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It’s a sad but increasingly common sight at summer festivals – before entering the gates of Claremont Showgrounds for this year’s instalment of the Good Vibrations Festival, punters were greeted with shirtless yobs being ejected by security, groups of under-age teenagers blatantly jumping fences and drunk people passed out on the concourse of Showgrounds station. Once inside, the first sight is of a burly man off his chops being held to the ground by five security guards. Feeling the good vibrations yet?

But once through the cattle pen entrance, the good vibrations quickly returned and the madness upon entry was quelled somewhat by the chilled beats of Kid Cuti. Donning a caramel coloured shirt, Wayfarers and a tight afro haircut, Cuti looked every inch the 70s porn star. With his smooth flowing rhymes and pacy beats, Cuti’s grooves washed over the steadily building crowd at the Roots stage.

On the main stage, last minute call-ups Bluejuice replicated their uninspired Big Day Out set and were a poor replacement for The Killers. Despite some of the crowd busting out skipping ropes and sweat-bands for bubblegum pop track Broken Legs, Bluejuice looked cringe-worthily out of place on the main stage.

On the other hand, seasoned festival party-starters Art vs Science looked positively at home on the big stage. Buoyed by the Hottest 100 success of Parlez vous Francais which surfaced early in the set, the Sydney three piece twisted thunderous bass-lines from their synths in front of a large crowd. Donning 1930s bowler hats and vests, Art vs Science closed their set with Flippers and Hollywood.

Salt & Pepa hit the main stage with gusto in a flurry of sirens and helicopters. “Yo! Yo! Wassup Perth!” yelled Pepa “This one’s for all the 80s babies”, as DJ Spinderalla dropped the bass heavy old-skool beat of Do You Really Want Me.

Whatta Man and Shoop had the crowd in a heaving frenzy, before the set took a strange turn as Spinderella played a 15 minute mashup of 80s classics. We Are Family, Ice Ice Baby, Micky and Celebrate Good Times all got an airing, but considering the band haven’t played in Australia for 10 years, many were disappointed that such a large portion of the set-list were karaoke cover songs. Despite the lull in the set, Salt & Pepa returned for mighty renditions of Lets Talk About Sex and Push It before wishing the crowd a happy Valentine’s Day and disappearing.

On the Roots stage, Gym Class Heroes caught the romantic vibe, with lead singer Travis McCoy inviting the crowd to get naked before a stirring rendition of Clothes Off!

Naughty By Nature followed with some ghetto rhymes and thudding beats. Opening with O.P.P. and Guard Your Grill, Treach and Vin Rock bounced around the stage spitting their furious rhymes at the crowd, with the epic Holiday a later highlight in the set.

On the main stage, The Gossip’s sultry serial offender Beth Ditto did her best to convince the crowd that she didn’t care what they thought of her, revelling as the crowd threw lollies on stage “Is that candy?” Ditto asked coyly “Keep it coming, I haven’t got diabetes yet”. Opening with Love Long Distance and Four Letter Word, Ditto’s green dress was soon removed as she flounced around the stage in her large black bra, totally untroubled by her surroundings. A stirring cover of What’s Love Got To Do With It? showcased Ditto’s stunning voice, followed by set closer Heavy Cross. “Thank you, we are Kings of Leon” crooned Ditto before urging the crowd to sing We Are The Champions. Shambolic rock at its best.

Given that it was Chinese New Year, there was an extra strong party vibe in the Chinese-themed Laundry tent. Former world DJ champion Craze played an inspired set which swung between dub, reggae, breaks, drum & bass, rock and everything in between. Craze’s mixing and scratching skills are surpassed by few, and he let fly on the decks with consummate ease. Craze’s set featured everything from Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Heads Will Roll to Pendulum’s Vault, and Daft Punk’s One More Time to Billy Preston’s classic Outta Space.

With the sun well and truly gone, Plump DJs followed Craze with a thudding set of breaks and house, but had to compete with Armand van Helden on the main stage, whose remix of Rage’s Killing In The Name and then Bonkers made the crowd do just that. In the Mr J tent, perhaps named after the late Michael Jackson, Salt & Pepa’s DJ Spinderella played a party set tailor-made for drunk festival commercialites, and whilst the airing of Groove Is In The Heart, Funkytown and Fergielicious was by no means ground breaking disc jockeying, more than a few people seemed to be enjoying it.

On the Roots stage, Trevor Tahiem Smith, Jr. (aka Busta Rhymes) opened with Give It To Me and Here We Go Again. His set was heavy on tracks from the earlier part of his career, however his more recent commercial tracks Touch It and I Love My Chick got the biggest cheers of the night.

Despite the brooding opener Scars, Basement Jaxx soon threw off the shackles and hosted the biggest party of the evening on the main stage. Flanked by massive video projection screens and an impressive lighting rig, the Jaxx’s impressive back catalogue of Good Luck, Red Alert and Where’s Your Head At? got the crowd jumping and grinding. Bumped from support act to headliner, the seasoned festival favourites’ set was more than a fair replacement for The Killers.

Closing proceedings on the Roots stage was drum & bass crossover act Chase and Status. Opening with the Guns & Roses-cum-cocaine thunder of Smash TV, Hurt You and the ethereally trippy Eastern Jam, Chase and Status sounded like a kooky lovechild of Pendulum and The Prodigy. Despite only two synths and a gyroscopic looking drum kit on stage, Chase and Status sounded twice as big on Streetlife, Take Me Away and the swooning Heartbeat. As MC Plan B appeared on stage, it was the inevitable sonic destruction of Pieces that took the moshing crowd home on a wave of energy.

Despite the unfortunate choice of the rabbit-warren Claremont Showgrounds as a venue (instead of the wide open plains of Belvoir as in yesteryear), this year’s sun-soaked instalment of the Good Vibrations Festival more than withstood the loss of a key headliner, and undoubtedly delivered for many one of the highlights of the summer festival season.

Were you there? Find yourself in Toxikon’s gallery