Saturday's central hub of action fixated around a highly-trafficked Guestroom Records, where the party started early in the back alley with a slew of garage and punk bands like Copperheads, the Boom Bang and Shitty/Awesome. Raucous and intense, these bands properly kicked off this year's festival, of an expanded format and high hopes for similar growth into the future that festival officials are extremely optimistic about.

"Coachella's the big bad boy that we strive to want to be like...until they [Norman business owners] tell us to stop doing it or stop growing it, we're going to keep doing it," said Jonathan Fowler, Norman Arts Council president and fundraising chair for the third edition of the festival.

Patrons took advantage of the expansion into Saturday, gathering around at the carnival nearby venue Coach's Brewhouse and eventually the Opolis when acts started up at 6 p.m. Others sought out the indoor Sonder Music Stage for more intimate performances, notably Off Boyd Jazz. Singer Laura Wiederhoeft's cooing vanilla voice lulled listeners with songs like "Lullaby in Birdland" and "When I Fall In Love", backed by a big thumping stand-up bass plucker, trumpet, saxophone and beautifully-toned guitar.

Blackwatch Studios Stage behind the Red Room hosted studio mainstay Beau Jennings and Fort Worth, Texas-based Burning Hotels for excellent rock and roll and beautiful pop-rock, accentuated by a massive array of lights stacked both above the stage and atop the studio behind it. Friends and families gathered in Gray Street's massive City Parking lot for carnival food, beer and the south-of-the-border sounds at the Latin Stage.

And then the party really started. Hush Hush Commotion took the stage at 10 p.m. at Opolis, where the festival's focus remained until well after Octopus Project finished their set around 1 a.m. Hipsters packed the venue so deep for the local act, the Austinites and Stillwater heavy-heads Colourmusic's 11 p.m. set that they couldn't even raise their hands to applaud each band's frenetic set of rock and roll. A chilly 60 or so degrees outside, heat and sweat formed a dirty humidity that wafted through the backstage at Opolis and into the night.

Day Two begins now and from Gentle Ghost's noon performance on the Main Stage to Jacob Abello's 5 p.m. set at Sooner Theater to Leon Russell's and Dirty Projectors' shared cleanup duties, Norman Music Festival is guaranteed to be unforgettable as it forges its expansion into the future.