars over that of the crowd. Jamming out the chorus of the song for several minutes the band left the stage only to come out and ‘encore’ the chorus again; during which the length of Mars’ microphone cable lit up red and he worked his way into the crowd. Not being able to see his location I was left to follow the path of the bright cable from the stage to him as the band stopped playing and he gave a final thank you before making his way back to the stage and off to the locker room.