Electric Picnic 2013 has arguably the summer's finest line-up with the likes of Fat Boy Slim, Bjork, Nicky Siano and Arctic Monkeys backed up by My Bloody Valentine and Felix Da House Cat. Thankfully the weather turned out to be clement for such an eclectic cluster of musical brilliance.
By early evening the #CasaBacardi stage was getting a steady stream of festival goers who were soaking up the atmosphere and sampling the some of the Bacardi cocktails that were on offer.
The first act of the weekend was David McGoff, the winning DJ of the #CasaBacardi - Friends are Family competition. He kicks the weekend off with a bang by breaking into an energetic set weaving funky house and tech house. He drops in the occasional crowd encouraging tune with "Blue Monday" and "Funky Nasseau". David finishes up after an hour long set just as more people make their way to the stage to watch Big Dish Go and Stevie G who play equally impressive sets over the 3 hours that followed.
The final act of the night at the #CasaBacardi stage was Belgian DJ, Aeroplane, who has only recently become a one man show after parting ways with his former musical accomplice, Stephen Fasano. With a nu-disco styled set, he played on the crowd's excitable ambience and they soon took to the floor to show off their best festival dance moves. Aeroplane brought high energy to the stage with his hard hitting dance beats and crowd pleasing remixes.
While sitting in my tent just before Fatboy Slim was due to take the stage it took me a few minutes to remember any of his songs due to the fact that he has been out of the public eye for so long but then "Praise you" sprang into my mind and needless to say I was still humming it on the walk to the main stage.
FatBoy Slim knew how to get the festival-like atmosphere flowing, allowing the party animals to have their moment and break out the dance moves for his show. He threw together a refreshingly original set and was definitely the highlight of the day.
Friday was a great start to Electric Picnic and as the music drew to an end the crowd made their way back to the campsite to attend to the rest of the night's activities which included lots of partying and festival craic for everyone.
Review by: Sarah Holden