Kevin Bronson on April 14th, 2013

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All that was missing from Saturday’s Day 2 of the Coachella Valley Music & Arts festival were Cameo themselves.

It was a day of guests turns, with the hottest rumor du jour turning to vapor in the night air when R. Kelly, not Daft Punk (this year’s gossip leader), showed up to guest with Phoenix. The French headliners expunged the sour taste of Friday night’s headlining set by the Stone Roses by rallying a massive crowd with their pop anthems, the strange-but-true collaboration coming near the end when R. Kelly materialized and segued from his song “Ignition” to Phoenix’s hit “1901.”

Ten years after becoming an accidental hit, the Postal Service – the side project that features three “guests” with other careers – won hearts and minds and souls and everything else by playing one of those crying-with-happiness sets on the main stage.

Elsewhere, John Legend crashed Benny Benassi’s set; Solange Knowles guested on The xx’s cover of “Hot Like Fire” (Aaliyah); Janelle Monae’s theatrics thrilled the Gobi Tent; ’90s punkers the Make-Up made chaos fun; and U.K. bands young (Savages, the Wombats) and older (Franz Ferdinand and New Order) held up their end of Coachella’s annual foreign exchange program with Britain. In all, a warm and wacky day, with some time, even, to check out the art installations.

Following is coverage of selected sets.

Top photo by Dennis O’Regan/Coachella; gallery by Bronson