Blazes! Sasha and John Digweed look cool in silhouette during their Virgin Festival set.

Heat and dust defined the sweltering Saturday afternoon at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, where this year’s Virgin Festival galloped into its second year. The weekend of music featured two days of diverse performances ranging from veterans such as the Beastie Boys, The Police and the Wu-Tang Clan, to comparative newcomers including LCD Soundsystem, Peter Bjorn and John, TV on the Radio and Amy Winehouse.

Relief from the temperatures soaring near 100 degrees on Saturday could be found underneath the dance tent, which hosted an amazing back-to-back lineup of DJ sets from Felix Da Housecat, Danny Tenaglia and Sasha and John Digweed. Naturally, this area transformed into the gayest spot at the event, which otherwise seemed to interpret the letter G largely as standing for “green.” That 57-year-old Virgin himself, Sir Richard Branson, who was spotted in the festival crowd, should be commended for his company’s efforts to hold a concert that used eco-friendly materials and promised to recycle much of the weekend’s waste.

Mercifully, the weather cooled on Sunday, when CSS, Regina Spektor, Spoon, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Interpol appeared. Still, fans must have broken a sweat scrambling between stages that night to catch the Smashing Pumpkins and MIA, whose scheduled playing times overlapped. One can only imagine the even tougher viewing choices and sacrifices required of attendees at Lollapalooza, which brought three days of music from 130 bands on eight stages to Chicago this weekend.

Check out more Virgin Festival photos after the jump!

Meow! Felix Da Housecat warms up the throngs in the dance tent.

Renew, reuse, recycle: Healthy doses of green messages could be found at the Virgin Festival.

A playful Danny Tenaglia takes a beachy aim at his crowd.