The May 27-28 festival got off to a good start on a nearly perfect, sunny Saturday, with an estimated 20,000 fans flocking to the site for a day filled with performances by acts ranging from Portland faves Blitzen Trapper to Iceland’s most famous export, Björk.

Over the course of the day, fans wandered among Sasquatch’s three stages to hear solid sets by some well-known artists, including The Hold Steady, Ozomatli, Neko Case, Citizen Cope, Manu Chao, a DJ set by Mix Master Mike and an instrumental set by Beastie Boys, and catch stand-out performances by some of the newer acts on the bill, including Saturday Knights, Two Gallants and Electrelane.

The break-out performance of the day came from Austin’s Ghostland Observatory. The band effortlessly worked the afternoon crowd at the Wookie stage into a frenzy with their funky brand of rocktronica. Synth wizard Thomas Ross Turner, looking the part in a full-length, collared cape, and frontman Aaron Behrens, who performs with an intensity that brings to mind artists like Iggy Pop and ’80s-era Axl Rose, even dropped right back into the groove without missing a beat when the sound was restored after it cut out in the middle of a song.

Of course the big draw of the day was Saturdays night’s headliners, Arcade Fire and Björk, who didn’t disappoint.

Arcade Fire’s powerful, almost epic set was extremely tight, an impressive feat considering the size of the band, and proved without a doubt the band is every bit as good live as the buzz around them promises. Frontman Win Butler led the group through a collection of crowd-inspiring hits from the band’s two albums, while multi-instrumentalist Régine Chassagne attempted to claim the title of hardest working woman in show business by switching from instrument to instrument almost faster than the eye could register.

Björk closed out the day with a set that drew heavily from her latest album, Volta, along with a number of her past hits, reworked to make use of the 10-piece, all-female Icelandic brass band that’s out on tour with her. The set was book-ended by a pair of tracks from Volta, “Earth Intruders” and “Declare Independence,” that showcase the singer’s new-found political awareness.

Sunday started out alright, with slightly cooler weather that took a turn for the worse as the day wore on.

The crowd was slightly smaller – an estimated 18,000 – but a little more intense as they watched sets by St. Vincent, The Blakes, Earl Greyhound, Stars Of Track & Field, Blackalicious, Bad Brains, Tokyo Police Club, Common Market, The Polyphonic Spree, and Spoon while waiting for the evening’s headliners, Interpol and Beastie Boys.

Sunday’s hot-ticket performance came courtesy of singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Patrick Wolf. Looking like a cross between a character from “Velvet Goldmine” and a naughty British school boy, Wolf delivered a high-energy, glam goth set that had the afternoon crowd at the Wookie stage clamoring for more.

The singer, backed by a four-piece band that included a female trombone player, worked the audience like the master of ceremonies at the Kit Kat Club as he stalked and bounced his way around the stage, delivering tunes that were by turns dark and joyous – sometimes within the same song. Wolf also took a page from Régine Chassagne’s book, switching during the set from violin to ukulele, keyboard, viola and theremin.

The day took a turn for the worse in the afternoon, just as The Polyphonic Spree took to the main stage. The wind blowing through the gorge rose to gale force gusts, whipping everything that wasn’t nailed down through the festival site.

The winds grew so strong, organizers were forced to make the difficult decision to pull the plug on the band’s set three songs in, when the light rigging high over the stage began to sway dangerously, despite the attempts of several stage-hands to stabilize it.

As the bitter cold set in and sweat shirt vendors quickly sold out of every piece of inventory they had available, festival organizers scrambled to re-organize the schedule, delaying Spoon’s set until around 8 p.m. and bumping Michael Franti and Spearhead from the main stage to a 9 p.m. spot on the Wookie stage.

Headliners Interpol and Beastie Boys hit the stage pretty much around their scheduled times and delivered solid sets to the faithful crowd huddled together under blankets and sleeping bags.

At the end of the day, all the schedule shuffling resulted in a bit of irony, when the Beasties, who were supposed to be the ones to close out the weekend with a bang, finished before Franti – who didn’t actually get started until around 10:15 and was still playing as festival-goers filed out of the park to their warm, wind-proof cars.