As an exercise in mammoth on-stage visuals Kraftwerk's 3D show on the final night of the Longitude festival was a spectacle to behold. Not being sure exactly what to expect, the first 45 minutes of their show was accompanied by howls of giddiness as giant robotic arms, space stations and a winding autobahn reached out to the audience from the backdrop of the stage.
The 3D effects complimented the music expertly, adding texture and verve to the synthpop being blasted from the PA system, though the exercise did drag slightly when the initial wave of novelty eventually began to dissipate somewhere around halfway through.
Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were in suitably fine form for their set just prior to the evening's main event, too. Unlike one or two of the other acts who found themselves on the cavernous main stage over the weekend, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs filled the space - both physically and sonically - with ease, belting out an assorted mix from their three albums to date with assured swagger.
If Kraftwerk were all about the more sombre and sober elements of electronic music, Hot Chip's performance just after 6pm on the main stage was just the opposite - a bouncy, celebratory party in the sunshine. Bulletpointed by the excellent 'One Life Stand' and 'Over and Over', this was one of the most enjoyable sets of the whole weekend.
MCD will be very happy with how the first Longitude festival developed. Of course, there were a couple of teething problems which, for the most part anyway, can't be foreseen in the planning stage. The queuing times were a little overlong at times but any seasoned festivalgoer should be used to a little waiting around by now. We could have done with a few more food stalls and, particularly, a wider range of vegetarian options.
The placement of bands was a little too heavily weighted towards the main stage, too. A few main stagers, Django Django & Jake Bugg for example, could have been placed in the Heineken Tent to encourage a bit of wandering because, for the most part, we were parked exclusively at the main festival arena.
Still, these are minor quibbles in what was a great weekend of music. Let's hope we get the weather next year, too.