Essential festival hint #521: when making your way through any group consisting of over three people, it helps to stagger as if you're drunk — even if you're (sadly) stone cold sober. This not only helps you fit in, but allows you to avoid (sort of) the sudden lurches, stumbles and collapses of those surrounding you.

Minor navigational issues aside, the first day here certainly saw plenty of daisies (and a variety of unusual suspects including a giant panda and that guy with the pink lilo) being rocked.

The morning after, I am exhausted — thanks to a 3am bed time and a hyperactive trance tent pumping until an hour later. I am suffering from a sore back — thanks to age and a blow up mattress that didn't blow up. But, showered and coffeed-up, I couldn't feel better. Really.

There's something about the fresh air, the actual sense of community and the homey atmosphere — think Cape Town's Observatory in tent form, with bales of hay and a giant sound system.

That sound system provided surprisingly crisp, gut-punching sound. None of that muddy distortion that comes from a usual festival setup. With a giant video screen, blending live footage and creative clips, reinforcing the experience, bands didn't have to work too hard to win over the gradually growing crowd.

Radio-Friendly Indie

Checked Zebra blasted off proceedings with their brass-fuelled rock. The Sick-Leaves punched hard, the two piece trading in muscular drumming, walls of guitar and keening vocals. Reburn kept the kids in skinny jeans happy with their radio-friendly indie rock 'n roll (to quote The Killers).

The Plastics, as clean but certainly not as disposable as their name suggests, brought on the night with a tight set that underlined why they won last year's Radar emerging bands competition. Ashtray Electric kept the rock coming, showing the depth of their debut album with a set rich in singalong rock anthems.

That mass choir only grew with the explosion onstage of Gang of Instrumentals. Making their Daisies debut, the trio wasted no time winning over the sea of bodies that turned tsunami during 'Woza December'. aKING had little trouble keeping the energy up, frontman Laudo Liebenbergh's raspy voice and Dire Straits rock guitar out in full force.

It seemed impossible but Goldfish, showcasing the experience of four months abroad, boosted the bouncing bodies even more with their high energy electro jazz that contrasts their chilled stage presence. Never a bad sign when an uplifting hour-plus set seems so effortless.

That, in fact, is how the whole first day has felt.

Pity then about that early morning car trouble on the way back to the tent...