The legendary Future Music Festival rolled into little old Adelaide for the last leg of its jaunt around Australia and tethered onto the end of the annual arts and music festivals held around the city during February and March.

The location was the Garden of Unearthly Delights, a carnival like menagerie of tents and big tops originally set up to host the Fringe performances but greatly extended to the adjoining parks to create sufficient space for the 6 Future stages.

Approaching the entrance along Rundle Street the gates were separated into ticket types, which helped spread the flow of people entering. I got through within seconds and my group followed shortly, even our friend who had forgotten his ticket was able to present his credit card to get his ticket reissued which I was most impressed with.

The temperature was easily in the mid-30s and the sun was beating down as we headed to the Mazda 2 Flamingo stage for our first act of the day, Tame Impala. The stage had four large screens, two either side of the centre which made for easy viewing (something that would be very useful later) but there was a severe lack of cover and most people were stood under a singular tree for shade.

The crowd were a chilled-out bunch, the usual girls in denim shorts and baggy Ts hanging with guys in sunnies, sporting quaffed hairdos, loafers and loose string vests with semi-pornographic pictures printed on them.

On stage we caught the end of Flight Facilities as they polished off their set with some ‘80s electro style sounds and a funky remix of Daft Punk’s Celebrate. Tame Impala soon got going afterwards with their tripped-out, psychedelic rock and the listeners seemed to enjoy it, however it was way too hot to be out in the sun and the crowd was too subdued for my liking so I headed down to the Dusk Till Doorn stage for something more edgy.

Thankfully this stage was well canopied by trees and when I arrived people were dancing to the ever reliable Tydi as he chugged towards the end of his set with some quality chunky trance. Behind the stage was a screen displaying futuristic Tron style visuals. The sound quality was top notch and people had brought along all sorts of inflatable silliness including whales and palm tress which they held aloft or had strapped to their backs while dancing.

Following Tydi were Binary Finary. Setting up their Macs and getting into it without delay they were soon mixing together Gatecrasher style classics (including yet another remix of their own legendary Binary Finary track) with more recent offerings.

As the sun retreated a little I though I’d risk it and go and see if Ke$ha was worthy of her place on the mainstage. I cut across the parklands and through the steadily growing mesh of bodies to go and check her out. Verdict? Actually not bad at all.

The backing to the tracks moulded pretty well with the general dance feel of the festival, her vocals were good and the show had been well thought out. Her musicians and support performers were decked out in strappy leather fetish outfits and wore Mohicans and face paint in a throwback to Mad Max. It was especially easy to watch the performance due to the high definition display screens either side of the stage.

I soon got thirsty however and headed off to join the huge queues for drinks. Thankfully this year there was no sign of the dreaded drinks vouchers and it was cash sales at the bars. As was too be expected the prices were astronomical and it was physically painful handing over so much cash for a couple of Smirnoff cans. However, there was no need to buy bottles of water, because people were handing out free drug awareness drinks bottles and there was free drinking water available around the site, which came as a welcome relief.

Back on the Main Stage were hellraisers Art vs Science who soon got the party pumping with their own style of electro rock. At that point I wasn’t sure if I was at a dance festival or what, but I’m sure I saw some moshing up front. Despite their best efforts though their set seemed a bit disjointed and the sound got a bit lost as there was some carry over from Loco Dice next door. Still though, things bucked up when they smashed out Parlez vous Francais to an appreciative audience.

Unfortunately due to the unavoidable clashes I missed Mark Ronson but there was no way I was going to miss the performance I most wanted to see on the Likes of You Stage. Leftfield (for those that don’t know) are one of the originators of dance music as we know it. They have toured very few times and released only two studio albums in 20 or so years but their influence is beyond compare.

This time backed by a skilled band of musicians, rappers and sound technicians, the only original member of the duo, Neil Barnes, crafted an outstanding performance in every way, shape and form. Starting with the eponymous Song of Life, moving through the beautiful Original (with live vocals) and into Afro Left and other classics until finally closing after an hour and half on the bass destroying Phat Plant.

The slightly older crowd was clearly delighted to be dancing to such legendary sounds. Whoever at Future had the foresight to book Leftfield deserves a big “congratulations” because, as a number of revellers said, it was worth the ticket price just to see them. It was just a shame that the crowd wasn’t as large as they deserved, oh and the toilets nearby stunk.

We headed back down to the Mazda2 stage to try to catch MGMT, big mistake as due to the poor layout the place was packed and there was no way to get a decent standpoint to hear anything.

Munching on a gourmet chicken burger served up in the Garden of Unearthly Delights, we watched the FoamaRama foam party and listened to the crazy Bollocks Deejays basically playing any record they found and not really mixing. No one cared though, because there was foam and mud – brilliant.

When we got back into it Dizzee Rascal was going full throttle on the main stage. He interacted well with the crowd, rocking them out with hits such as Holiday and Dance Wiv’ Me and giving exactly the cocky, showy and mouthy performance you’d expect from him.

Over on the Mazda stage again, Pendulum were going great guns when we managed to squirm our way through the crowds to catch a glimpse of them doing it all live. Instruments and all they gave an awesome performance including their remix of Voodoo People by The Prodigy and their tracks Granite and The Island. The crowd lapped it up but it was such a melee that you couldn’t enjoy the full effect so we tossed up between Plastikman and The Chemical Brothers to finish off.

The Chems won out and I have to say, I think it was a good decision. What started at 8:30 and went on until 10 was without doubt one of the most exhilarating, tour-de-forces of sight and sound I’ve ever watched.

The show started with the stage shrouded in smoke, blue lights and the flashing LEDs of a hundred pieces of sound equipment. They opened with the deepest, darkest and meanest bass I’ve ever felt while their circular light installation descended to the centre of the stage and crowned the equipment. Then the opening of Galvanize started the journey through The Brother’s awesome sound and visuals as they synced silhouetted people, butterflies and dancers with tracks such as Star Guitar, Swoon and Saturate, 3D churches and buildings with Believe, a monstrous horse made of digital tiles with Horse Power and crazy day-glo dancing characters with Hey Boy Hey Girl.

They polished the show off with the big beat spectacular Block Rockin’ Beats and there was no doubt in my mind – The Chemicals have still got it. FMF this year was one of the best-organised festivals I have been to in a long time; I just hope they can better it next year. Truly excellent all round.