For dance enthusiasts Good Friday was more like Great Friday with Planet Cream, the first Creamfields event to hit Adelaide, taking over the Adelaide Entertainment Centre and turning it into a 10-hour playground.

Obviously, the main drawcard was headliner Deadmau5, but with a killer line-up of dance music’s major players including house’s man-of-the-moment Martin Solveig, up and comer Skrillex and a reunited Gabriel & Dresden, as well as electro minx Wynter Gordon and trance maestro Simon Patterson, it wasn’t just the Mau5 fans filling the dance floor.

The main Planet Cream stage was definitely the highlight of the festival, conveniently playing host to all of the higher billed acts, thoughtfully eliminating transit time for the die-hards. Gordon’s (incredibly short) set was a hit with the younger crowd, as was Solveig, with the crowd in anticipation of hearing his massive radio hit Hello. For the more seasoned crowd, DJs, remixers and producers the Bingo Players filled their hour-long set with their unique brand of house and some well recognised remixes.

The other two stages weren’t without highlights of their own though. Trance duo Gabriel & Dresden took punters on a trip down memory lane with their anthem Tracking Treasure Down, and the reigning king of trance Simon Patterson shutting down the arena with his hard-edged beats on crowd favourites Bulldozer and Miss You on the trance-heavy Cream stage.

On the home stretch of the day, Skrillex snatched the audience’s attention with his fusion of dubstep, electro and screamo. Bursting onto the main stage with a grab bag of samples as well as his own tracks, the Los Angeles-based DJ proved that he’s more than Deadmau5’s protégé after bursting onto the dance scene a year ago.

Flickers of his previous life in the hardcore band From First to Last came to the surface with flashes of distorted guitars through the breakbeats, but then again, so do samples of Biz Markie and Ludacris. One thing you get from Skrillex is versatility. With crowd favourite track Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, he proved that he’s not simply indulging in the genre of the moment, but clearly should be seen as one of the innovators. He may be an up-and-comer, but definitely stole the show.

Apart from the excitement of Adelaide finally being included on the festival schedule, it was obvious the main interest came from when Deadmau5 was announced as Planet Cream’s headliner. With his stage set-up (known as the Rubik’s Cube) designed by the people behind Daft Punk’s incredible live show showcasing amazing visuals through its 36 tiles made up of 2800 individual F11 LEDs, it was not a set to miss.

It’s an amazing feast for the senses, but it, at times, bordered on overshadowing the music. Also slightly disappointing was, unlike Skrillex before him, the set-list was without any real surprises, instead focusing on showcasing old favourites and tracks from his latest, 4×4=12. That being said, having guest vocalist Sofi onstage for One Trick Pony and Sofi Needs a Ladder gave a personal touch that the man in the helmet couldn’t provide with lasers and lights. However, altered images of the Nintendo classic Super Mario re-imagined with Deadmau5 as the star player was a cute treat for fans.

Closing the set the ten-minute epic Strobe (and saving the best visuals till last) the Mau5 left the stage – and the crowd – ecstatic. The perfect ending to what had been the greatest dance party Adelaide has seen in years.