an unheard of Belgian group prove the highlight of an entertaining Saturday

The weather gods have promised us a nice clear day today although its start is a bit overcast. The queues for the toilets are not knee-crossingly, insane-jiggingly bad. In fact they're pretty short and they're pretty clean. Although it sounds like an odd thing to comment on, it's pretty important when you've got nippers at festivals and the Beautiful Days toilet crew must be working pretty hard all weekend as I don't see a duff one. It probably helps that there are trailers containing urinals either side of the main stage too.

Heading through to the main stage, there is a whole new area dedicated to entertaining children near the wicker people, as well as the main kids' field that has something to keep the youngsters of all ages happy and busy. Our eldest (who is 8), has a diabolo and has been challenged to be able to throw and catch it by the end of the weekend. One of the circus workshops helps out and before long he's throwing it about with increased confidence (although still not quite catching it). Our youngest (who is 3), is quite happy to be entertained by performers and story tellers and although not quite able to operate 'big girl's' scissors, with a bit of help, she manages to make a magic wand.

The first main stage act of the day that we catch are Pronghorn. My only advice if you haven't seen Pronghorn perform live is to check out their schedule and get yourself to one of their gigs. They play turbo-charged cowpoke music which seems to incorporate Baltic and South American sounds with redneck rhythms. One of the highlights of the weekend is the dance off between two halves of the audience - the cossacks and the country dancers, fuelled throughout by drinks from an on stage barman. The energy exhausted during this one set is probably enough to power the main stage for the weekend!

Edward II is a really interesting band. Imagine traditional folk played with reggae dub beats. The effect is quite brilliant. The band split about 10 years ago and reformed only this year and I can see that the majority of the field swaying around and tapping feet are glad that they did! As they clear the stage, our children are getting restless and we go for another walk around the kids’ field. The number of children at the festival seems higher than last year too, and I think that’s a good thing. There are new activities aimed at older children which look interesting.

Taking in the sites and sounds and hopping on a few rides, we head back to our friends who tell us that we've missed the band of the weekend (already!!). Although we heard a few of Belgian group Les Truttes numbers while wandering around, it appears that we've missed the full impact of their set. As far as I can work out, they've managed to capture complete genres and decades of music and make our mates fall in love with them by covering some tunes in their own special way. So deep is the impact on the rest of our group that I feel compelled to check them out when we head back to civilisation. Still, we did manage to heart Kissmet perform Kula Shakers 'Govinda'.

Dub Pistols are an amazing and accomplished band. Having recorded with Terry Hall of The Specials and Rodney P, their profile is pretty big and although already fans, I don't own their latest album 'Rum and Coke'. On this performance, its purchase is sealed. The highlight of their set for me is when Lindy Layton joins them on stage and they perform the Beats International Classic 'Dub Be Good To Me'. Very few people are left seated and the infectious sway sweeps across the audience. Lindy Layton stays on stage with them to sing her part in their new single 'I'm In Love' which after the previous track goes down a storm too.

Time to grab a beer and something to eat and we manage to grab a mozzarella and roasted veg melt, it's a foot long and costs £2.50 which seems like extremely good value. The choice of food isn't bad at all. If you take a wander, you can have, pie, mezze, fish and chips, pizza, curry (of various origins), noodles, pasta and much, much more. The beer and melt cover the food main food groups required and it's time for The Wonder Stuff to take us on a trip down memory lane. Not being a big fan back in the day, I'm reminded of songs that I didn't know they'd written.

21 years on (can it really be that long ago), they sound as good as ever and Erica Nockalls on the fiddle sounds amazing and looks stunning. The "We're not playing Dizzy" comment also makes me laugh (especially as it's their highest charting single), but I can see why they wouldn't want to play it – it wouldn't be the same without Vic Reeves anyway would it? 'Size of a cow' and 'Let Me Down Gently' are the highlights of a good set from my perspective.

Comparatively speaking, The Saw Doctors make little impact upon me. To be fair, I've never really been into them and my time seems better spent catching up with friends who I haven't spoken to in a while. Their set provides a few moments where a little bounce about feels right but not more than that.

The Pogues are eagerly awaited by quite a few of us. The rest of the band comes on stage and we are told that Shane is answering a call of nature. When he eventually does appear on stage, it's clear that he’s not really with us – it's not really surprising but his state and incoherence make for a pretty shambolic performance. I've seen him on form in the past and it's been great. Tonight – for me - is far from great and when the rain starts, we wrap the kids up and head back to the tent. It's almost a blessing really.

Kids safely tucked up in their sleeping bags, we hear Swans In Flight from the tent. Although their sounds are slightly jumbled in the distance from the Big Top to our position, they and The Imagined Village might have been a better bet, rather than The Pogues. We turn in after a few beers.

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