With one of the best alternative line-ups of the summer, the 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch Now Festival definitely had the potential to be one of the best one day events this year. It’s often hard enough to organise one band, let alone some 30 odd, so it’s fair enough that there are several amendments to the published running order, but the second stage really suffers for this.

There are definitely some brilliant musical performances today, from the weird and wacky to the supreme and psychedelic. A feather-clad, sparkley Polly Scattergood seems to impress the crowd at the main stage as her infectious pop music with an honest edge gets a fair few dancing, although it’s a shame that her set finishes before it was even billed to start, meaning that there are probably some angry fans. Kasms put on an impressive display that mixes upbeat electro with primal screams and an overwhelming rhythm section, while Factory Floor also serve the electro loving crowd well with tight beats and songs that seems to evolve to last forever. Ulterior add something very different to the mix on the second stage; they look like they ought to be the heirs to Axl Rose’s throne before they launch into a musical concoction that falls somewhere between the anticipated sleazy rock and dance-friendly electro.

On the main stage The Warlocks benefit from the fact that their stage time no longer clashes with that of the fabulous A Place To Bury Strangers, allowing both groups the chance to capture a willing crowd. Sadly the sound in the second stage tent is barely able to capture A Place To Bury Strangers’ full range of sounds, so The Warlocks fare better getting a few eager members of the audience dancing.

The bands are great, the DJs are also fabulous and put on some great tunes to keep the crowd in the party mood, but the organisation leaves a lot to be desired. Bands on the second stage ended up playing 15 minutes’ each, which is a pretty sorry state of affairs and with the stage times being mixed up I found myself constantly rushing from one stage to another so I didn’t miss anything. The tents were also not named, although the constant stream of taught beats emerging from the Electronic Stage made it quickly evident which was which. The range of aftershows open to ticket holders after the event was also good, but a better map featuring all the venues would have been an excellent addition. This year’s event had numbers limited to 6000, which is a godsend as the queue for the toilets often lasted longer than the average set on the second stage!

I often consider festival sets as a good way to hear brief snippets of new bands, rather than a real musical performance in their own right, and on this reading, the 1-2-3-4 Festival has done its job as I made a note of several bands to check out later. It’s just a shame that I missed many that I did aim to see because of mix-ups. In any case, the crowd seem to have fun despite the weather and it's almsot as fun to observe the fashion on show in the crowd as the bands themselves!