CHECK OUT ALL THE PHOTOS FROM DAY TWO OF SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS.

BEST NON-FLORENCE MOMENT

Whilst thousands crushed into the Ampitheatre to see Florence and her Machine, a sizeable crowd gathered in the GW McLennan tent to catch a phenomenal set from Paul Kelly. Opening with Nothing On My Mind, Australia’s father of folk gave fans a festival made ‘best-of’ set. He leapt around the stage for Dumb Things, went acoustic for Our Sunshine and had the crowd jumping up and down for Before Too Long. By the time To Her Door arrived, anyone who was considering leaving for Florence had forgotten there was anywhere else to be.

SIMPLY THE BEST

If the Ampitheatre at Woodfordia was made for any artist in the world right now it was made for Florence Welch. With capacity at absolute breaking point, the Ampitheatre was literally heaving before the English songstress had even set a barefoot on the stage.

Opening with Drumming Florence And The Machine kept the frenzied crowd entranced for sixty magic minutes. Resplendent in all white with a sequined cape (which was used throughout the set to much dramatic effect) Florence seemed genuinely in awe of her beautiful surroundings and swept around the stage conducting the audience like a flame-haired sorceress. She served up everything the crowd wanted including Rabbit Heart and an extended Dog Days with the now patented crowd leap, which she spent some time coaxing the audience into doing. Fans were treated to new track Strangeness and Charm and a huge finale in the way of Raise It Up.

Twitter goss: Despite the crowd reaction to Florence it seems not everyone was impressed with her over the top performance with Surfer Blood tweeting afterwards: “Florence was the most God awful shit. Kill me.” Roaw.

BEST MASH-UP

Operator Please was lucky enough to be playing the dusk spot on the Amphitheatre stage and took full advantage of this gorgeous time of the evening. The highlight of their set was not their “cover” of A Song About Ping Pong ( read: faster guitar and less clapping) but a curve ball mash-up of Beyonce’s Baby Boy and No Doubt’s Hella Good. These Brissie kids are well grown up.

BEST USE OF A DAY TIME SLOT

Love them or hate them Delphic made good with their mid-afternoon spot at the Mix Up tent. The crowd was bursting out the sides of the tent as the Manchester lads laid down a fierce run of crowd favourites. The Immaculate Halcyon had the frenzied crowd screaming out a mass of “a-hahs” that could almost be heard from the Ampitheatre whilst Counterpoint similarly brought the tent down. Bringing a bit of day-rave to the Mix Up tent Delphic also burst out into two extended instrumental jams but despite the loved-up reception from the crowd ended their set early. Perhaps it time to write a few more tunes.

BEST OPINION DIVIDER

The Drums drew a mixed reaction from the crowd, however impressed most with their uber coordinated pastel outfits and symmetrical fringe action. The crowd seemed to be in waiting for Let’s Go Surfing and when it arrived it was with an overwhelming use of samples and some well choreographed stage moves. Many punters were left complaining that the set was uninspired with songs given a flat delivery at best. However, there was equally as much praise from pro-Drummers who believe that this band has a long career ahead of them.

BEST NON-STROKES MOMENT

Band Of Horses had the difficult task of headlining the GW McLennan tent at the same time that The Strokes were strutting their stuff in the Ampitheatre. Pulling a sizeable and dedicated crowd the band rose to the occasion and played a flawless set spanning all their albums. Laredo and Funeral had the audience eating out of the band’s hand and despite the band admitting they would be at The Strokes if they could be, their fans clearly didn’t agree.

THE BEST ‘BEST OF’

God damn it is good to have The Strokes back. Walking onstage to the opening strains of Queen’s We Will Rock You, Julian Casablancas and co brought the rock-star to Woodford like no other band yet. Standing in front of a giant video screen which projected images of Pacman, Pong and Space Invaders, the band put on a ‘best of’ set that had the crowd moving like it was 2001 all over again.

After smashing out opening track New York City Cops Casablancas nodded to the audience with a cheeky smile and muttered “Look at this cauldron of humanity!” And this would not be the last time the usually reserved front-man would acknowledge the crowd, in fact, he littered the band’s entire set with wry chatter, highlighting just how much the singer has lightened up over the last decade. As they worked through hit after hit including The Modern Age, Soma and Is This It Casablancas continued to throw out such gems as “How is tent city? Looks like fun…ish ” followed quickly by, “What is going to go on in tent city, hopefully lots of fucking and maybe some other things”.

The band left the stage after Last Night and ran back not long after for a five song encore which included a speedy version of Juice Box. The band seemed to genuinely enjoy playing together again, with the quiet onstage jokes between Casablancas and Moretti signposting a very different group to the one that last appeared in Australia. After an hour and a half The Strokes finished up with the frenetic Take It Our Leave it and strutted out of Woodfordia and back to New York.

Photo by Kylie Keene at Splendour In The Grass 2010.

Read about day one of Splendour with LCD Soundsystem, Foals, The Temper Trap, Hot Chip, Ben Harper and Scissor Sisters

Read about Richard Ashcroft, Mumford and Sons and Pixies at day three of Splendour