There are many different ways of showing a festival crowd a good time. There is the Primal Scream way, which involves plenty of sneering punk, cool, pulverising bass lines and rock-star posturing. And then there is the Marc Almond way.

Soft Cell's appearance at V2002 was a runaway success, with the crowd showering Almond and Dave Ball with affection. The Scream may huff and puff to convince us that they embody the spirit of righteous hedonism, but Soft Cell do it effortlessly and with infinitely more grace. When Almond sings about dancing, loving and drinking, the effect is simply joyful.

Another band who know how to party is Supergrass. On record, the Oxford trio have shown themselves capable of producing sophisticated pop miracles. On stage, they are still four cheeky monkeys who have been caught by the fuzz. Danny Goffey looks like a 10-year-old boy possessed by the spirit of Animal from the Muppets. His high-powered drumming propels the band headlong through a mixture of oldies and newies, and the crowd are beaten into submission.

The Coral's way of keeping us happy, meanwhile, is sheer brazen eclecticism. They sound at home in every genre of music, both ancient and modern. Ska, funk and punk collide with Simon and Garfunkel, while the guitars are Hendrix one minute and Hank Marvin the next. The overall effect is a little bewildering, but when a band tears up the rule book this vigorously it must surely be cause for celebration.

By contrast, the Manic Street Preachers are starting to sound distinctly tired. They are currently hawking a Greatest Hits show around the country, a project that strongly suggests a creative stasis (the ever-productive Level 42 are doing the exact same thing). If nothing else, the exercise demonstrates that their knack for a half-decent tune has improved since the early days. But as a climax to an otherwise blistering festival, this performance was something of a disappointment.