Aarhus is having the time of its life at SPOT Festival

Over two days and more than 200 sets – most of them only lasting for a tight half hour – the young population in Denmark’s second city are having the time of their lives and you’d struggle to clock the industry delegates running from sync workshops to networking brunches. A simpatico energy dominates the city during SPOT and it's infectious.

On the opening day, local boys Crushing are doing enough with their hybrid of Car Seat Headrest and Modest Mouse to put Aarhus on the map for inventive emo. There's definitely enough going on here to stand out against many of the more generic guitar bands at SPOT.

At indie venue Voxhall - a textbook perfect space that scoops up many of the rising international artists passing through town - Copenhagen/Odense outfit Demersal lean more towards the screamo, and come with a brass and strings section that sharpens the pointier corners of their emoting.

They're followed by the new project from musician and producer Hans Gustav Björklund Moulvad. Formerly one half of Mavourneen, Moulvad played SPOT in 2019 with a reverb heavy Horrors-tinged sound. Now as Soap Horse, he released debut EP Tooth Inside a Tooth last summer with John Parish producing — a pairing that makes sense given Moulvad's affinities with Harvey and Cave. The result is formidable: chugging, staccato guitars and a certain virtuosity in the bleach-haired troubadour's swagger.

As Zoumer, Danish-Algerian artist and producer Yasmina Derradj's second album e.a.l. (euro arab lovergirl) did a neat job of pulling together a bunch of messy sounds and influences – among them electroclash and the Raï music of her heritage - and giving her prime placing on Spotify's hallowed CPH+ playlist (and there's a lot of CPH+ alum at SPOT this weekend). Derradj is relegated to a scrappy side stage at Volume Village (another standout Melodi Ghazal plays here the following day) and is fighting a sound system that doesn’t quite do her justice to the glitchy invention of her record but her pep is enough to carry things through.

Sometimes her delivery hits the same off-kilter vulnerability as Hannah Diamond or even Lorde (or M.I.A. in her more cunty moments); here she’s playing with Sebastian Zieler, owner of The Big Oil Recording Company - who put our her album - on guitar.

Zieler's label has a dotted line to the esoteric Crunchy Frog family, who stage a day party in a pizza shop, putting Zieler's own band Sat Nav alongside 100%WETT, still on the ascent after last year’s SPOT and fresh from an at-capacity set on Volume Village the previous night. A perfect storm of shoegaze, drum'n'bass and hyperpop, the band’s edge only keeps growing: urgent, propelling anthems that reveal an unique inventive mastery over their sonic palette.

Volume Village is part of the sprawling Christiania-like Institute of (X) – a makeshift, pop-up community of artists, entrepreneurs and craftsmen who work side by side on a former freight railway hub and the surrounding lands – and is the festival's beating heart this year, host to some of the weekend's best sets across its three stages which sit under a motorway flyover.

Another regular on the CPH+ playlist is Shinyhunt, who bring a sound that, in their best moments, recalls Swirlies, even if they sometimes drown in a wash of melody that obscures what might otherwise feel distinctive. The crowd loves it though - Voxhall's at capacity for a 3.30pm set on a 30°C Saturday afternoon.

SPOT’s nods to the the country's hip-hop underground are a mixed bag: There’s Aarhus trio Skammerens Døtre - "Daughters of Shame" – who recall Icelandic collective Reykjavíkurdætur in more than just sound, with new song “Gris” kicking off with the lines "The girl who looks like your daughter / Someone should check your laptop”. There’s Beastie Boys-aping Danish/Greenland rapper $MALIKK, and prolific ‘Vejgård Rudeboy’ legobygger123 – who comes over like a perfectly Danish dilution of EsDeeKid and Bladee. The 19-year-old Aalborg rapper packs out the festival's smallest (free) stage bringing the afternoon commuters to a standstill with his formidable drum and bass rumbles.

The rest of the Nordic region produces a few highlights across the weekend too. Iceland's RAKEL is here with her whispered folk-pop which would really work better in one of the festival's Musikhsuen concert hall rooms instead of the more band-friendly Radar but she's still a force to be reckoned with. The Faroes have brought Esther Skala and Marius DC - both highlights of last year's G! Fest – and both punching above their weight as always.