Thousands of revellers made their way to Exhibition Park on Sunday to celebrate the return of Groovin the Moo.
Headliners Hilltop Hoods, Peking Duk and Spiderbait were favourites with the young crowd, despite all three bands debuting more than a decade ago.
Maddy Woodhouse was back for her fourth Groovin the Moo, she said it wouldn't have mattered who was playing this year.
Up from Wagga for the weekend, Ms Woodhouse said it was the first opportunity to party since 2019.
"I hardly looked at the lineup before buying a ticket," she said. "I knew I wanted to go."
Festival organisers expressed their disappointment this week at the last-minute cancellation of planned pill testing, with Pill Testing Australia unable to secure insurance for the service.
Dickson College student Ella Meischke said she'd been upset at its last-minute cancellation, particularly at a festival billing itself as taking care of attendees.
Miss Meischke said she felt it had been pretty well proven people were going to take drugs, so it didn't make sense not to make it safer.
Fellow Dickson student Myra Hughes said pill testing was the most effective way to mitigate risk at a festival.
"By doing drug testing you're not endorsing it, but you're supporting it in a safe manner," she said.
"It's the same as providing condoms at a festival."
The 18-year-old said it also provided reassurance for all the people at the party who had no interest in drugs, that their mates were going to be OK.
ACT police had a presence at the festival on Sunday among the seemingly well-behaved crowd.
A spokesman said ACT Policing supported harm minimisation and had engaged with ACT government on the issue, which includes the establishment of a permanent pill testing site in Canberra.
The spokesman said police's focus remained on those who sold and profited from drugs.
"ACT Policing encourages anyone considering using illicit drugs to consider their own safety and how unknown substances may affect them," the spokesman said.
Harm Reduction Australia had no presence at the festival on Sunday, a spokesperson said.
Sophie North said having someone there would've provided punters with information on what pill testing was about.
Miss North said it was likely young people still had the impression the service was about trying to catch them out doing the wrong thing.
"If they had pill testing here maybe people would learn it's about making people safe," she said.
Groovin The Moo's international line-up included Broods and Chaii from New Zealand and Wolf Alice, Snakehips and Thomas Headon from the United Kingdom.
More than 30 other local acts also played the three stages at EPIC, following a Groovin the Moo hiatus due to COVID.
Having played Maitland Showground on Saturday, the festival will make its way to Victoria for the next leg of the tour in Bendigo on April 30.
Early on in the all-day event, Tia Lyons said the sunshine and sounds had made for the perfect start, with her over-18 group getting warmed up by the bar.
Miss Lyons said Spiderbait was her pick of the line-up.
"It's so chill," she said.
