Beacons Day Two @ Heslaker Farm, Skipton, 17 Aug

Whether you slept last night or not, today is technically the second day of Beacons festival, and disorientated Beaconites flood the arena anew like, well, rain. This is a roundabout way of saying it’s pissing it down, but that’s beside the point for most attendees: ponchos and Mackintoshes are out in full force, and the emerging convivial communities are smiling and ready for action.

The Loud & Quiet stage this afternoon might be full of people avoiding the rain – it’s pretty packed – but it quickly becomes clear that they’ve elected to see Stealing Sheep, and a damn fine choice this is. The Liverpudlian trio combat the grim weather with sunny, glittery, upbeat tunes, backed by the enchanting Harlequin Dynamite Marching Band. The ensemble style – the sheer number of folk on stage, the energetic brass, the big drum, and I think there’s a bassoon in there somewhere – makes the whole experience feel like being at a local village fete, except with more CocoRosie-esque quirkiness and tribal, harmonious chanting. An infectiously chirpy start to the day.

[Stealing Sheep by Richard Manning]

Those still loitering at the main stage following Stealing Sheep's sparky performance are rewarded with a set from Temples, a safe indie-rock quartet from Kettering. Safe, because for all their deft arrangements and frontman James Bagshaw’s impressively polished vocal, this cut-and-dry outfit aren’t really doing anything new. That’s not to say this show isn’t catchy, and afternoon onlookers are definitely dancing in their wellies, but the tracks – mostly channelling Tribes, The Raconteurs or Arctic Monkeys – deviate far too little from predictable alt-rock structures. Mind you, honourable mention goes to Bagshaw swapping his out-of-tune guitar mid-riff (and air-guitaring in the interim). Bravo, mate.

To complete the Loud & Quiet hat-trick, we stick around for Melody’s Echo Chamber, who universally win the crowd's hearts this afternoon. Somewhat akin to the effect Stealing Sheep had on the tent, the sun-dancing power of this act fends off the persistent drizzle with French mysticality, captivating dreampop, and sound-beams refracted through a smeary pink-tint filter; their electro-inflected swells are at times smooth, at others eruptive, but always self-assured. The crystalline psychedelia manages, somehow, to teleport just about the whole audience to a summertime Parisian meadow. And that’s not the cider talking.

[Melody's Echo Chamber by Richard Manning]

Saturday’s L&Q headliner is LA indie-rock troupe Local Natives; with most still reeling from Gold Panda’s astonishing performance not too long before, they've a tough act to follow. Turning their trusted three-part harmonies and studio-polished rocky beats into a full-blown spectacle, with generous helpings from 2009’s Gorilla Manor, this band – one of the few acts this weekend not from the UK (hell, not from Leeds) – deliver a set worthy of their billing. The tent is chocka, and while the crowd isn’t latching on from the get-go, by the half-way point (around the time they drop Airplanes) the mob is jostling riotously. They close, almost knowingly given today’s weather, with crowd favourite Sun Hands, and stunned revellers depart reluctantly (probably for Resident Advisor, actually) to continue the festivities. [George Sully]

So, this is special: on the eve of the release of her third album, Loud City Song, in a tiny, circus-striped tent tucked away on the campsite, Julia Holter and her ensemble are tuning up for a seated show in front of a couple of hundred. All apart from the one girl letting everyone know that “Ben has gone to the toilet but he'll be back” are spellbound, as the possessing singer leads her subtle, responsive group – all acutely sensitive to each other's sustains, pauses and intakes of breath, their movements made almost as one unit – through a set of mostly new material, a full, warm saxophone providing both cushion and counterpoint to a cello that's at once rutting and biting (Four Gardens), then soft and slow.

As Holter moves into the refrain of Ekstasis' Goddess Eyes, punctuated by nips of breath, her words quiet and clipped – “I can see you but my eyes are not allowed to cry” – half the room mouths the words back at her, unblinking. Hers is a sound that's intimate yet somehow spacious, each of her songs so intricate as to almost be their own organisms, yet allowed to swell and respire as though at their own bidding. As we file out, some are whispering, stunned, some are whooping, thrilled; everyone's in agreement, though, that this was 'a moment'.

[Julia Holter by James Robinson]

Elsewhere, after yesterday's raw drawl from Nope and ahead of perhaps the weekend's most anticipated performance on Sunday (from Hookworms), the pre-tea slot in the You Need To Hear This tent is proving itself something of a reliable wake-up call: today it's the turn of Manchester's Kult Country, pulling us willingly downwards into a sluggish, druggish wooze, then spooling us out towards dimensions we shouldn't be nearing at 5pm. In a free, feral set that underlines the injustice done to SWAYS records' wildly differing bands by referring to them as all, well, 'SWAYS bands', Yousif Al-Karaghouli vocalises from within his weathered-looking bandmates' seething dirge, his words lost in a formless howl that's somehow all the more urgent for it being indecipherable. [Lauren Strain]

Marinated in Wales but an original Liverpudlian, Dauwd takes to the Resident Advisor stage for a dabble in early evening body-shimmying. Punters swap their evening meal for a nutritious snack of hip swaying and head bobbing as David Hilali delivers his complex beats in a set that's a delicious blend of layered percussion and peculiar synth whirrs. A time stamp could have revealed that Dauwd had taken us back to the 90s, his fuzzy beats reminiscent of a more house-focused Boys Noize – and with the audience helpless at his will, he dictates that Saturday’s carousing is to be in full force.

Gladly taking the party hat away from Dauwd is Lancaster-based duo Bondax. Playing back to back, Adam Kaye and George Townsend – still in the bubble of their teens – are fearless in their track selection, the party they throw positively leaking with R&B, garage and soul and the crowd jolting as Prince’s I Wanna Be Your Lover screams through the speakers. With a foot inbetween the 80s and 90s, Kaye and Townsend's sound would not have been out of place on Beverly Hills Cop; and the air buzzes when they set free their remix of Blackstreet’s No Diggity. Their set is the ultimate in feelgood; it's not clear who's having more fun, Bondax themselves or their faithful followers.

[Gold Panda by Richard Manning]

Gold Panda effortlessly takes the title of most captivating performance this Saturday at Beacons. Derwin is an animated figure as he violently judders along to his impressive handiwork, the screen behind revealing his rapidfire finger-tapping on his sampler. He strips his tracks down to their elemental parts, then layers them back together as to make them hyperactive, following – to the crowd's glee – Same Dream China with You. Derwin has spoken frequently about drawing inspiration from Japan, and oriental chimes underline these influences. Despite a roaring (and roaringly received) performance, Gold Panda remains bashful as he hastily blurts out, “This is my last tune, cheers!” and dives into the final track from Half of Where You Live, Reprise – shyness aside, it'd be unlikely he was unaware of the profound effect he'd had on the crowd.

Rounding off the penultimate night of Beacons is recent signee to Ninja Tune Travis Stewart, aka Machinedrum. His forward-thinking production is apparent in an almighty two-hour set, and his early influences of drum'n'bass are evident in an intense, percussive delivery, merged with elements of jungle. Add to this hybrid R&B-flavoured hip hop undertones, and the crowd sway deliriously. Stewart’s set is initially the victim of deficient volume, but after a wholehearted chorus of “Turn it up!”, his glitchy beats are back on track – and this is an outing from a real virtuoso. [Edwina Chan] 

We also saw: Bicep and Ben UFO lay waste to the RA tent, children being transported in wheelbarrows, and a man passed out naked on a haybale.