Creamfields is an

electronic dance music Electronic dance music (EDM), also referred to as dance music or club music, is a broad range of percussive electronic music genres originally made for nightclubs, raves, and List of electronic dance music festivals, festivals. It is generally ...

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

series founded and organised by British club promoter

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this proces ...

, with its UK edition taking place on August Bank Holiday weekend, with a number of international editions held across various territories worldwide. First held in 1998 in

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

, the festival moved to Cream's home city of

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

the following year, taking place on the old

Liverpool airport Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving Liverpool, England, on the estuary of the River Mersey south-east of Liverpool city centre. Scheduled Domestic market, domestic, European, North African and Middle Eastern s ...

, before moving to its current location on the

Daresbury Daresbury is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Halton, Cheshire, England. At the 2011 census, it had a population of 246. History The name means "Deor's fortification", derived from an Old English personal name and the word ''burh' ...

estate in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

. The festival, having initially begun as a one-day event with 25,000 people in attendance, is now a four-day event with camping options hosting 70,000 per day. The festival is the UK's most prestigious electronic dance music festival. In 2022, Creamfields celebrated its 25th anniversary by launching a second UK-based festival – Creamfields South. Creamfields South took place at

Hylands Park Hylands House is a Grade II* neo-classical villa situated within Hylands Park a 232-hectare (574 acre) park southwest of Chelmsford in Essex in South East England. It is owned and operated by Chelmsford City Council. History The last priva ...

Chelmsford Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Colchester and Southend-on-Sea. It is located north-east of London ...

across the

Platinum Jubilee A platinum jubilee is a celebration held to mark an anniversary. Among Monarchy, monarchies, it usually refers to a 70th anniversary. The most recent monarch to celebrate a platinum jubilee is Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and the ...

weekend in June and is returned in 2023, with the original Daresbury festival being renamed Creamfields North. However, from 2024 the festival had reverted to one location in the north.

History

Creamfields initially began in 1998 as a one-day annual event run by the

night club

. This first edition was held in

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, and attracted 25,000 people. The following year Creamfields moved to the old Liverpool Airfield in

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial and metropolitan county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Greater Manchester to the east, Cheshire to the south, the Wales, Welsh county of Flintshire across ...

. The move put the festival closer to its parent night club and the new site was able to hold 50,000 people. In 2016, Cream was demolished; however, the brand continued to run the festival. In 2006 the festival moved outside the city to its current location in

. On the 10th anniversary of the festival it expanded to a two-day event, with 50,000 people attending across the weekend. The festival site expanded over the next few years after its first sellout in 2009 of 60,000 across the weekend. In 2010, the site was expanded to accommodate additional ticket sales and growing demand from campers. The festival sold 80,000 tickets in 2010 and 100,000 in 2011. In 2012 the festival ownership changed hands as Cream was bought out by

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American multinational Entertainment industry, entertainment company that was founded in 2010 following the Mergers and acquisitions, merger of Live Nation (events promoter), Live Nation and Ticketmaster. It ...

, the current organisers of the event. The festival was set to expand to a three-day event, but on the final day the festival was abandoned because of heavy rain. The following year the organisers invested £500,000 in the site to protect it against bad weather. The three-day event allowed an attendance of 150,000. 2014 saw the edition of a second primary stage, the North and South Stage; and in 2015, the festival was live streamed for the first time, to 500,000 online attendees. The Steel Yard stage was introduced in 2016, spawning a spinoff mini-festival with events held in

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

; the same year, the festival become a four-day event with site expansion in 2017 allowing for a maximum attendance of 280,000. In 2019, £2,000,000 was invested to improve security and safety and to reduce environmental impact. The festival hosted

Swedish House Mafia Swedish House Mafia (SHM) are a Swedish house music, house Supergroup (music), supergroup consisting of Axwell, Steve Angello and Sebastian Ingrosso. The group officially formed in late 2008, were placed at number ten on the ''DJ Mag'' Top 100 D ...

