In the past there has been something of a tradition of energetic live music performances in the heart of St Peter Port.

From the likes of My Generation being famously photographed in Church Square in the 1960s to the Market Rock events in the 90s there was often a chance to catch Guernsey’s up and coming, homegrown, musicians and bands outside of the pubs and clubs.

In recent years though, with a few rare exceptions, these events have been pushed out onto the harbour piers and limited largely to holiday evenings, making them less instantly accessible than they might be.

So, when Sound Guernsey announced they were staging an ‘all day’ event back in Market Square on the first weekend of June, a normal Saturday in town, there was an understandable sense of excitement and, as the line up mixing young and upcoming artists with some of the island’s still young but more established acts was announced, this just grew.

All through the afternoon and evening a dedicated group of music lovers were present soaking up both the range of fresh music and the great, relaxed, atmosphere that was created in the square from the start.

Meanwhile, many Saturday afternoon shoppers and passers-by took the chance to stop and listen with quite a number sticking around, creating one of the most enjoyable and fresh atmospheres I’ve experienced at a live music in sometime with all twelve of the day’s acts more the ably representing the range and quality of music on offer in the island.

The live music started off with Kiya Ashton continuing her run of successful outings from Sound Guernsey under-18 events to Liberation Day.

Once again she showed a great confidence and talent that is developing into something very listenable with a nice edge.

Another young solo performer who has cut his teeth at Sound’s under-18 shows, Zak Trimmer, was up next.

Mixing his own self-made backing tracks with live acoustic guitar and vocals Zak has been growing into one of the new crop of artists to keep an eye on and with a live sound perfect for a summer afternoon like this he made quite an impression.

Hollie Lucia might be familiar as bass player for Dolmens or having been vocalist in Tonight The Skies but this marked her first performance in many years in a solo capacity.

She overcame some early nerves to deliver a set of tremendous lighter melodies that, while they have clear links to both the aforementioned projects, have their own clear identity as well.

Despite having only made their debut at the Vale Earth Fair Unplugged night at the start of the year The Cor Damme Lars have quickly developed their own sound and personality and showed it off well here.

Being the first of the day’s more upbeat performers they soon got the audience clapping and stamping along to their gypsy-jazz style songs that helped set the tone for the afternoon to come.

If the energy hadn’t been up before The Honest Crooks soon boosted it further with their ska punk sounds getting the first few properly moving.

I don’t think there’s a band more suited for a sunny summer afternoon than The Crooks and they more than demonstrated that with a performance that was tight enough to sound great but with enough rough edges to give it a fine punk rock character.

Following The Honest Crooks is no mean feat for any band, but to say youngsters Vice had their work cut out for them would be understatement.

Undeterred though, and with a confidence that belies their young years, the four piece put in a very tight performance with Jessie Birch very much leading from the front in a way one audience member compared to X-Ray Spex Poly Styrene.

A highlight of the set came with a cover of Metric’s Black Sheep but the whole set impressed and showed why this band are one of the new ones to watch as they continue to grow.

Multilayered pop was up next from Kings who put in a performance that delivered from the off.

Eli Crossan is fast becoming a great frontman and, with a more convivial nature than sometimes in the past, got the audience involved with some nice call and response moments that helped build both the positive, involving atmosphere and energy of the day.

With more performances like this Kings are a band capable of making a strong mark not just in Guernsey but further afield as well and they certainly went down a storm here.

Track Not Found took things in a slightly heavier direction next and, though they seemed to have a few sound issues at the start of their set, carried on regardless.

With new songs mixed in with the more established tracks the young trio continued to impress the audience with their seemingly filter free self-expression which is great to hear and see.

Once again it was Code Red that was a highlight of the set but recent single Science (Gone Wrong) could easily become a floor filling stomper in the right place.

As things were running early, and they were over for a show later in the evening at The Vault to help launch their new EP, Jersey rockers FlashMob made a brief surprise appearance.

Over a handful of songs they provided an energising blast of NWOBHM-esque metal combined with AC/DC style hard rock that was great fun and kicked off the evening portion of the event in fine fashion (and I still challenge any of our politicians to do anything quite like Senator Sam Mezec’s lead guitar work).

As Static Alice took to the stage the audience seemed to have shifted firmly to the ‘evening crowd’ but the four-piece pop-rockers wasted no time grabbing their attention.

With this being their second of three shows in 24 hours they were high energy throughout and showed they are one of several bands in Guernsey today who have become so tight and slick it’s very hard not to get swept along.

Following on from their run of album launch shows, and an appearance alongside Newton Faulker in Jersey, over the past month The Recks took to the stage with a slightly different, but no less engaging, outlook.

It seems the album, The Beast From The Sea, finally being available may have relaxed the band somewhat and, combined with the regular gigging, saw their performance take on more of the laconic swing heard on the album but without losing any of their trademark captivating energy.

Particular highlights in their set came with Valentine, newer songs Parisian Stupor and She Ain’t No Revelator and the full version of Lights that had been missing from their last through outings.

After The Recks, psychedelic rockers Tantale brought a more considered performance to close off the day.

While less instantly captivating they delivered a performance with which one could easily get lost in the depths of its sonic expanse. This built across the set, that drew on the band’s entire decade together, to close on a triumphant rendition of Coming Home that closed what had been a tremendous day in all ways on another highlight.

You can see more of my photos of the show on the BBC Music Introducing Guernsey Facebook page