Like RockNess and T in the Park before it, the Wickerman Festival baked in the sun on Friday and Saturday.

This year's event sold out as the gates opened on Thursday, with 18,000 music lovers travelling to the fields of East Kirkcarswell Farm, near Dundrennan in Dumfries and Galloway.

"It's been a tough year for lots of events, so to have a sell-out in the current climate is incredible," said festival co-ordinator Helen Chalmers. "Hopefully it will ensure the future of the festival for a number of years."

Primal Scream and Amy Macdonald were the headline acts, although the high point on Friday was a set by Chic which not only dipped into the disco legends' back catalogue, but acknowledged Nile Rodgers's production and co-writing credits by including songs by Diana Ross, Sister Sledge and David Bowie.

"Even if people can't name a Chic song, everybody knows them when they hear them," Chalmers said. "Last year, when Scissor Sisters played, the reception they got was great and it put people in a party frame of mind. People love to hear something they recognise and can sing and dance along to."

Tasked with opening the main Summerisle Stage on Saturday after Chic and Primal Scream the night before were Sunday Herald Unsigned Band competition winners, dorec-a-belle. The female four-piece from Inverness beat fellow nominees The Alter-natives and Made As Mannequins to the prize at a live Wicker Warm-Up play-off at Broadcast in Glasgow on June 27, after a process that had seen Sunday Herald readers vote on downloadable demo tracks from the newspaper's website.

Guitarist and singer Maryann Frew admitted she'd been daunted when she'd realised who were preceding her the night before on the main stage. "But it just felt really good," she said of the band's performance. "We've been looked after so well. You couldn't ask for a better experience."

Liza Mulholland, who plays accordion, added: "To be kicking off the day, looking out at the main site, and seeing people starting to gather is just fabulous."

The band's unusual set-up, with cello, accordion, guitar and saxophone fitting around four-part vocal harmonies, brings a distinctive jazzy colour to their music's folk roots.

"I really liked the sound [the technicians] produced," noted cellist Imke Henderson. "It's not easy with all our varied instruments to get the balance right on stage for us to hear, but it was pretty good although I don't think we've ever been standing so far away from each other."

The festival ended last night with headline sets from Amy Macdonald on the Summerisle Stage and Scottish punk legends The Rezillos in the Scooter Tent, followed by the traditional midnight burning of a giant wickerman sculpture.