Eugenio Bennato: "Lust for lively music"

Eugenio Bennato and his band of young musicians and dancers had also travelled from southern Italy - and their lust for lively music rubbed off on the crowd.

Mali was just a step away in the psychedelically decorated Siam Tent, in the form of Afel Bocoum.

He used his songs to tell stories of life back home, and was accompanied by his band's traditional African instruments.

Back on the main stage, one-man Hawaiian band Makana captivated the audience with a high voice, personal songs and powerful acoustic guitar.

Makana can be seen every week on Waikiki Beach

If anyone fancies seeing him, he plays every Sunday night at Waikiki Beach.

Mozambique's Mabulu produced a typically exuberant African celebration of life - even managing to turn the country's recent flooding into a song about the child who was born as his mother was sheltering in a tree.

The African theme in the Siam Tent continued when the Soweto String Quartet also showed just how good can from adversity with their upbeat violin and cello playing.

Seduced crowds

But British musicians also made their presence felt.

Badmarsh and Shri's Asian take on UK dance music seduced main stage crowds as the sun went down.

Their sound has become the latest ethnic trend on the club scene - and they are still trying to escape the Asian Underground pigeonhole.

"Kiss me quick": The Skatalites' Jamaican style

But that did not matter here as the pair's infusion of Indian rhythms and bass-heavy dance beats was lapped up despite being harsher than much of the music on offer this weekend.

Rounding off the day, Jamaican legends The Skatalites took delight in rolling out the laid-back sounds for a hungry audience.

They are said to have revolutionised West Indian music in the 1960s, and have been given credit for their seminal role in the original ska scene.

The beards may be greying but the dreadlocks are still there - and so are the soft sounds which have been influential to reggae and dub over the years.

A double bass provided the pure funk backbone while members of the four-strong brass section took it in turns to take the limelight.

The saxophone player's Kiss Me Quick, Squeeze Me Slow hat may have seemed out of place - but their friendly grooves summed up the festival's first day.