For the 17,500  music fans who gathered from around Australia this weekend  in Byron Bay for the Splendour In The Grass festival, there was a minor sense of déjà vu.

The first major Australian rock festival of the summer touring season offered all of the festival staples: ageing rockers, ace young tyros, electronic music, dull singer-songwriters, fresh bands and boring indie-rockers.

On Saturday, veteran Melbourne rock trio the Living End drew the biggest crowd of the day, with a stellar performance behind their excellent new record, White Noise.

The festival’s youthful demographic was never clearer than during Devo’s set. Outside of their seminal hit Whip It, their catalogue was unknown to much of the crowd. When they played said hit in the first half of their set, it created a mass exodus at the track’s conclusion.

Scottish trio the Fratellis, Perth’s Gyroscope, and callow Gold Coast upstarts Operator Please appeared to go down better with the crowd.

The programming offered a few clashes between stages. For instance, fans had to chose between Devo and Tricky. You also had to feel for the hotly-tipped but largely unknown American act the Delta Spirit who began their set to an embarrassingly small crowd.  Later in the day, they joined the Cold War Kids on stage.

On Sunday, UK trio the Wombats underscored their popularity as one of the festival’s biggest drawcards by generating a handful of mass sing-alongs. Not as successful were Sydney controversy magnets the Vines who appeared to win over, and then lose, the crowd several times.

Something For Kate frontman Paul Dempsey previewed new songs from his upcoming solo album to a big crowd. Queensland trio the Grates, led by the exuberance of frontwoman Patience – the only female lead on the main stage for the entire day - also drew impressive numbers. Much to her fan’s delight, Patience chose the gig to unveil a Batman outfit complete with cape.

Not as successful were London’s New Young Pony Club, who failed to successfully translate their usually impressive dance-pop.

With the temperature dropping into single figures by 8pm, ethereal Icelandic troupe Sigur Ros warmed fans with their kitchen-sink approach to orchestral rock music. The group’s four core members play 12 instruments between them.  A four-piece brass section positively added to their sound. Ironically, they sounded at their most vital when rocking out on guitars. Sometimes even Sigur Ros getting tired of being ethereal.

On the other side of the festival site, Sydney’s Ben Lee charmed a predominantly female audience with a hit laden set.

Australia’s prodigal rock sons Wolfmother closed off the main stage with a sometimes plodding, but occasionally exhilarating show.  Opening with Dimension, the trio quickly veered from great to bewildering with a laughably theatrical rock show. Fist pumping, double necked guitars and ludicrously histrionic showmanship formed the crux of the performance. The new songs, debuted Sunday, sounded solid but not outstanding.

The biggest roars instead came for the unflinchingly clichéd, but thoroughly enjoyable, rock of Woman and Joker and the Thief. For the youthful crowd, it was a suitably hedonistic conclusion to a wild weekend.