Crystal Castles / Friendly Fires / The Strokes @ Rockness 2010

Nestled between the rolling hills of the Great Glen and back-dropped by the glistening water of Loch Ness, Rockness is without doubt one of the most beautiful festivals in the world. Now in its fifth consecutive year, the festival has grown from a one day event curated and headlined by Fatboy Slim, to a three day extravaganza featuring some of the finest artists in electronica and alternative music. Where T in the Park may boast heavyweights from the commercial mainstream, Rockness has an intrinsic eclecticism which sees the likes of Aphex Twin sit comfortably next to Plan B.

So, with spirits high, the tent pitched and an obligatory festival cider in hand it was off to see Crystal Castles ignite Friday’s main stage in a blaze of digitised energy. Not even the burliest highland Jock could contain Alice Glass as she threw herself into the heaving crowd for numbers like ‘Crimewave’ and ‘Celestica’.

As the sun tried hard to penetrate the banks of menacing cloud, Friendly Fires followed with a sensational rendition of ‘Paris’ sending arms skyward. Deviating from the main stage, Grum proved why he’s the hottest ticket in disco-house with ‘Heartbeats’ jolting the crowd into a robotic frenzy; while in the Rizzla arena dubstep main player Benga was causing a skank en-masse to some devastating basslines.

Waking up on Saturday and rocking a devastating hangover it was straight down to the Annie Mac presents arena with a sensational line up that included Burns, Boyz Noize, the Mac-master herself and a show-stopping performance from Club 75. The latter French electro supergroup consists of Justice, Cassius, DJ Mehdi & Busy P, who over four hours each took turns to drop everything from party-starting anthems to driving techno, ending the set in a chaotic free-for-all, which was nothing short of spectacular.

Unfortunately the weather was to take a turn for the worse on Saturday night with a typical Scotch drizzle developing into an out and out deluge on Sunday. The Maccabees, however, did a fine job of coaxing people from their tents as Blondie brought the sunshine with an array of familiar classics.

Other highlights included Glasgow locals Vendor Defender, a fully established live show from Chase & Status and a seductively slick set from Aeroplane. The weekend’s climax, however, was a rather epic performance from The Strokes. Julian proclaiming: “we’re welcome for taking two points from England last night,” and then taking the now elated crowd from there. Less obvious classics complimented the anthems, with the likes of ‘Someday’ and ‘Last Night’ inducing jovial dancing with complete strangers. As the set culminated with an explosion of jaw-dropping fireworks, you couldn’t help but feel that this year Rockness had truly come of age.