As the sun beamed down on The Meadows at University of Canberra, a sell-out crowd of 15,000 streamed through the gates for Groovin The Moo.

It’s not often that such a massive lineup of local and international acts is in one place in Canberra, and music-hungry punters didn’t need much encouragement to come along.

The crowd started to build early for Sydney band, The Jezabels, playing on the main stage. Lead singer Hayley Mary belted out hits including ‘Mace Spray’, and ‘Sahara Mahala’, as well as a couple of new songs. By the end of the set, the crowd were well and truly into the swing of the festival, clapping along in sync to ‘Hurt Me’.

New York indie group Darwin Deez started their set with a coordinated dance routine, before breaking into their first hit. This was only a taste of what was what to come, with lots of coordinated, Napoleon Dynamite-esque dance routines interspersed between songs. A real highlight was their dance to a mash-up of Enya’s, ‘Sail Away’, and Rage Against The Machine’s, ‘Testify’. The group played a cover of Paul Simon’s, ‘You Can Call Me Al’, before ending on a high with crowd favourite, ‘Radar Detector’.

Next up, Datarock hit the stage, clad in their trademark red tracksuits, announcing that they had, ‘Come all the way from Norway to make you dance!’ And dance the crowd did. The electro rock group encouraged crowd participation, and some of the crowd got an up close and personal performance when front man Fredrik Saroea dived into the crowd. After an energetic set, the group finished with a rendition of, ‘(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life’.

As the sun went down, so did the temperature. The crowds turned into a sea of coats, beanies and gloves, as everyone fought to be in the middle of the mosh pit to share body warmth.

Over at the Moolin Rouge tent, Art Vs Science exploded onto the stage with new hit ‘A.I.M Fire’, and delivered a massive set of lights, hits and energy which the crowd lapped up.

One of the biggest cheers of the day was saved for Liverpool rockers The Wombats, who were one of the absolute standouts. For those not won over purely by lead singer Matthew Murphy’s accent, the band powered through a mix of newer hits, including ‘Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)’, and ‘Jump Into The Fog’, as well as old favourites, finishing with an energetic performance of ‘Let’s Dance To Joy Division’.

The crowds started to dwindle as the temperature continued to drop to below 2 degrees, but that didn’t stop Aussie acts Birds of Tokyo and Bliss N Eso working the remaining punters into a frenzy.

To close out the night, Cut Copy took to the stage, rewarding those who had braved the cold and stuck it out to the end with a mix of old and new songs, finishing the night with ‘Need You Now’ off the latest album.

Streaming out of the gates at the end of the night, I left thoroughly impressed with both the day’s performances and Canberra’s ability to put on a great show, as well as possibly a touch of frost bite.

Photography by Jez Rozdarz.