All About Creamfields Festival

Daresbury, Cheshire, UK

Open air

XXL – 50k+

Electronic

$$

International

+3 Days

Creamfields is a legend of the festival game, with a global presence that remains pretty much unrivalled. 

Its legendary line-ups are anything but boring. Sit back, relax, and allow us to fill the gaps in your knowledge of the legendary EDM festival.

Here is everything you need to know about Creamfields.

The festival was born in 1998

Creamfields festival started life as a music event sponsored by Cream – a Liverpool nightclub founded by James Barton, Andy Carroll, and Darren Hughes in 1992.

In 1998, Creamfields took to the stage for the first time ever, boasting a star-studded line-up including the likes of Daft Punk and Fatboy Slim. It attracted 25,000 party-goers to its debut – not too shabby for a first-timer.

It started as a one-day affair

At the time of its grand opening, Creamfields festival was a one-day affair.

It’s hard to imagine the festival bundling its colossal setup into a single 24-hour period, but it managed once upon a time by offering a packed lineup with non-stop DJs from 1 PM on Saturday to 6 AM Sunday morning. 

The price for a slice of the action? A mere £37.50, back in the day. That’s a far cry from the prices we’re used to seeing nowadays, which are more in the region of hundreds.

£195 will bag you two prime days camping, £220 will get you three, while £240 will grant you a full four-day pass, though that cost can almost double if you want a more luxury experience.

It didn’t find its forever home until 2006

Creamfields festival has been a bit of a nomad over the years. 

Initially, it was held at The Bowl in Winchester, moving back to its Liverpudlian roots the following year, when it took place at the Old Liverpool Airfield.

It wasn’t until 2006 that it found its forever home in a different Liverpool location – Daresbury. Ah, home sweet home.

Its international family is pretty expansive

The festival’s travels haven’t been limited to the UK. It also got a pretty extensive international family under Creamfields’ umbrella.

And when we say extensive, we mean extensive.

With over 20 spin-off shows in countries all over the globe from Chile to China and Ukraine to UAE, wherever you are in the world, you’re probably no more than a matter of hours away from a dose of Creamfields EDM magic.

In 2011, Creamfields underwent a change of hands

Creamfields festival kissed goodbye to its original owners in 2011 when it was bought by entertainment giant Live Nation.

Live Nation have owned the event ever since, working hard to maintain the original ethos which made it so popular in the first place. They refused to stray from the festival’s EDM roots – which turned out to be a savvy choice since the festival has only continued to grow under their management.

It had a hell of investments over the years

When Live Nation acquired the festival, they were keen to up the ante and expand it to a three-day event. Sadly, the final day of the festival had to be abandoned when heavy rain struck and the site turned out to be woefully underprepared.

Eager not to miss out on the chance for expansion the following year, Live Nation funnelled £500,000 into the festival site to protect it from bad weather conditions and allow it to hold a capacity of up to 150,000 attendees.

In 2014, they built the North and South Stage. In 2016, they introduced the Steel Yard Stage (which became a spin-off event in its own right).

One year later, they expanded the capacity to 280,000 campers over a four-day period.

In 2019, a £2 million investment was made to improve features like security, safety, and environmental impact.

The headliners have always been huge

Never one to disappoint, Creamfields has been hosting some of the biggest names in EDM, techno, house, and dance since its inception. 

Some notable headliners over the years include the likes of Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, David Guetta, Tiësto, Dizzee Rascal, Goldfrapp, and Basement Jaxx.

Multiple DJs named albums after the festival

Creamfields, like its forerunner Cream, is something of a trailblazer in the world of electronic music – especially in the UK. 

It’s no wonder that DJs have used the festival as a source of inspiration, even going so far as to release a three-part series named after the event to commemorate its impact on dance music. 

The most notable of them is the third in the series – produced and released by British DJ Paul Oakenfold to mark his set at the festival’s sixth year.

Amongst critics, Oakenfold’s Creamfields was well-received, bagging itself a nomination for Best Electronic/Dance Album at the Grammy Awards in 2005.

Creamfields festival has a pretty impressive resume of awards

Best International Dance Music Festival? Bagged it in 2014. Best Major Festival? Got that locked down back in 2016.

All you have to do is take a quick stroll through the festival’s website to see a resume which commands the attention of any true rave fan.

A megafan had his ashes fired out of a cannon during a set

British music lover Stuart Mitchell tragically took his own life back in July. After his death, the family sold his Creamfields tickets to aid with funeral costs. 

An avid fan of all things EDM, Stuart’s family wanted to organise a unique commemoration of his life at the festival he’d been so excited to attend. So they got in touch with festival organisers to see if they could sprinkle some of his ashes at Creamfields so he could attend the music event one last time. 

But organisers went a step further and offered to fire Stuart’s ashes from a confetti cannon during a Tiësto set – the DJ who produced Adagio for Strings, which played at Mr Mitchell’s funeral. 

His family were surprised and comforted by the gesture from the festival, stating in an interview with the BBC that it was “the first bit of good news” they had received since word of Stuart’s shocking death a few months prior.

If Creamfields isn’t proof of the immense power music can hold, we really don’t know what is.