“Thank you, pleasure to be here, bringin’ some chill vibes…” Melbourne based Black Jesus Experience groove in the midday sun, while excited festival newbie lasses enjoy this nine piece spread over the stage with the ocean as a backdrop. It is 2:00p.m and the sun is high and bearing down, while trees sway in surrounding fields. The booze drinkers are in swing, the bar will be open all day and night but it’s the last chance to get funky with the Black Jesus Experience as their set nears its close. “Shout out to the girls in the front row” BJE enthuse.

Scores of late comers with eskies arrive and it appears twice as populated as last year. Dub FX is introduced, as always, by ‘Mister Chill’ Justin – “For you, we have a phenomenon, taking the one man band to the new millennium”. Dub FX opens with The Rain Is Gone; he is awesome and well worth a live viewing. Everyone’s charmed within the first minute as he utilises his self made loops of electro-dub.

There’s lots of bass and the wind picks up, as if through the will of music. “I wrote a song about this girl, the flower fairy” he casually comments, referring to his partner. Kids and their bubble guns playfully run around, while the over-agers are getting their drink on at this time. “We don’t really write a set list” he comments, although part of the live experience is his improvisation and spontaneity. Strangely, though fitting for the kids present, there’s a brace of dub laced nursery rhymes. As the sun briefly disappears behind the clouds, Dub FX ends with Love Someone and Mister Chill returns to announce a signing by after the set and new found fans shout for more.

Two-piece crew Hermitude are very casual and laid back, almost too comfortable. These guys from Sydney get only a small crowd gathered. “You guys like reggae music?” one asks a few minutes in. Grey clouds cover one side of the sky, the wind picks up and lets down again, as if lulling us into a false sense of security. Their set is then sped up – “If you’ve got your acid trips, take them now”. There are scratches and beats as the wind picks up ominously, this is a musical picnic pretty much.

Kate Miller-Heidke takes up position with Little Adam opening the set for the receptive audience, as people gather at the front in awe. She is a pop gem, glamorous in a frilly colourful dress and “truly stoked to be here”. Her song about schoolyard regrets and unrequited love Caught In The Crowd gets a great response, then it’s the shrill, extended and eccentric Dreams – a big, loud song that sways as she howls ” I love you, but you don’t even know my name. This outburst is followed by another odd crowd favourite, Politics In Space.

Kate sings as she plays keyboard in fine fashion on Are You Fucking Kidding Me; a hilarious ode to a scorned ex lover contacting a girl via an online networking site. Gods Gift To Women is next, with some more opera improv and then recent success Last Day On Earth. A cover of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice catered to the older punters who joined in for a sing along then Can’t Shake It was dished up for those less enamoured of Mr Farnham’s work. At the close of her set the cold has crept in, the clouds had grown darker, but people are still ever so elated.

Bob Evans takes up the mic, still looking young but not as vibrant as his days with Jebediah; he now resembles his musical nemesis, Josh Pyke. As he sculls his wine bottle Evans declares to the crowd that he is going to chill as much as possible at Chill Island. The rain has held off, but the “wind machine” as Evans puts it, is still in use during Hand Me Downs,Brother, O Brother and Sadness & Whiskey. Next up is the classic Nowhere Without You, which people sing and dance to, though Evens briefly loses track as the alcohol goes to the head before playing the fittingly titled Rocks In My Head and “the only song of mine people seem to know”- Don’t You Think It’s Time.

It’s 6:45pm and with almost clear blue skies, some last minute tune-ups and an instrumental Killing In The Name plays as intermission before the main attraction Living End appear. They may be wearied from their White Noise world tour, but Raise The Alarm gets the juices flowing instantly. Billy Thorpe’s classic Most People I Know (Think That I’m Crazy) was thrown in before Hey, Hey, Disbeliever. Who’s Gonna Save Us is up next, one that easily excites, and a short lived Summer of ‘69 rendition makes for a brilliant live experience.

With beer in hand, Cheney cuts into the next gems on offer, Second Solution and End Of The World before announcing “a song for the cows- All Torn Down. The dust kicks up from the shoes of patrons, and the wind picks up too as the drunks cheer. Next to feature is Pictures In The Mirror and a thousand dollar bet for “anyone to jump in that water over there” which Cheney and band gracefully lost to a bogan who stripped off.

Prisoner Of Society is a raucous set clincher and as if that wasn’t enough White Noise is dropped to wild delight. The first drops of water fall, but very little, there are streaks of grey and it gets increasingly windy, yet we got all the way to the headline act without it raining.