Creamfields is an electronic dance music

festival A festival is an event ordinarily 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, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

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 process ...

, with its UK edition taking place on

August Bank Holiday A bank holiday is a national public holiday in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland and the Crown Dependencies. The term refers to all public holidays in the United Kingdom, be they set out in statute, declared by royal proclamation or ...

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 Nation ...

, the festival moved to Cream's home city of

Liverpool Liverpool is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the List of English districts by population, 10th largest English district by population and its E ...

the following year, taking place on the old Liverpool airport, before moving to its current location on the

Daresbury Daresbury is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Halton and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. At the 2001 census it had a population of 216, increasing to 246 by the 2011 census. History The name means "Deor's fo ...

estate in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county tow ...

. 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,

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 Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of Londo ...

across the

Platinum Jubilee A platinum jubilee is a celebration held to mark an anniversary. Among 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 other C ...

weekend in June and is scheduled to return in 2023, with the original Daresbury festival being renamed Creamfields 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 and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

and attracted 25,000 people. The following year Creamfields moved to

Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wir ...

, with the festival being on the old Liverpool Airfield. The move put the festival closer to its parent night club and the new site was able to hold 50,000 people for the festival. In 2002, Cream was demolished, however the brand continued to run the festival. 2006 saw the festival move outside the city to its current location in

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

Live Nation Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. is an American global entertainment company and monopoly that was founded in 2010 following the merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. The company promotes, operates, and manages ticket sales for live entertai ...

who are the current organisers of the event. The festival was also set to expand to a three-day event, however, on the final day the festival was abandoned due to heavy rain. The following year a £500,000 investment into the site was made 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 seeing 500,000 online attendees. 2016 saw the introduction of the Steel Yard stage which spawned a spinoff mini-festival with events held in

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, it also saw the festival become a four-day event with site expansion in 2017 allowing for a maximum attendance of 280,000. In 2019, a £2,000,000 investment was made to improve security and safety as well as reducing environmental impact. The festival itself saw Creamfields host Swedish House Mafia in their

Save the World Reunion Tour The Save the World Reunion Tour is a 2019 reunion tour by Swedish supergroup Swedish House Mafia. Named after their 2011 single, the tour was a follow up to the group's reunion at Ultra Miami in 2018. After months of speculation, the tour wa ...

. The show was the supergroup's first UK show since 2012 and saw the group as the sole occupiers of the festival's iconic Arc Stage on the day of the event. The 2020 edition of the festival was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, with a virtual festival taking its place. Following

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

's announcement on the 22 February regarding the road out of the UK's COVID-19 lockdown, Creamfields announced the 2021 edition would go ahead. Tickets for the event sold out in record time. 2022 saw the introduction of a second UK-based festival - Creamfields South was held at Hylands Park in

, hosting headline acts such as

David Guetta Pierre David Guetta ( , ; born 7 November 1967) is a French DJ and music producer. He has over 10 million album and 65 million single sales globally, with more than 10 billion streams. In 2011, 2020 and 2021, Guetta was voted the number one D ...

and

Calvin Harris Adam Richard Wiles (born 17 January 1984), known professionally as Calvin Harris, is a Scottish DJ, record producer, singer, and songwriter who has released six studio albums. His debut studio album, ''I Created Disco'', was released in June ...

. Organisers added they expect 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, Mas ...

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 the London neighbourhood of Harringay. It is in the area formerly covered by the historic parish of Hornsey, succeeded by the Municipal Borough of Hornsey. It was one of the first of the great London parks ...

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 is one of the many themed lands featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions t ...

and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike 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) * Creamfields Czech Republic (2002) * Creamfields Chile * 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 * 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