The arrival of the Parklife long weekend uncannily tied in with the equinox, marking the end of a cold and wet winter and the dawn of a new spring. But as the sun passed over the equator and began its long trek south, few were celebrating the start of the spring season… instead the majority at Wellington Square were praising the lord for the return of the summer festival season.

The buzz outside the grounds was fuelled by the hype on the radio and on internet forums. Would there be sniffer dogs? Would there be a wall of police, rubber glove in hand? But the touted police crackdown never eventuated, and the punters thronged around the single entrance to Wellington Square.

Moving inside the grounds, the melodic stylings Art vs Science washed over the crowd at the open-air Air stage. Having already headlined their own tours out west, a healthy crowd gathered early for the fun synth pop of the Syndey trio. The trio delivered an energy fuelled set, with Flippers and Parlez Vous Francais set highlights. Micah and his house grooves opened the water stage, followed by the synth pop melodies of Boys Boys Boys.

At the Fire Stage, pint-size rocker Bertie Blackman greeted an already full big-top tent “Are you having a good time? Awesome, now get off yer tits!”. The soulful groove and synth fuelled pomp of Thump with its singalong “Come on, come on” refrain had the crowd jumping early. A surprise cover of Phil Collins’ In The Air Tonight showed off the raw power of Blackman’s voice with a sexy grittiness, with the crowd begging for the drop of the drum solo. The tribal synth-drum led Heart and Byrds Of Prey rounded out a powerful set for Blackman, low slung guitar in hand Blackman saluted the crowd and no doubt a hoard of new fans.

Outside the sun shone down and the warmest September day in memory made for a perfect day for a festival. The security were kept busy though with more than a few breaches of the outer fence seeing up to 50 people at a time try their luck against an overwhelmed security team who occasionally managed to catch and rough up the odd runner.

Keeping the Fire Stage rocking, it was another pint-size troublemaker in Lady Sovereign’s turn to lift the crowd. Kicking off with Let’s Be Mates and I Got You Dancing, Lady Sovereign’s band sweated to keep up with the frentic pace of her verbal delivery. Donning fluro glasses she screamed “I’m Lady Sovereign, you are Perth. You getting wasted, I wanna see you jump!” as pumping bass of Random erupted, however the wobble bass was lost in the poor acoustics of the big top tent. The Cure-sampling So Human was the set highlight.

Flavour of the month UK’s La Roux drew a huge crowd to the Water stage as the sun began to set. Dressed in kitschy retro gear, La Roux opened with the shimmering Fascination. The interplay of synthesizers and live synth drums leads to the obvious Scissor Sisters comparisons, however the reaction to tracks with a bouncing 80s melody like I’m Not Your Toy suggest that La Roux may hold some aces up their sleeve. Singer Elly Jackson looked amazed at the crowd’s reaction “We’ve never even been here before, this is amazing.” As the wall of LED screens flickered rainbows and the crowd got shaking, La Roux closed with In For The Kill and Bulletproof.

As the night fell, the throngs around the toilets grew and queues for the food stalls lasted entire sets. The event did sell out, and there were undoubtedly a few hundred fence jumpers, however there were simply not enough amenities for the punters. The queue for the Turkish food van alone trebled the crowd at the tiny Woods stage, where The Transients played an energetic set to a modest but appreciative crowd, with many of them joining the band onstage.

Delivering the set of the festival was Canada’s Metric. Blonde singer Emily Haines burst onto stage wearing a skirt and jacket made entirely of sequins, and proved to be the focal point of the set with her fesity delivery. The thunderous Monster Hospital and it’s war cry chorus “I fought the war but the war won’t stop” laid waste to the front few rows, which instantly turned into a moshpit. Satellite Mind and Gold Guns Girls followed, showcasing Haines voice and abilty to wantonly thrash-around the stage. Gimme Sympathy and Sick Muse saw Metric’s engine room of bassist Josh Winstead and drummer Joules Scott-Key come to the fore. But it was set closers Help I’m Alive and Stadium Love that sent the tent into singalong orbit. They’ve been around for a lot longer than most are aware, but Metric have a renewed vigour and tonight’s set could have easily been as headliner on the main stage.

Perth’s prodigal sun Luke Steele returned to Perth to showcase his latest, and arguably most successful, project Empire of the Sun for the first time. Donning intricate oriental-inspired costumes, the band have received fairly heavy mainstream radio play, however tonight’s set just failed to deliver. It was by no means a bad set, and Walking On A Dream went off, but the sound was lacking and by the set’s end much of the crowd had drunkenly stumbled their way to the other stages where Tiga and The Rapture closed proceedings.

Aided to no end by the sunny weather, Parklife was a glorious return of the summer festival season and marks the first entry in what is shaping up to be a busy run of festivals. Here comes the sun…