Glastonbury ’15: our day-by-day review

This weekend, all eyes are on a series of lush fields in Somerset, the site of the legendary Glastonbury festival.

You'll know all about it because most of your mates are there, pictures of beautiful people laden with camping gear are splashed across every UK newspaper and it's basically all the BBC will broadcast for the next three days.

But away from the usual fanfare, what's really going down? We're in the thick of it at Worthy Farm so we'll be providing you with daily updates of who's smacking it, which tunes have been going off and, of course, any weird and wonderful behaviour we come across.

It's already shaping up to be a golden year. The weather's been more than kind (so far), Kanye's in the vicinity and there's been at least one marriage proposal (which took place among the lush surrounds of The Park). As for the music? Read on…

Four Tet played a sublime sunrise set at Genosys and Young Fathers slayed the Other Stage, but Saturday at Glasto was really about one thing...

When Kanye mentor Jay Z headlined the Pyramid Stage seven years ago, amid a whole load of hoo-ha over hip hop's place at Glastonbury, he did it with a knowing wink of his own brand of rat pack charm, a shedload of crowd pleasing hits and a colossal Noel Gallagher smackdown. But Kanye, with his inimitable ability to garner both deafening critical praise and widespread public ridicule in seemingly equal measures, was always going to be an entirely different beast.

Bounding on stage at 10.15pm to his 2007 Daft Punk sampling hit 'Stronger', and performing under a low-hanging lighting rig, the refrain of "Don't look like I never told you" sounded like a poignant and defiant reminder to the naysayers of his sheer potency. From the off there was a sense of a heightened take-no-prisoners attitude from a man who's known for being prickly at the best of times. But then again, this was never going to be a great big "Hello Glastonbury!" affair. Segueing into 'Power' from his 2010 album 'My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy' before reeling out Jay Z collaboration 'Ni**as In Paris', Kanye set the tone early on for a set that largely focused on his recent and more abrasive material.

'Clique', his cover of Chief Keef's 'I Don't Like' and 'Mercy' continued the trend before a double-header of 'New Slaves' and 'Blood On The Leaves' took the sense edgy excitement in the crowd to levels of fever pitch. 'Heartless' from his auto-tune heartache album '808s & Heartbreak' provided the first real singalong moment of the set, before 'I Wonder', and his recent Rihanna and Paul McCartney collaboration 'FourFiveSeconds' was a reminder that as much as talk around Kanye focuses on his knack for spotting cutting-edge producers like Arca early on, he's also got some of the biggest choruses in the game up his sleeve.

While some fan chatter after the set suggested there was a lack of the sped-up soul sampling early work which first drew attention to him back in 2004, a run of 'Jesus Walks', 'Diamonds From Sierra Leone' and 'Bound 2' showed the man's got no problem playing the hits. When he kicked off the Curtis Mayfield sampling 'Touch The Sky' only to abandon it a minute later to a wall of black screens, there's a sense that we might be in for one of those Kanye moments. Until that is, he appeared above the stage performing on a crane protruding into the audience, reeling out 'All Of The Lights' before heading back to the stage for an unlikely rendition of 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and a crowd-pleasing encore of Gold Digger' and 'All Falls Down. Electrifying and constantly unpredictable. Like the man himself, Kanye at Glastonbury was never boring.

Chicago comes to Somerset, psychedelia in the rain and Genosys rules all...

Honey Dijon can usually be seen on deck at Chicago's famous Smart Bar, which promotes a diverse range of LGTBI dance music events. On Friday at Glastonbury she played the NYC Downlow, the festival's resident gay club, touching down to bring some Windy City magic to Somerset.

After a couple of NYC Downlow's trademark stage shows, Honey took control of the space, which might just be one of the most fun clubs we've ever been to. Dark, intimate, with a capable system and plenty of hedonistic mischief, it's transports you to a pretty perfect place.

Effectively kicking off the night with a 12.30am set time, she worked through a selection of spanky disco house cuts peppered with classic tracks from Loletta Holloway, Cajmere and Diana Ross. Energised and feel good, it got us sweating, arms raised to the ceiling.

A bit like life itself, Glastonbury's a journey made up of epic highs and sometime soul-crushing lows. And after the Friday afternoon downpours had gone someway to dampening spirits across Worthy Farm, Jamie xx was there to lift morale with a majestic sunset set, playing second from last on the Park stage. While his particular brand of melancholic r'n'b-inflected house has come in for some stick of late, buoyed on by accusations that his pop-tinged take on UK underground sounds is 'not the real thing', the thousands who flocked to see him last night seemed to heartily disagree.

Reeling out the steel drums of 'Far Nearer' from his recent debut album at the off, before delving into his rework of Gil Scott Heron's 'I'll Take Care', a bit like the man himself, his set was un-showy but reliably entertaining and moving. A finale of the Idris Muhammad sampling and Romy xx featuring 'Loud Places', couldn't have been more suited to soundtracking the glowing amber sunset that shone above the Park Stage, providing one of the first of those spine tinglingly good moments that you can only really get at Glastonbury.

The Gaslamp Killer made his Glastonbury debut on the West Holts stage, which overlooks a lush expanse of green grass decorated with tall flags that flutter in the wind.

