Most people seemed to approach the event with the intention of consuming at least £5 worth of free ice cream to match the very reasonable ticket price, a simple challenge in theory but after the third or fourth tub of rich, goodie-laden Chunky Monkey or Glastonberry it doesn't seem so easy. Time to concentrate on the music...

Saturday

Liam Frost is the first notable act on the stage and his easy charm and sunny melodies are perfect mid-afternoon festival fodder. If Tonight We Could Only Sleep and Painting Pictures are two very pleasant tracks and his backing band, the Slowdown Family, are obviously extremely accomplished but its a shame the mid-afternoon audience is sparse with most families understandably concentrating on the myriad of free ice cream on offer.

Current festival perennials The Pipettes are next on but their music seems soulless, throwaway even, after the more impassioned performance of Liam Frost and his band. When Hate To See You Dance So Well is played out the irony of the awkward Dad dancing on display from some audience members adds an interesting twist to an otherwise dull set.

Luckily for the flagging, overfed festival-goers dozing in the sun Larrikin Love kick start the afternoon with some excellent tracks including Meet Me By The Gateway which captures the essence of summer in the city in a way nobody else manages all weekend: "Send my love to the city/Cause I'll be having an affair this summer/And this town's very gritty/So I'll be living off the life of another."

Echo And The Bunnymen have been together in various guises for over a quarter of a century and the post-punk legends are one of the big draws over the weekend, a justifiable tag as their music brings a more grown-up feel to the evening after everyone has over-indulged. Classics such as Seven Seas and Killing Moon rouse the early evening revelers and it's almost a shame that the band wasn't given the headline slot, such is their universal appeal and depth of material available to perform.

Instead Badly Drawn Boy tops the evening set list and Damon Gough, with his new backing band, does an excellent job of balancing the audience's hunger for classic material (chiefly from the debut album The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast) with several new tracks. A To B is one such song and its engaging lyrics and meaningful performance make it one of the best musical moments of the day, the helter skelter may come top of the list for many others.

Alternating between having a full backing band and using only an acoustic guitar, Gough makes an appreciable effort to engage the crowd packed round the small stage and Silent Sigh is performed brilliantly, much to the appreciation of a now eager audience. Gough signs off with Fall In A River and despite the comparatively early finish everyone wanders off home happily fed and almost completely dry - a state not unlike some of the music on offer but thankfully the final two acts make up for a slightly drab start.

Sunday

Breaks Co-op are a musical mystery. Does Zane Lowe turn up when he feels like it? Is the rap a joke or a serious piece of lyrical poetry? Either way they are a million miles from being a decent addition to any festival line-up which is in direct contrast to Vincent Vincent and the Villains who perform a fantastic set of energetic rock 'n' roll.

Another festival fixture this summer is Captain, a rather somber yet accomplished indie group who sit somewhere between the Editors, Smiths and Nick Cave in the grand scheme of things. In direct contrast to Vincent Vincent And The Villains they don't exude energy and excitement but they do give off an air of comfortable elegance which is demonstrated by tracks such as Wax and their new single Glorious - a sweeping '80s-influenced summer single that should do well.

Nerina Pallot is local to Clapham Common and her set, next up after Captain, is awash with pretty melodies and acoustic tracks that suit the mood of the day perfectly. Heart Attack is probably her best-known work but each song is performed with appreciable enthusiasm.

"Size Of A Cow" probably sums up how most people feel towards the end of a day mostly fueled by ice cream and warm lager; The Wonder Stuff fit right in with a lacklustre display of '90s nostalgia punctuated by news of a new album. Nobody really takes much notice. Maybe their era sits somewhere between that of the mums and dads accompanying sugar-hungry children to the event and the younger music fans going for their fivers' worth of dairy products.

Finally the weekend draws to a close, the ice cream no longer seems that appealing and José González begins his set in a worryingly non-descript fashion. The unlikely Swede strums his way through some lesser-known opening numbers before picking the opening bars of Heartbeats to great applause.

Crosses is another similar but nonetheless engrossing piece of acoustic music but throughout the set the three people on stage (González plus two others covering additional instruments and vocals when required) are so static and uninvolved in the evening's proceedings that its very easy to lose interest altogether. Some of the more interesting moments come with two covers including a humdrum version of Teardrops by Massive Attack that ends the evening.

As the event is heavily geared towards family fun the appeal for the more discerning music fan is limited, most of the bands produce a music-by-numbers performance with only Badly Drawn Boy making a concerted effort to entertain and involve the audience. That said, the rest of the attractions provided hours of amusement and with a fraction more thought to the musical side of the weekend it would've have been a highly agreeable meeting of mankind's two favourite things - food and music.

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