“What a stress it was getting here,” sighed Phil Campbell, the opening act at Hydro Connect, a well-heeled Scottish festival in the grounds of Iveraray's imposing castle. At least he wasn't camping. The remote site may be the prettiest on the British festival calendar, but a half-hour hike from the car park through a forest ankle-deep in mud also made it among the messiest.

Campbell began to a crowd so sparse that he could chat to his mate in the middle of the field during a technical hitch. Yet the gaunt Glaswegian troubadour's charming, honest tunes could make him a risqué David Gray. By a haunting Cold Engines Campbell had pulled plenty of admirers and proved his rock'n'roll credentials with a witty, explicit tale of drug-taking worthy of Irvine Welsh.

Noah & the Whale had to work to convince fans that there is more to their repertoire than their summer smash Five Years Time. Backed with brass and frantic fiddle, their jaunty, feel-good folk-pop was almost as optimistic as the frontman Charlie Fink's oversized shades. The crowd smiled patiently, went wild for the single, then drifted off.

No such problems for Amy MacDonald, the first act on at the inaugural Connect last year and the highlight of Friday afternoon, despite an horrific outfit of a tartan dress that could have come from a tacky tourist shop and a shapeless, grey cardigan. The Celtic twang to her tunes suited the surroundings perfectly, and her effervescent chat between tracks revealed a newfound confidence on stage. Mr Rock'n'Roll was the best of her energetic set and the only wrong move she made was a dreary cover of Bruce Springsteen's Dancing in the Dark.

Connect caters to an older, classier crowd than its sister festival T in the Park - punters could dine at an on-site concession of the nearby Loch Fyne's famous oyster bar - but few of the folk at either Manic Street Preachers or Kasabian looked the type to bother with the beauty spa. The Manics favoured old hits, scissor-kicking while the crowd drunkenly belted out A Design for Life. Kasabian were hit and miss, with tracks from their forthcoming third album, though they still had swagger in spades. The singer, Tom Meighan, sported a ludicrous, schoolgirl hairstyle, but his party-starting was peerless.

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