T in the Park, Friday

Strathallan Castle, Perthshire

Marianne Gunn

Four stars

Celebrating its 21st year, the T in the Park music festival has - perhaps - come of age in the Auchterarder countryside. Since launching at the Strathclyde Park site in Hamilton, and later finding an equally much-loved and maligned home in Balado, many critics have doubted the possible success of this year's reincarnation (especially with the threat to the local Osprey population and lack of "heavy hitting" bands). However, although the site is more undulating than its Kinross cousin, the natural contours have allowed for a compartmentalisation of sorts, and - as is especially the case for the Radio 1 stage - acoustics are pleasingly enhanced by the environment (although whoever obscured the site's view of Strathallan Castle with a whopping great burger van should be sent on an aesthetics course forthwith).

On the Main Stage, Sam Smith was Friday's main highlight. Having played a storming Glasgow O2 Academy gig in March, Smith has since been plagued by a recent serious health scare and his T performance is only his fifth post surgery. Playing key tracks from his debut album, as well as a funked up section with his fab band and singers, Smith segued from an Elvis cover to his own song and (tellingly about the festival's key demographic) the crowd sang aloud more volubly to Lay Me Down. His touring arrangement of La La La and Money On My Mind gave him another opportunity to prove his vocal dexterity has not been impacted. He simply comes across as a very likeable 23-year-old British talent who has just happened to have taken the US by storm.

Although Kasabian headlined the evening, the dance acts were the main event. Fatboy Slim's DJ turn in King Tut's Wah Wah Tent was at utter capacity with moisture dripping from the blue canvas monolith as Norman Cook mixed his own material (such as Right Here, Right Now and Praise You) with anthems from the '90 such as Underworld's Born Slippy and musical classics like Psycho Killer from the Talking Heads. Mark Ronson's DJ set (including his Bruno Mars collaboration and dance-floor filler Uptown Funk) suffered a more lukewarm reception, although he was competing with David Guetta who had come directly from his Ibiza club night at Pacha, armed with enough confetti cannon, streamer and pyrotechnic accompaniments to really put on a show. Tracks from his sixth album Listen (Hey Mama, Dangerous, Lovers On The Sun and What I Did for Love) were interspersed with his recent back catalogue (such as Love Is Gone and Titanium) although hankering for his old school French House music was probably an individual - and more minor - quibble.