Nothing says Field Day like a bright blue sky and some tasty, glitchy techno. All hail Juliana Huxtable, then, who greeted an enthusiastic audience with a blazing lunch time set that gave zero fucks for warming us up gently. The multidisciplinary artist, often dubbed New York’s ‘queen of nightlife’, took us higher and higher with squelchy synths and stuttering beats that may have been in part reminiscent of the glory days of Juan Atkins and Snap! but still sounded distinctly now.

And that’s what Field Day is here for. A granddaddy of the London summer festival circuit, it’s where electronic and left field music-heads come to let loose to artists and DJs who aren’t afraid to take risks. Having joined forces with All Points East at Victoria Park, this year’s varied line-up didn’t hold back, ranging from the bonkers brilliance of Arca to the exuberant energy of Jayda D and experimental sounds of Jon Hopkins.

Matching the Big Boss energy of Huxtable was Sudan Archives whose self-styled ‘fiddle punk’ is guaranteed to be all kinds of outre. Wearing skin-tight purple latex adorned with spikes and chains, the provocateur filled the stage – rapping, singing, screaming, panting, crawling, clapping, giving praise and spinning around while working her bow and strings like a sorcerer. “Are you ready to mosh out?” she asked rhetorically, before launching into unstoppable hits from her 2022 album ‘Natural Brown Prom Queen’ including ‘OMG Britt’ and ‘Freakalizer’ plus a twisted rendition of the first Celtic jig she ever learnt on the violin. It’s safe to say Vanessa Mae has left the building.

Up next was TSHA with her debut live show. The hotly tipped Ninja Tunes artist kept it easy breezy with a pop house set steeped in feel good vibrations. Tunes such as ‘Sister’, and ‘Dancing in the Shadows’ glistened like beats bouncing off an Ibiza shoreline. Meanwhile SBTRKT kept his beats hard to the floor for a full-blown and wide-ranging performance. Air horns blazing and dirty basslines rolling, the accomplished producer mixed up tracks from his stunning new album ‘The Rat Road’ with stone cold classics such as ‘Right Thing To Do’ and his finisher, ‘Wildfire’ featuring Little Dragon. Crowd pleasers one and all, his mischievous mastery of every genre within the electronic universe is second to none.

Following on was Kelela with a mesmerising solo performance. Armed only with a psychedelic backdrop, she kept it heady and sexy thanks to her ever-halcyon, come-hither R&B sounds. From unleashing the lust on ‘On The Run’ to blanching eager fans with the luminosity of ‘Happy Ending’, this uncompromising artist illicited well-deserved awe. Then it was time for a juicy sundowner set with Bonobo. His only UK show this year, and he tells the crowd, the last for a while, the artist’s show was an exercise in consummate musicality. Tracks glided like a hot knife through butter, moving from laidback and swaying to hell-yeah and hands-in-the-air, aided by a full band including saxophone and flute plus guest vocalists such as Jordan Rakei on ‘Shadows’.

Night finally fell in time for headliner Aphex Twin, who is best experienced under the cover of darkness after all. This rare performance attracted die-hand fans who had travelled from near and far (we spoke to people from Poland and across Europe) for his bamboozling visual and sonic onslaught. As ever, he was a diminutive figure at the side of the stage – the light show by Weirdcore was as impressive as his mixing, which seamlessly cut tunes from his 2013 album ‘Syro’ with his ‘Blackbox Life’ EP released only a couple of weeks ago. This latest offering focuses more on the melodic with wistful, beautiful tunes proving he’s still the prolific and gifted artist he has always been. Unlike the earlier sets in the day from the likes of Sudan Archives and Fever Ray, the only real star was the music. You don’t get personality, strutting and fashion with Aphex Twin. But if you know, you know.