This year’s event, set in the palatial grounds of Hardwick Hall, is fast becoming the Northeast’s biggest family music festival and featured a stellar lineup of big headliners over three days, including Scissor Sisters, Pet Shop Boys, and Olly Murs.

Though the festival might be small as regards capacity audiences, with a limit of 10,000 attendees, no one can deny the major artists that the festival attracts, including some new acts to look out for.

The Clause utilised their short thirty-minute set on Saturday to impress. The Birmingham outfit had much to celebrate with a performance of a catalogue of songs that sounded like stadium anthems in the making, all delivered with a liberating feel, with Elisha and In My Element being their best. Their future success is undeniable as they prepare to release their debut album in the autumn.

Andrew Cushin, a North East singer-songwriter, found himself in the company of a supportive home crowd. Sometimes overshadowed and overlooked by that other Northeastsuccess story – Sam Fender – Cushin was never going to stay in the shadows with a compelling set that was gritty and generous in heart and soul. By the time he had arrived at I’m Coming Home, Cushin had rightfully received a homecoming that had been deserved.

Manchester’s Everything Everything brought their brand of avant-garde rock to Hardwick, which fitted in well with the stylish audience that the festival attracts. The band are now seven albums deep into their career and, outside their core audience, are still not household names, which seems a mystery when Pizza Boy and Get to Heaven sound like they should be appreciated by the many.

One of the major dance acts and remixers of the early nineties house music scene, K-Klass reminded the Hardwick Festival goers why the act was so influential in the genre. The presence of powerhouse vocalist Bobbi Depasois significantly contributed to the recreation of the dance classics.

As Paul Roberts dedicated Rock the House to “anyone who went to the Hacienda in Manchester back in the day”, the fact was those that did probably would not remember given the historic club’s reputation and the nature of the rave and dance culture.

The Lathums impressed as a festival act, blending indie charm and raw emotion into a compelling set. Heartbreaker remains their best festival song, having the same euphoria as Status Quo’s Rocking All Over the World.

“Good evening, Sedgefield” is not a greeting you normally hear from one of pop music’s biggest exponents; that is, unless you happen to be Pet Shop Boys and one of your members, Neil Tennant, hails from just up the road in North Shields.

The duo have been performing their present Dreamworld tour for nearly two years; naturally, Hardwick received a compelling, concise and consummate performance that read like a greatest hits set that began with Suburbia and concluded with Being Boring, though no one could have accused the influential duo of being drab – quite the opposite, with Tennant providing at least three costume changes as his partner in crime, Chris Lowe, remained behind his keyboards.

Their integrity and longevity seemed aptly placed in a festival that deserves to continue in strength for many years to come.