It wouldn't be a festival without a little rain and the Pop In The Park audience at the Crawley Festival were doused in a persistent drizzle on Friday.

Happily, it did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm for acts such as Girls Aloud, Blazin' Squad and Javine.

Woody Tilgate Park, with the lake glittering behind the stage, made for an idyllic setting as a selection of lightweight pop acts went through their routines.

None of the music will exactly live long in the memory but it was a slickly-presented platter of pop aimed squarely at giving young teenagers and teeny boppers a taste of a music festival in a safe, family-friendly environment.

Eurovision hopeful Javine put in a polished performance which culminated with the UK's entry, Touch My Fire. Happily, it played far better with Friday's audience than it did with telephone voters from the Eastern Bloc.

Blazin' Squad were a massive hit with the audience but I struggle to see why: Most of them couldn't carry a tune in a bucket. If there weren't nine of them, you wouldn't even know they were on stage and as a group of people, they seem totally average. But perhaps that's the point - after all, I'm pretty far removed in age and gender from the target audience.

A bonus act on the evening was 5Boyz, who performed three bland ballads to file under "Adult Contemporary", rounded off with a pointless cover of Lionel Richie's Hello to underline the point. All the time, they seemed to take themselves very seriously. It was more like 5Boyzzz.

By contrast, Girls Aloud lit up a drizzly night, serving up their own brand of sassy pop with a ton of lip gloss and a smile. It's not a great artistic statement but it is fun. The songs, which included Jump (For My Love), I'll Stand By You and Wake Me Up, were well chosen and well put together. The good news is Nadine Coyle isn't leaving just yet.

The girls also had some decent banter with the crowd - one of the biggest cheers of the night was when Cheryl Tweedy announced that Saskia had been voted out of the Big Brother house.

And so the hard-working girls brought an end to a fun evening of pop, which hopefully raised a lot of money for St Catherine's Hospice.