THOUSANDS of revellers flocked to Gwynedd for the region's biggest ever free music festival.
40,000 music fans enjoyed top acts and glorious sunshine at the Faenol Estate near Bangor over the weekend for Radio 1's Big Weekend, with headliners Dizzy Rascal, Florence and the Machine and Rihanna stealing the show.
Other showstopping acts included Cheryl Cole, JLS and Alicia Keys and the spectacle even attracted royalty, as Prince William took a break from his helicopter training at RAF Valley to catch the festival with his girlfriend Kate Middleton.
Radio 1 controller Andy Parfitt hailed the event as a major success; he said: “It has been an absolutely fantastic, fantastic event.
“I think that, for me, this has been one of the best, if not the best, that we’ve had.”
Radio 1 afternoon DJ Scott Mills arrived in North Wales on Friday night and was delighted at the standards of acts on the bill.
"It's the best lineup as far as I can remember with a mix of Welsh bands to big UK bands and international artists,” he added.
Also appearing were an eclectic mix of new and established bands on the In New Music We Trust stage, including Faithless, Vampire Weekend, Bombay Bicycle Club and Welsh rockers Kids in Glass Houses.
Llanberis rock band Yr Ods, Y Promatics and The Joy Formidable were some of the North Wales acts performing on the Radio 1 Introducing Stage.
The music kicked off with the One Big Weekend Fringe Festival at venues in Bangor, Caernarfon and across the North Wales coast and on the festival eve the official Big Weekend Warm Up blew the roof off Time/Amser night club in Bangor.
Gwynedd Council leader, cllr Dyfed Edwards, said that many businesses had benefited from the event.
He added: "This is enormous. It's a quite a scoop to attract this event to Bangor and to Gwynedd and this was down to the hard work of the council with the BBC Radio 1.”
Look out for celebrity interviews and pictures from Radio 1’s Big Weekend in next week’s Chronicle.