Radio 2 pulled out all of the stops Sunday to close off the “Summer” festival season at London’s Hyde Park.

Stepping in as headline act for Lionel Richie (who was unable to perform because of illness) was Take That’s Gary Barlow. Gary topped off an impressive bill of acts including Jools Holland, Will Young, Beverley Knight and my personal highlight Lenny Kravitz.

Billed as a “Festival in One Day” which sounded at first like a rather bold claim, I came away feeling like it was justified. Events of the day were well managed with very little dead space between acts. This was achieved by the use of a central large stage with smaller stages either side.

On these smaller stages were acts such as Bellowhead, Chic, Imelda May and The Pierces.

Kicking off events was Radio 2 DJ and former Squeeze member Jools Holland. Jools was joined on-stage by Ruby Turner and Sandie Shaw who performed the Bacharach and David hit Always something there to remind me.

Whilst Jools started events rolling it was Beverley Knight who got the crowd dancing with her version of Junior’s, Mama used to say and her own “breakout” hit Shoulda Woulda Coulda.

I had expected the average age of today’s audience to be more suited to Wogan’s TOGs however I was pleasantly surprised to see it being so young. What was also refreshing to see though, was how many came to enjoy the event as a picnic in the park. Unfortunately Hurricane Katia had other plans and proceeded to test the resolve of the audience. They weren’t found wanting and remained cheerful throughout.

Talking of cheerful through adversity brings me to Will Young. Will was clearly not well for his performance, however he struggled though and gave a valiant performance which included the threat and attempt to remove his clothes. Luckily he never followed through. If you are brave, see how close he got in the gallery.

Another brave performer was the much derided James Blunt. Former soldier Blunt was one of the performers to remind everybody that the gig fell on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Having put his life on the line for his country it was the most poignant reminder. You could see that James didn’t mind risking life and limb, when he not only stood on the top of his rocking upright piano and pretended to surf, but went one step further when he climbed up on the barriers and began crowd-surfing across the 40,000 audience.

Whilst Will and James scored points for their bravery it was Lenny Kravitz (pictured above) that took my prize for best performance. The Mr Cool of rock showed a clean pair of heels to the other performers and really took the gig to the crowd. With tracks such as Are You Gonna Go My Way and American Woman he certainly had the weapons in his armour and knew just how to use them.

Radio 2 DJs were out in full force today to introduce the acts. Starting with Tony Blackburn, through the likes of Patrick Kielty, Trevor Nelson, Janice Long, “whispering” Bob Harris and the larger than life Chris Evans.

It would have been the 65th birthday of Freddy Mercury this week and a couple of the DJs took the opportunity to use some of Freddie’s stage techniques. Kielty led the crowd in some sing-response operatics and Chris Evans took the chance to get the crowd joining in for a round of “Radio GaGa” clapping. He rightly pointed out that many would have liked to be at one of the Queen mega concerts and this was their chance to feel part of that collective.

Talking about collectives brings us to tonight’s final act. Gary Barlow’s “Children in Need” band has been named The Collective and includes N-Dubz’s Tulisa, Rizzle Kicks, Ed Sheeran, Wretch 32 and Tinchy Stryder. Gary has also been working recently with last year’s X-Factor winner Matt Barlow. I therefore half expected some special guests to join Gary for tonight’s set.

Unfortunately the crowd had to make do with Gary and his band (no not Take That!). Gary didn’t let the crowd down though and I’m sure many of the younger audience were more than happy with Gary substituting for Lionel Richie. Gary himself commented “After 20 years I’ve reached the pinnacle of my career – Standing in for Lionel Richie.” I don’t think he was trying to be ironic as he followed that up by doing a version of Lionel’s Hello.

I enjoyed Gary’s cover more than I enjoyed the rest of his set which included Patience, Greatest Day, Back For Good, A Million Love Songs, Rule The World and Never Forget. There was nothing wrong with Gary’s performance however I felt without the fuller sound provided by Take That the songs lacked depth.

For an event that set out to represent the music of Radio 2, I felt the whole day to be a huge success. Previous events have had a theme such as Abba or Elvis, however I feel that a more straight-forward approach, where artists do what they already do best, works far better.

I look forward to next year’s event and if it’s anywhere near as good as this one then I recommend getting your tickets early as this year’s audience will almost certainly be there again judging by their reaction and the comments I heard from those around me.

A selection of video highlights are currently available on the TV Red Button. The full running order for which is:

1. Beverley Knight – Cuddly Toy 2. Jools Holland / Sandie Shaw – (There’s) Always Something There To Remind Me 3. Medley: Bellowhead – London Town; Jools Holland / Ruby Turner – Roll Out Of This Hole; Jonathan Jeremiah – Lost 4. Caro Emerald – That Man 5. Lenny Kravitz – Are You Gonna Go My Way 6. Imelda May – Johnny Got A Boom Boom + Road Runner 7. Jame Blunt – 1973 8. Chic – Le Freak + Good Times 9. The Pierces – You’ll Be Mine 10. Gary Barlow – Patience 11. Gary Barlow – Hello 12. Chris Evans Chats To The Crowd 13. Gary Barlow – Never Forget

This video is also available on bbc.co.uk/radio2 and there’s also a selection of single track videos online:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0140qt1#clips

http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/showcase#/collections/p00kc0jw