in their Save the World Reunion Tour, the supergroup's first UK show since 2012; the group were the sole occupants of the festival's iconic Arc Stage on the day of the event. The 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, with a virtual festival taking its place. Following

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

's announcement on the 22 February regarding the road out of the UK's COVID-19 lockdown, Creamfields announced that the 2021 edition would go ahead. Tickets for the event sold out in record time. A second UK-based festival – Creamfields South – was introduced in 2022 at

, hosting headline acts such as

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta (; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and record producer. He has sold over 10 million albums and 65 million singles globally, with more than 30 billion streams on Spotify. Guetta was voted the number one DJ in the DJ Mag ...

and

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris (and sometimes under the stage name Love Regenerator), is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'' (2007 ...

. Organisers said that they expected the festival to continue and become 'a solid and regular fixture on the UK festival circuit', with Creamfields South confirmed to be returning for 2023.

Edition's summary

'' Nb'': Artists shown in the table below were headliners for the event. For full line-ups see List of Creamfields line-ups.

Album

On 9 August 2004, British DJ

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (; born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Ma ...

released his fifteenth DJ Mix album entitled '' Creamfields''. The album was released in advance of the sixth edition of the festival in 2004 of which Oakenfold was due to perform. The album itself is third in a series of remix album with the other two being made by other DJs. In 2019, Oakenfold released a further DJ mix album to celebrate the festival's twentieth anniversary.

Creamfields: Steel Yard

The 2016 edition of Creamfields saw the debut of the Steel Yard stage at the main event in

. The stage is a 15,000 capacity super structure designed and built by Acorn Events. Steel Yard Liverpool made its debut in 2016 at the city's Clarence Graving Dock, and now occurs annually in late November or early December. Steel Yard London initially took place in late October at Victoria Park,

in 2017, before moving to

Finsbury Park Finsbury Park is a public park in Harringay, north London, England. The park lies on the southern-most edge of the London Borough of Haringey. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal ...

for 2018 and 2019 respectively, with a new date on the late-May bank holiday weekend. In 2018, Steel Yard Liverpool partnered with

Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world * Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium * ''Tom ...

and

Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike (previously Dnm) are a Belgian–Greek DJ duo composed of brothers Dimitri Thivaios and Michael Thivaios. They were ranked No. 1 on ''DJ Magazine, DJ Mag''s Top 100 DJs list in 2015 and 2019, and No. 2 in 2014, 2016 thr ...

to bring "Garden of Madness" to the UK for a special one-off event.

Creamfields International

In addition to the two main UK events, Creamfields also operates a number of international spin offs including: * Creamfields Abu Dhabi * Creamfields Australia (2010–2012; 2017) * Creamfields Brazil * Creamfields Buenos Aires (2001–2015; 2024–present) * Creamfields Czech Republic (2002) * Creamfields Chile (2004–2018; 2022–present) * Creamfields China (2018–present) * Creamfields Colombia * Creamfields Hong Kong (2017–present) * Creamfields Ibiza * Creamfields Ireland (2000–2002) * Creamfields Mallorca * Creamfields Malta * Creamfields Mexico * Creamfields Romania * Creamfields Paraguay * Creamfields Poland (2003 –

Kołobrzeg Kołobrzeg (; ; ) is a port and spa city in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in north-western Poland with about 47,000 inhabitants (). Kołobrzeg is located on the Parsęta River on the south coast of the Baltic Sea (in the middle of the section ...

, 2006–2008 –

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

) * Creamfields Portugal * Creamfields Peru * Creamfields Spain * Creamfields Taiwan (2017–present) * Creamfields Thailand (2022–present) * Creamfields Turkey * Creamfields Ukraine * Creamfields Vietnam

Awards and nominations

DJ Awards

''DJ Magazine''s top 50 Festivals

Festicket Awards

International Dance Music Awards

UK Festival Awards

Notes

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Music festivals established in 1998 Music festivals in Cheshire Rave culture in the United Kingdom 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom Events in Liverpool Tourist attractions in Cheshire Electronic music festivals in the United Kingdom