The performance was also one of the first times his new live show has been played out in the UK and he appeared, an electric shock frizz of hair and suitably trippy outfit, alongside The Heliocentrics.

Gaslamp strode the stage, playing beats and off the cuff scratch routines off a laptop and 1210s as well as hyping the crowd and the band, summoning groove-laden psychedelia that invoked the spirit of Brian Auger.

A primordial kind of funk, it seemed fitting that the set took place amid a torrent of rain.

Genosys...

Possibly the very coolest dance music-related thing at Glastonbury, the outdoor stage is situated in an area that also houses the NYC Downlow and other on-point rave haunt Block 9. DJs play in a wooden shack-like booth tucked beneath a towering dystopian building. It's anti Balearic, a hunk of rave that's mutated in the corner of a wooded area.

In the middle of the night we're treated to Phuture tearing out their OG acid, which builds pressure with pummelling, dubby kick drums and supplies release in the form of short spurts of raging squiggles.

Later, rolling house maestro Brawther is on duty for the sunrise set and he bounces between percussive cuts and bass-heavy breakbeats that are perfect for the dawn.

Amazing music on one of the most impressive stages at Glastonbury. When you rave here, you know you've truly arrived on Worthy Farm.

Ibiza comes to Somerset, some on-point new talent and the second coming of Christ...

We all know Glastonbury is a place where anything is possible. There's no telling who you might see play and last night thousands of dancers were transported to Ibiza courtesy of Circo Loco. The DC-10 party took over The Blues in the Dance Village for nearly eight hours of bumping, chugging, sun-kissed house.

It was an all-star affair that featured some of the club mammoth's most beloved mainstays. Jamie Jones, Apollonia and Ellen Allien all appeared and we started our Balearic getaway with Nicole Moudaber. She laid a down a slew of thick, rolling tech-house cuts, good enough to warrant cheers and whoops at every breakdown and drop.

Fur Coat's pummeling remix of 'Sungam' by Stephan Bodzin provided the goosebump moment when those razor sharp, barb wire synths came slicing through the bass.

Despite all of this though the star of the show wasn't Nicole or any individual member of the Circo Loco camp (Damian Lazarus was also great btw) . Nope, it was the Mungo's Hi-Fi soundsytem. The Scottish system powers The Blues stage with its warm low-end and crystal clear highs and it was a treat to hear a night's worth of Ibizan selections on what's considered one of the best soundsystems in the world (especially among the dub community). It roared for most of the night, keeping a very large crowd moving from front to back.

We say most of the night because unfortunately it was the system (or, perhaps more accurately, the festival authorities controlling it) that soured the end of the Circo Loco session. Dressed in a Picachu onesie, Davide Squillace was all set to bring things to a frenzied close but as he started, the volume dropped dramatically. Whether it was sound restrictions, a loose connection down the line or an act of god, the glorious bass was done. Squillace was clearly upset but persevered regardless, dropping the new Dennis Ferrer remix of Sabb that we premiered last week, so all was not lost.

We've repped Hodge since day one and it made our night to see him play to a bursting Wow! stage at 10pm. He was effectively warming up for the JESuS takeover (Jackmaster, Eats Everything, Skream, Seth Troxler) and he turned out a lively selection that displayed his tough, bashy, bass-heavy style as well as an appreciation of the crowd, who by this time were hungry for things to get going.

We squeezed our way in as he blended Kowton's 'Glock & Roll' with his own 'Prototype Fear', showcasing the rhythmic, subby techno that both he and Kowton, as well as other UK artists like Alex Coulton, Beneath, Batu and Facta are pushing. It was great to hear niche scene cuts like this roll out of a massive system for thousands of people to enjoy.

From there, the Bristol artist had full control of what must have been one of the biggest sets of his career so far. Tracks by DJ Deeon, Radioslave and Floorplan followed, as well as a system-testing section of breakbeat-heavy tracks, that brought the vast tent to a steady bubble (he also gave us our first Glasto 'moment' by playing Rudeboyz's 'Sambuca Dance', which is out now via Goon Club, at the same time as we bumped into label co-founder Moleskin. Awww!)

Hodge has been rising for a minute now. His recent EP for Untold's Hemlock is his best work yet and his ability to command peak-time slots like this shows that he's definitely got the chops as a DJ. We've told you enough times already: get to know!

Jackmaster, Eats Everthing, Skream and Seth Troxler are all world-renowned DJs. They're also good friends who like to enjoy good times together. It makes sense, then, that they've formed JESuS, an underground supergroup who play spontaneous sets at some of the biggest festivals in the world (hey, Coachella). Their takeover of the Wow! stage was the biggest billing on Thursday night, attracting a crowd that filled the tent to its seems, with hundreds more people gathering outside. They play back-to-back in traditional one-on, one-off fashion and create something of a house party vibe on-stage, cheering each other and the crowd on, dishing out hi-fives, constantly messing with EQ and effects and dancing like no-one's watching.

Seeing them together is a salivating prospect and there's not really a unit like them anywhere else in dance music. However, their approach can feel a bit disjointed: their thundering set on the Wow! was let down by uneven volume, FX-drenched breakdowns and bouts of ambitious mixing that didn't quite work out. It was like watching four mates go ham in front of all their mates in a living room, which was cool but maybe a bit more control was needed for such a big venue in the midst of such a momentous occasion.