Amid the cool electronica, delightful folksy musings and wonderfully choreographed glamour it took two frenetic performances from young women dressed in jeans and shirts to truly light up this year’s Sonic Visions festival.

The festival at the Rockhal and its attendant conference were a resounding success this year, giving music fans a real treat in the form of a flurry of emerging artists performing in intimate settings of the Rockhal Café, the Club room and the temporary Dome (an inflatable igloo parked in the forecourt). The second night also saw the main hall used in an unusual configuration, with the stage set to the right of the room.

The conference also attracted a healthy audience of industry professionals from all over Europe as well as artists, journalists, managers and administrators, as well as members from both the Multipistes and the Liveurope networks, from Luxembourg and the Greater Region.

But the main draw were the live performances, which on Thursday night were focused on artists from the Grand Duchy and surrounding areas. Friday night then brought out the international acts, many of whom were touring with their debut albums and on the back of some hot press.

British singer-songwriter Nick Mulvey was just such a case, having a Mercury Prize nominated album under his belt. His performance in the Dome--soon to become a Delano’s favourite venue of the festival--was just the sort of heart-warming and rather terribly polite show required to ease the audience gently into the night. Over in the Rockhal Café, meanwhile, Benjamin Booker shook the room with a rock-out blues set that had many fans still talking about it late the following night as the festival drew to a close.

Despite the main attraction on Friday clearly being the much-hyped St. Vincent, it was Australian singer-songwriter Courtney Barnett who proved to be the highlight of the first night. Barnett was a whirligig of flying hair and blurred arms as she spun out songs from her brilliant debut double EP, A Sea Of Slit Peas, finishing with a cracking version of ‘Avant Gardener’.

Same venue, same time on Saturday night it was another young woman with attitude, British poet and rapper Kate Tempest, who stole the show from the fine performances by the likes of American funkster Sinkane, Australian siblings Angus and Julia Stone and even the very promising Kwabs.

Unlike Barnett, who comes across as shy when not playing her guitar and singing at full pelt, Tempest is a natural performer. She had the crowd in her hand from the outset, treating them to some brilliant slam poetry while her band tuned their instruments and genuinely enjoying every minute she was on stage and the uncharacteristically rapturous reception from the audience.

Tempest is a genuine star and genius poet whose stature as a leading light will only grow with time--imagine a young woman channelling John Cooper Clark and Mike Skinner. At just 29 she has received critical acclaim from all quarters and if the UK government has any nous it would make her the next poet laureate and add her work to the national school curriculum.