Thousands of festive fans enjoyed summer-like weather yesterday as they descended upon Yelgun in northern New South Wales for the fourteenth instalment of Splendour in the Grass.

The popular three-day event, for so long synonymous with its original Belongil Fields venue in Byron Bay — and more recently on secondment to Woodfordia in south-east Queensland — enjoyed a successful second iteration at its new North Byron Parklands home. Last year’s problems of delayed entry and excess mud weren’t in evidence, as scores of music fanatics soaked up a strong line-up of both international and local music, including OutKast, Interpol, the Preatures and Kelis.

DZ Deathrays were the first major act to take to the Amphitheatre, the festival’s largest performance space. The Brisbane-based two piece rattled through songs from both 2012 debut album, Bloodstreams, and its recent follow-up, Black Rat. Other than Black Rat’s muscular title track and the charging Gina Works at Hearts, the band’s set was defined by Northern Lights, the 2013 single’s building progressions bouncing about the slopes, compelling an ever-growing audience to pay attention.

It was surprising that such a slow burner packed so much power. But that’s partly by design, as drummer Simon Ridley later explained to the Guardian: “It’s a stadium song,” Ridley said. “David Byrne did a TED Talk about how when you go into bigger rooms, slower songs have more of a connection. That’s why bands like U2 or maybe AC/DC sometimes write these big, slow, power ballads that connect with everyone.”

DZ Deathrays had taken a break from a busy European touring schedule to play the first day of the festival. “We were like, 'We’re gonna come home for Splendour',” laughed singer-guitarist Shane Parsons. “It’s the biggest show at this time of year.”

It’s a situation familiar to many of the Australian bands performing at the festival.

“The first half of this year was just really hard,” said Preatures singer and keyboardist Isabella Manfredi shortly after the band’s afternoon set on the Amphitheatre stage. The Preatures — who shot to fame late last year on the back of their single, Is This How You Feel? — have completed two northern hemisphere tours already this year and just applied the finishing touches to a debut album slated for release later in 2014.

“This feels like a new beginning,” Manfredi concluded.

“We’ve got through to the end of a record while touring a lot of places that we’ve never been,” explained guitarist Jack Moffitt. “[We’re] really excited about the fact that we will put a record out, we will tour it and [we’re] wondering what will that feel like.”

That Splendour in the Grass is a special event on Australia’s live music calendar was a common remark throughout the day. Kevin Carr, 21, from Brisbane, had travelled to Yelgun just for the day but said it was Splendour’s three-day nature that set it apart.

“It gives you more of a chance to see the festival itself and all it has to offer, rather than just music,” Carr said. “There’s more of a vibe to it.”

Indeed, Splendour’s purview on Friday stretched to include film, comedy and a series of forum events that in the coming days will include speakers such as the West Australian Greens Senator, Scott Ludlam, and ABC Television’s Lateline and Q&A host, Tony Jones.

Later that night, soul collective Saskwatch took to the stage in the GW McLennan tent for an enlivening hour-long set that drew from both 2012 debut album Leave It All Behind and its recent follow-up, Nose Dive. The performance delighted plenty of diehard fans while converting other punters, Saskwatch proving their lack of pretension by happily covering fellow Melburnians Little Red’s Coca Cola.

Still, the biggest response was for singer Nkechi Anele’s performance on Now That We’re Alone, the band building the song into a ferocious climax.

The police, who were out in force with sniffer dogs, said the crowd was generally well behaved, although they made 159 arrests for drugs.

Splendour 2014 was also about the welcoming back of old friends. New York rockers Interpol first played the festival at the height of their fame in 2005 and despite having since lost founding bassist Carlos Dengler they retain much of their measured firepower. Still, Interpol’s 60-minute set at the Amphitheatre felt like ten too many, the band leaning heavily on 2004 album, Antics. More new material would have been welcomed, especially after recent single All the Rage Back Home received a generous response from the crowd.

Halfway through Interpol’s set it became apparent most fans were simply waiting it out for Friday night headliners, OutKast. The recently reformed Atlanta rap group were far and away the biggest drawcard of this year’s festival, many recognising that this might have been their only chance to catch André "André 3000" Benjamin and Antwan "Big Boi" Patton together on stage in Australia.

And the duo didn’t disappoint what felt like the majority of the day’s estimated 27,500 fans, powering through an extensive back catalogue. BOB (Bombs Over Baghdad), Ms Jackson and Rosa Parks were all met with rapturous applause, although the biggest screams were saved for 2003 earworm Hey Ya!, which was significant enough to inspire the lighting of a flare — not permitted by Splendour’s ticketing rules — deep in the audience. It would end up burning for close to a minute.

OutKast continued to move the crowd right up until the venue’s midnight curfew. It marked the end of what was seen by many as a triumphant return to form for the festival.

Asked earlier that afternoon what had made the first day of the 2014 event such a success, Splendour in the Grass co-producer Paul Piticco’s first instinct was to quip. “It’s drier,” he laughed, before outlining some of the changes made from the troubled 2013 event. “We’ve activated the Amphitheatre. We’ve got a different layout that uses the anatomy of the site a lot better … and I think from the perspective of art and decor and colour, more attention to detail has really paid off.”

When reflecting on Splendour in the Grass’s wider success against the backdrop of a sluggish market for music festivals in Australia, Piticco mentioned its appeal as a destination.

“I can only speak for us and we’ve always focused on producing a musical excursion or holiday,” he said. “Something to put in the calendar, you go away for, you plan for.

“I’m not sure if it’s market related or promoter related, but we just focus on our own thing … I’m just thankful that every time we announce the line-up each year we get 70,000 or 80,000 people trying to buy 27,500 tickets. It’s hard to keep people interested these days so the fact that we’re doing that is great.”