IT'S a cold, damp night but Cowley Road is heaving.

There are queues stretching up and down the street outside the O2 Academy, a noisy rabble around the East Oxford Community Centre, and laughter from a scrum of people piling into the Bullingdon. Oh, and there are freshers everywhere. In hotpants. And that's the boys. Welcome to OX4.

Selling out way in advance, Saturday's Gathering Festival was always going to be a success. What was impressive though, was quite how successful it was.

The concept was simple enough - put on almost 40 bands in five venues and invite curious music fans to browse and graze on the acts on offer. And it proved an education. Those filing into the Academy to see bright young things Bastille were then treated to a typically feisty set by our own Black Hats; the boys sounding tighter and punchier than ever - Nick Brakespear's intense vocals accompanied by furious guitar riffs, melodic interludes and a relentless beat rolling out balls of tense energy.

Inevitably there were some hideous clashes. And among the toughest choices was between two of our best new bands: Glass Animals and Wild Swim. The former were impressive beyond belief - perfectly formed: all fragile guitars, stuttering pulses of electro and confessional vocals leading to gorgeous crescendos. Surely fame beckons.

The same can be said for Wild Swim, over at the Academy, with great reports of an incredible set flooding back down the Cowley Road. Next time...

Over at the Bullingdon Foxes is late on. Technical issues have led to a delay which knocks back all night, due, it emerges, to an all bells-and-whistles mixing desk demanded by headliners Liars. No one, it seems, can work the thing.

Back at the Academy headliners Spector are whipping the crowd into a frenzy - frontman Frederick Macpherson is an athletic torch singer - his strident voice coming across like a London Brandon Flowers or maybe a lairy Brian Ferry.

The place is roasting and the crowd are going ballistic, with the bespectacled and sharply-dressed and coiffeured Macpherson thrusting the mic into the pit. Anthem Never Fade Away turns the room becoming a boiling sea of limbs.

Back at the community centre there is a tide of bodies. Everybody wants to see Lucy Rose. From a distance she sounded lovely - all stripped-back heartbreaking girly melodies - but, really, it was hard to tell from the doorway and above the background din (why do people queue so hard to get only to talk all the way through?).

So back to the Bully, to witness yet another change-over. This time it's for The Other Tribe - a preposterously attired bunch channelling Jamiroquai and Adam Ant - all feathered headresses, facepaint and one dimensional dance-pop.

It wasn’t great. Cue a trip back to a now more manageable community centre where Peace are whipping up the crowd with uplifting indie techno and Afro/math-rock which sounds a lot like Foals spliced with Friendly Fires played by a bunch who look more like Ride.

It’s jagged, bouncy and quite brilliant. Finally there is Liars at the Bully. Only there isn't. Their damn deck is still playing up, and after two songs, and a hissy fit, their frontman stomps off in a strop, complaining that they can't play there.

It's embarrassing (for them) though the crowd are understanding. Though it is us, and the good folk at the Bully who really deserve all the sympathy.

Still - it's so late most people have long since gone - and soon we are too... having all had our fill of a great night of music with just the right amount of festival chaos.