But it was soon obvious that in terms of crowd size the event is no longer the must-have ticket of the summer festival season.

Those who endured the summer showers were soon greeted by Brisbane's DZ Deathrays, Bluejuice, Loon Lake, Violent Soho and Toro y Moi as the sun peeked through heavy clouds.

Melbourne five-piece Kingswood played soon after the rain cleared, belting out their brand of swaggering, scorching rock 'n'roll, while nearby in the Boiler Room Colorado's Big Gigantic were getting the crowd pumped for a huge day ahead.

They're not the oldest, weirdest or wildest band that the Big Day Out has featured in its 22 years, yet Pearl Jam bounded on stage late in the day with star billing and much anticipation among the punters.

The enormously popular Seattle rock band released breakthrough album  Ten the year before BDO roared to life. Pearl Jam released new album Lightning Bolt last year and on Friday brought a freshness and edge to their performance that was lapped up by fans - many of whom hadn't been born when earlier albums  Vs.  (1993) and Vitalogy (1994) were earning frontman Eddie Vedder and his bandmates worldwide acclaim.

Playing the main stage at 4.15pm, Swedish rockers The Hives were easily the best act seen to that point.

Fun! Energy! Jokes! An assault of guitars!

Frontman Pelle Almqvist made obedient "Australian cattle dogs" of the crowd, imploring everyone to sit before he attempted - and ultimately failed -  to crowd surf, and pleaded with the audience to forget their camera phones.

“Can we just experience shit as it's happening rather than filming it and watching it next Tuesday?” he said.

“The sound is going to suck anyway.”

Liam Gallagher, fronting the band born from the ashes of Oasis, Beady Eye, played to a rather sedate crowd - and with his cropped hair and muscle tee, bore an uncanny resemblance to folk star Jack Johnson.

Playing an old Oasis favourite (What's The Story) Morning Glory predictably drew the biggest cheers of their set.

Die-hard Arcade Fire fans who'd paid to spy on the band from general admission seats on the lawn at Wednesday's sideshow at Sidney Myer Music Bowl might've done better to buy a Big Day Out ticket. As had been the case all day, front of stage was accessible without a fight, and big screens provided another close-up of the main stage co-headliners.

The set list was different to Wednesday's too- pleasing those who'd been to both gigs - but the performance was on par - this is a band who could never be accused of phoning it in.

Frontman Win Butler pulling down the “No crowd surfing” sign was about as rock and roll as it got, but it seemed almost a redundant exercise - there was barely a mosh to speak of until Pearl Jam came on.

Back in the Boiler Room, Sydney producer Flume drew the biggest crowd of the day to the tent, standing at a hexagon-shaped podium in front of a sea of bouncing bodies. Even so, it was never so full as to become the sweatbox that earned it its name.

Over at the Red Stage, Snoop Lion appeared unfazed by the furore surrounding an Instagram photo he posted from Brisbane in which he was shown sitting down to a “breakfast” of fruit and a bowl of marijuana.

The stage backdrop might have bore images of his latest incarnation, a reggae artist called Snoop Lion, but his set spanned his sizeable back catalogue as Snoop Dogg, including everything from a David Guetta collaboration called Sweat to Signs to The Next Episode.  

Headliners Pearl Jam had started by this point, but Snoop’s presence saw the Red Stage as full as it had been all day, punters only to happy to obey his requests to put their hands in the air.