On the vernacular Scots weather scale of "taps" (tops) "oan" or "aff" (on or off), the 2013 instalment of this first big weekender of the festival summer falls delightfully into the latter category. The sun beats down on the banks of Loch Ness, and it's pink backs and necks rather than flooded tents that keep revellers awake at night. That and a throbbing aggregation of electronic beats that barely relents until the small hours of Monday morning.
Even if the booking and scheduling feels patchy – Basement Jaxx, Example and Plan B seem a relatively austere triptych of headliners for a festival that in 2007 secured Daft Punk – Rockness grows ever more user-friendly for layout, facilities and food and drink. And you could get drunk on the scenery alone: with the campsite repositioned loch-side behind a main stage framed by the Great Glen, the hazy view is pinch-yourself beautiful.
Cranking up her fizzy electronic pop on Friday evening, Ellie Goulding captures the exuberantly expectant mood with a T-shirt emblazoned "Come On". Following the monochromatic indie-rock clang of the Vaccines, when Basement Jaxx appear it's as if the picture has switched to colour. Across a set packed with hits sung by a rotating cast of vocalists in increasingly garish tribal finery, the Londoners' pedigree as this festival's most seasoned bill-toppers brightly shows.
Saturday questionably revolves around main-stage DJs. Besides relentless party-house beats, Steve Aoki showers the arms-aloft front rows with champagne and, curiously, a large cream cake. Billed as a "special guest", Fatboy Slim's old-school rave turn proves not so much austere as stingy in terms of signature songs, which is surprising considering his Rockness godfather status (the festival grew out of a Fatboy Slim gig in 2006). "Have we still got energy left?" enquires Example, who suddenly looks a natural main-stage closer backed by a live band, wringing every last drop of stamina from a bouncing crowd.
A more guitar-band orientated bill on Sunday produces some welcome counterpoints to the dance stuff. The Futureheads bravely venture material from their a cappella album Rant, with a celebratory Hounds of Love the payoff. You could be forgiven for assuming Camera Obscura had taken a wrong turn en route to some other, gentler festival, but it's a mellow pleasure to hear songs from the excellent Desire Lines in its release week. A Mohawk-sporting Plan B later helms a shuddering crescendo, but the day's high point has already passed with the heavy, heavy (Loch Ness) monster sound of Madness, Suggs and co's trademark shades looking practical as well as cool as the sun sank behind the hills a final time.
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