There has been much talk about the behind-the-scenes happenings of Big Day Out lately, from the controversy to the ridiculously expensive ticket price but none of that seems to matter on the big day – as you enter the festival all you need is enough good music to make for a fun day.

Wasting no time, I positioned myself in the main area’s pavilion to check out what the early-afternoon had in store for the infamous blue and orange stages.

Papa Vs Pretty served as a perfect opening to my day – with Thomas Rawle’s powerful vocals soaring high above the melody-rich indie-rock they are so loved for. Most of the D area was already full by the middle of their performance and when they surprised us all with a nice cover of Smashing Pumpkins ‘ ‘Bullet With Butterfly Wings’ (yes, it did actually sound great) there was a very flattering ovation waiting for them.

Quickly switching colours, the orange stage was instantly filled with Frenzal Rhomb's fast-paced punk rock. Not falling anywhere within my personal taste I honestly didn’t enjoy their set at all, but the energy with which they belt out their frantic jams is hard to fault. After a rant about headliner Kanye West, which came across as rather pretentious and self-righteous, the boys proceeded to demonstrate how ‘hardcore’ they were with everything but their family-friendly pop-punk hits from back in the day like ‘You Are Not My Friend.’

While anything with a death growl tends to bore me, Parkway Drive instantly won me over with hard-hitting metal-core and held my interest throughout their entire set. While I was thankful to be nowhere near the crowd, the adrenaline rush that they bring with their music is more than enough justification for the massive circle pits. While I’ve seen a handful of similar bands live and have never once been interested, the boys from Byron were hard to resist.

Back to the orange stage and Boy & Bear opened up with the beautiful ‘Lordy May.’ I was left with a huge smile on my face as they went through their gorgeous, yet limited, catalogue – including a short but sweet cover of ‘Fall At Your Feet’ by Crowded House. You can be sure that as the highly-praised Sydney folk-sters grow we will be continuously spoilt with quality Australian music.

Over to the Boiler Room and Purple Sneakers DJ’s were catering to the younger punters with commercial choices like Martin Solveig’s ‘Hello,’ thankfully making way for Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All to hit the stage.

DJ Syd Tha Kyd’s now well-known pre-show routine, consisting of hype tracks like Waka Flocka Flame’s ‘Karma,’ was mindless fun, setting the perfect scene for Odd Future’s on-stage antics. While the boys basically screamed their lyrics into the mic, commanding rage and dissent, I quickly lost interest when the sound quality didn’t match the artists’ intensity and left the boiler room to a welcome dose of sunlight.

Swinging back to the main arena to catch a bit of Hilltop Hoods bored me enough to run straight back to the Boiler Room for what would be, for many, the act of the day - Royksopp. Australian fans have been starving for the infrequent visitors, and this was made apparent with the massive amounts of love that occupied every corner of the packed-out boiler room.

From opener ‘Royksopp Forever’ to closer ‘This Must Be It’ the electronic outfit more than made up for their rarity – and they undoubtedly picked up hundreds of new fans that day. Anneli Drecker – Royksopp’s touring singer – did a brilliant job at Karin Dreijer Andersson’s one-of-a-kind vocals, so well in fact that I became convinced that Ms Fever Ray was with them.

Royksopp’s set was absolutely flawless and will perhaps go down as the best dance act I’ve seen at any Big Day Out – it is simply something that cannot and should not be missed. A performance that was embittering only with the probability that we may have to wait another eternity for them to tour again.

Staying on for Bassnectar, the trendy sounds of the harder side of dub-step enveloped the boiler room. His ridiculously large following was instantly understood – the live show was top notch and the mixes were impeccable.

His superb remix of Ellie Goulding’s ‘Lights’ crept in about 30 minutes into his set and even though it slowed the pace, Bassnectar made it fit perfectly with the more frantic tracks. Regretably, I did not stay for his entire set – during which Lupe Fiasco made a surprise appearance towards the end.

