On Sunday, Joondalup Arena played host to 40,000 overexcited festival-goers all racing around to catch as many acts as they could at the six genre-diverse stages. We were almost spoilt for choice with the line-up that was on offer, from the petulant pop princess Ke$ha to trance legends Binary Finary to uber-cool band leader Mark Ronson and drum & bass gods Pendulum. However, getting to them was another story…

Despite a carefully-planned musical itinerary, it soon became apparent that I’d have to go with the flow of the crowd and see what was most accessible at the time. Rather than becoming frustrated and annoyed with the situation, I took it as just another element of the FMF adventure. It was a rather liberating approach, as I enjoyed acts that I might have otherwise bypassed.

Trance icon Sander van Doorn was totally on form and banging it out on the Dusk to Doorn stage, showing the crowd exactly why he’s ranked number 12 in the world. His melodic, techy trance washed over the whole arena. Meanwhile, the crowd at the Mazda2 Flamingo stage were grooving just as hard to Mark Ronson and the Business International. Their performance was fresh and funky and they cleverly brought the festival-goers to a climax with their smash hit Bang, Bang, Bang.

Speaking of orgasmic, that’s exactly what Don Diablo’s set was. For an hour and a half, he worked the audience and had them practically worshipping at his feet. Dropping in remixed classics including Sweet Dreams and Oasis’ Wonderwall into his edgy tracklist, it was a truly entertaining show.

Exploding onto the Dim Mak/Smirnoff stage after Diablo was Mr Dim Mak himself, Steve Aoki. Throwing down his International Dance Music Award-nominated hit Brrrat!, the crowd went crazy. I didn’t get to enjoy much of his electro throwdown as Pendulum was scheduled fifteen minutes later.

I might as well have stayed, though, as it was near impossible to get back to the Mazda2 stage where Pendulum was playing. Fed up with the pushing, shoving and jostling, my friends and I withdrew and ended up helping a girl who had been trampled clean up her bloody feet and also a guy who had been kicked in the ribs. It wasn’t a pleasant experience.

As brilliant as they are, I’ve seen Pendulum before so I wasn’t too disappointed at missing them. It actually turned into a positive as I loved the trip down memory lane Cosmic Gate took me on, especially when they dropped iio’s massive anthem of 2001, Rapture. So too did The Chemical Brothers on the Future Music stage when they slipped in some oldies like Hey Boy, Hey Girl and Block Rockin’ Beats amongst their newer tracks like Swoon. Cutting-edge multimedia displays, wicked lasers and a mass of heaving bodies – these boys know how to put on a show.

Reluctantly tearing myself away, I managed to catch Steve Angello dropping his massive Swedish House Mafia hit One on the way to The Likes of You stage. I can never resist a shuffle to this track but I only indulged in the one song as Richie Hawtin’s Plastikman spectacle awaited. Dramatically encircled in a gilded cage of lights, he treated us to an audiovisual extravaganza set to a minimal, ambient soundtrack.

The entire act was a sensory experience – especially the seemingly never-ending strobe at the conclusion of the performance. For the finale, Hawtin emerged from his fancy trappings and played one final track. It was an honest, pared-down performance that juxtaposed amazingly against the extravaganza of the festival, earning him great respect from the crowd. What a damn fine way to close a festival.