Electric Picnic: Saturday report

Despite intermittent showers, all was well in Stradbally as the first morning-to-night host activities began.
Damien Rice's Big Tree stage saw the likes of Boss Volenti and Paul Noonan play. In the crowd to support him were Damien himself and his BellX1 bandmates. In fact Brian Crosby accompanied Paul, along with Lisa Hannigan, in playing 'Some Surprise'.
Tilly & The Wall didn't let a knocked-over keyboard stop them in their tap-shoed tracks, while in the Crawdaddy Stage, The Rags previewed a host of new songs. Later on at the stage, Sparks made their first ever appearance in Ireland.
Playing Ireland for the first time since Oxegen 2005, New Order headlined the main stage, and also played Joy Division classics like 'Transmission' and 'Love Will Tear Us Apart'.
Their show came shortly after their appearance at the Hot Press chat room, when all four members entertained the intimate crowd in stand-up comedy style.
Also appearing were Bloc Party, DJ Shadow, The Frames (who treated us all to a full-band performance), and Gang Of Four. The seminal punks revealed how the felt about their 'heavy influence' on Franz Ferdinand and Bloc Party - you can hear about it yourself when we show vids and audio from the chatrooms on hotpress.com in a wee while.
Elsewhere at the festival, a couple got married at the Big Love Inflatable Church, and Des Bishop rocked the comedy tent.
Groove Armada and 2 Many DJs took us into the wee hours, leavng us with a whole other day of fun to look forward to.