“We’ll rock you out!” hollered blues pioneer John Mayall to the sea of bodies sweating below him in the giant domed tent.

And so he did, the 77-year-old blowing his trademark harmonica, tapping the keyboards with his right hand then belting out a string of blues classics for fans – many young enough to be his grandchildren.

With his grey ponytail, the British-born performer, who, like others at this 21st Byron Bay Bluesfest, is constantly labelled a legend, thrilled the audience crammed into one of a group of marquees on this new farm site in northern New South Wales.

A line-up of top musos backed him as he sang standards like Chicago Line and Behind The Iron Curtain and newer songs from his 57th album, Tough, released last year.

Across the way, young English balladeer Newton Faulkner charms another few thousand music lovers in another large marquee.

His red dreadlocks flick around his 25-year-old face as the audience sing along to his international hit Dream Catch Me, much like it would have for John Mayall when his Blues Breakers teamed with Eric Clapton more than four decades ago.

Music at the Bluesfest bridges generations like nothing else can, with more wrinkles and wisdom on stage than ever before.

Take the Orquesta Buena Vista Social Club: 13 seasoned performers including national treasures of Cuba like trumpeter Guajiro Mirabal. Their music transports everyone from the woodchip- and mud-covered-ground to the clubs and dance halls of Havana.

The musical choices are incredible.

As the Cuban beat rises, Texan troubadour Lyle Lovett is warming up in another venue.

Simultaneously, pop princess Jessica Mauboy has a younger crowd swinging in the First Nation’s tent, while Australia’s queen of blues Renee Geyer croons in yet another.

Like Geyer, the boys in new band on the block The Break have been entertaining audiences since the early 1970s.

Former Midnight Oils drummer Rob Hirst and guitarists Jim Moginie and Main Rotsey remember first playing Wedding Cake Island in a recording studio called The Music Farm in Byron Bay 30 years ago.

Joined now by bass player Brian Ritchie of the US group Violent Femmes, they slip the Oils’ classic into their new set of music which Hirst describes as “surfing music meets sci-fi”.

The crowd in one of Australia’s proudest surf haunts loves the old and the new beat – twanging guitars emulating the rising and falling of the sea, Hirst beating his glitter-encrusted drum kit harder and harder.

“This kind of blues festival gives major veteran musicians the chance to turn on a new generation to their music,” Hirst says at the end of The Break’s concert.

“They may be only 14 and have a guitar and they wonder if the music is in the hit parade. Then they listen and like what they hear and may get hooked and find out what went before.”

The crowd roams the site. Thousands are camping in a tent city adjoining the music precinct.

“Only two showers for every 200 people,” one complains before quickly adding, “but we’re all having a good time.”

Festival founder Peter Noble has put his money where his mouth is for the future of the much-heralded and largest roots music event in the southern hemisphere, buying the 120-hectare Tyagarah tea tree farm with parking and camping spots for 6,500.

That way, control of the site is secured. Bag searches of every person entering are routine. No food, no alcohol, no drugs and no umbrellas. Premium prices assured for the string of stall holders.

Yet the aroma of marijuana lingers in the air as the small armies of fans, most wearing an array of coloured gumboots with patterns of sunflowers, leopard and zebra skin and skulls and crossbones roam from venue to venue.

What next? 10cc, Crowded House, Rodriguez Patty Larkin, Jeff Beck, Taj Mahal and Oumou Sangare.

Sleep can wait until another day.