A quick lunch break and it was back for to check on Girl Talk and if he finally had a new set to offer. To my delight, the infamous party mash-up extraordinaire delivered a fresh set marrying: Black Sabbath with Ludacris; Lil’ Wayne with Notorious B.I.G; The Ramones and 50 Cent with Vampire Weekend; and Snoop Dogg with Beck. All ceremonies which only Girl Talk could make work. Having seen him more than enough times, it was off to the converse essential stage for Foster the People.

The new princes of American indie-pop drew a ridiculously large crowd – making obvious the mistake of putting them on the smaller converse essential stage (which didn’t occupy the usual space in the venue) rather than one of the main stages. Being very far back, it was hard to fully enjoy the set but it was easy to tell that the band were just as good live as they are on recordings.

I didn’t get to stay for whole set but songs like ‘Houdini’ and ‘Call It What You Want’ aroused wide-spread joy, and cued massive sing-a-longs. I can only imagine how well-received their second album is going to be!

Iconic 80’s rockers Soundgarden and frontman Chris Cornell proved to all in attendance that no one does it quite like the pioneers. Everything from ‘Rusty Cage’ to ‘Black Hole Sun’ could not have come across better on the blue stage. It was Cornell’s high-flying voice that consistently remained the star, always remaining right on top of the exceptional instrumentals - a band who I would not hesitate in seeing again.

Switching to the other side of the D-barrier and you could not get a more placid crowd during Soundgarden’s brilliant set. The young Kanye West fans all seemed unimpressed with the before-their-time rockers, or perhaps they were saving all their energy for when Mr West began ‘Act I’ of his near-two-hour set 15 minutes after he was scheduled to begin.

If you witnessed his notorious set at last year’s Coachella you knew exactly what to expect – but seeing it live was a completely different experience. Beginning with a string version of the ‘H.A.M’ beat the blue stage was overrun with Kanye’s dancers – all in perfect synchrony to make for West’s ‘Dark Fantasy.’

Behind the D-Barrier Kanye rose far above the fans on a cherry picker as we began to chant “can we get much higher” along with the familiar song, which he performed entirely as we looked up at him with excitement. If his live show consisted of only this it would still be his most ambitious to date – thankfully, it lasted much, much longer than that.

Kanye was escorted to stage where he built up and maintained our praise with ‘POWER.’ The combination of ‘Ye strutting around stage, his over-blown light show, and his flock of dancing beauties captivated us all as Yeezy did his absolute best at giving us favourites from all five of his solo albums.

Perhaps I’m a bit biased because I’ve seen him five times but the set could have done without any 808s & Heartbreak material (as well as the now-expected auto-tuned extensions) and done with more from his first two LP’s. However, it’s very hard to down-play the passion that comes across when he is on stage – the sheer dedication and effort he puts into every performance is nothing short of spectacular.

While Act II consisted of his more pop-friendly material, Act III was where Kanye really shined as an artist. Bragging ‘Runaway,’ ‘Lost in the Woods’ and ‘Hey Mama,’ the final portion of his mind-blowing live show immediately puts to rest anything detractors say about Kanye West. This is where his vision is most apparent, and between the gorgeous set designs and explosive pyro, this is where we all admit that Kanye West is one of the most inspired young artists in music today.

As Kanye closed with a heartfelt tribute in ‘Hey Mama,’ the tired crowd ran for the exit to catch the last of either Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds or Nero. I opted for a bit of Noel Gallagher, and was over-joyed when I caught him farewelling us with 'Don’t Look Back in Anger' – to which everyone, even the punters exiting the festival, started to sing along.

As I stated at the start of this review - none of the back stage politics matters once you step into the festival, and Big Day Out 2012 once again played out as one of the best events on the Australian calendar. There were a few changes to the layout of the festival (skating ramp in main arena, converse stage and green stage separate) but the variety and the atmosphere remained very much the same; and despite that meaning a few annoyances, the overall outcome of Big Day Out was and is always overwhelmingly positive.