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Vodaphone Stage, Saturday 10th July, 5.20pm

Describe in a Tweet: Punk's not dead, it's just wet.

What Happened: By now the trek across the main festival site has become quite treacherous, with pools of mud coagulating everywhere. But as if heeding some kind of ethereal rallying call, a sizeable number of people can be found screaming the words, "RISE AGAINST!" whist charging towards the second stage.ÌýDespite the harsh conditions, this is clearly a band that can inspire superhuman feats of endurance.

With the rain starting to resemble a waterfall, a thunderous "1-2" hardcore beat announces Rise Against's arrival on the stage, and things don't settle down from there on in. Punk, in the classic old school American mould, it's high energy stuff, with guitarist and bassist constantly running from side to side of the stage, rarely settling in one place for too long. Vocalist, Tim McIlrath, acts as chief rabble-rouser, imploring the crowd to greater heights of exhuberance. The rain hasn't gotten him down, and he seems to have made it his mission to not let it get us down either.

And for the most part, it works. Outbreaks of moshing break out in the crowd, we all move as one, and at one point he has the entire crowd chanting "RISE ABOVE!" in unison. If they keep up this level of excitement, it won't be long before the amount of people chanting these words starts to multiply.

Crazy in Love: The sheer energy coming off the audience seems to feed directly into the band, causing them to take it up a notch.

99 Problems: The scattershot, quickfire delivery of the lyrics is completely lost in this setting, and unless you're intimately aquainted with the songs, it's all just a lot of passion without any meaning.

Oxegen Rating: 7/10