But a bit of water could never dampen the Irish spirit, and true to form, the festival kicked off in fine style, with The Marshals opening the main stage, giving new guitarist Brian Carroll his festival debut. It also featured fine performances from Damien Dempsey, the Arctic Monkeys and the most talked about band of the festival, The Who. Roger Daltrey proved there was still life in the band yet as he aired favourites not heard for years, like 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and 'My Generation;.
On the other stages, fans received a double treat of Gonzalez as he performed with Zero7 shortly after his own set on the Pet Sounds Stage.

That wasn't the only surprise of the day - The Futureheads played an impromptu set in the MTV tent in front of just a handful of people shortly before appearing in their advertised slot in The Green Room.

Smaller acts like Milburn, Mobile and The Spinto Band earned themselves a few fans, but the biggest winners were the clever companies who branded rain ponchos, which most festival-goers were happy to wear, given the constant rain.

The bands, meanwhile, dealt with the weather in different ways - Boy Kill Boy sought shelter in the Spin FM tent, where they not only found a roof over their heads, but beer provided by their hosts. Bonus!

The Strokes' Julian Casablancas was braver, and during their performance in the main stage, he jumped down and started rolling around in the mud in between the stage and audience. He truly is One Of Us.

While temperatures weren't helped by the gales that went with, tomorrow looks set to become hotter, with Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sigur Ros, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and the Kaiser Chiefs being but a few of the acts to lure the crowd back.

It must have been all that raindancing in the campsites on Friday night.
Live photos from Saturday
Crowd photos from Saturday

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