The festival Creamfields now leaves a taste of class behind when people utter its name. After going neck and neck with Global Gathering over the last few years to become the country’s most sought after electronic celebration of DJ’s, Creamfields now boasts an array of talent that surpasses everything in its competitive field.
London’s Lovebox and most notably SW4 (which occurs at the same time of Creamfields) are its other rivals in the country, but both still lack the ambition and calibre of artists that Creamfields has booked – especially in the last few years, which is why the award-winning festival has sold out for the last four.
Prior to becoming a weekend festival, Creamfields struggled to compete with the likes of Global Gathering, that is now in its 12th year, seems to be losing its pace and appeal to attract the world’s best DJ’s.
In 2008, Creamfields decided to run the festival over two days and provide camping and has never looked back since, hosting performances by electronic gods like Chemical Brothers, FatBoy Slim, Tiesto, Swedish House Mafia, Deadmau5 and surprisingly – Kasabian.
This year will see a record 55,000 revellers dawn up on Daresbury for a bank holiday weekend that strikes more of a resemblance with Ibiza than Cheshire – although I’m sure the regulars of Ibiza would argue the sunshine is far more reliable across the continent.
Now a full on three-day festival extravaganza, this year is sure to be bouncing, as the finest beats, breaks, base and drops accumulate in hand-raising moments.
With 10 stages providing the utmost diversity for any electronic music festival, hardcore aficionados may have a tough time diffusing their way through line up. Headlining this year’s festival is hard to distinguish, due to the line-up that has been put together. However, the DJ with his name on top of the billing is Deadmau5.
The Canadian-born stadium-selling electronic pioneer is now at the top of his game, and his legendary headgear will be making its last UK appearance of the year at Creamfields after opening the dance stage at Radio 1’s Hackney weekender in June. Expect lots of fans dawning replica mouse masks for this special show.
If mice really aren’t your thing, you can also expect lots of block rockin beats as The Chemical Brothers (DJ set) are the special guest headliners for the Annie Mac stage on Saturday after providing arguably the most memorably set of 2011 at Creamfields.
Avicii, who has sky rocketed to headline status after his hit song ‘Levels’ was the club tune of last summer, will finish the night's antics on the South Stage. The Swede, one of many that will be present throughout the weekend, has had a very successful year after performing at London’s O2 Arena and then headlining TomorrowLand in Belgium in July.
DJ Mag’s number one disc jockey in the world, David Guetta is also headlining the North Stage on Saturday night. The Frenchman superseded Armin van Buuren after spending years perched on top of the prestigious number one spot. Guetta seems to be involved in everything right now and his Midas touch has brought him two Grammy nominations. Guetta is also tearing it up across the Atlantic, and, along with the likes of Skrillex, they are leaving a heavy imprint on America, which is currently seeing a siege of electronic music dominating their charts.
Grammy-winning Skrillex will also be present over the weekend, headlining the Radio 1Xtra Stage and showcasing his unique blend of dub step and electro.
Gareth Emery will be warming up the crowd on the Cream Stage before handing over the reins to the emotionally charged euphoric moments of Above and Beyond, and we haven’t even mentioned the legend that is John Digweed or Eric Prydz yet.
After two consecutive years of having Swedish House Mafia headline the festival, the trio have decided to go it alone for this year’s Creamfields due to their mammoth one day event at the Milton Keynes Bowl in July. Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello will all be performing at one point through the energetic weekend. The iconic super group have announced their retirement from performing as a threesome and only have four official sets left before their break comes into full effect - two in Ibiza, Las Vegas and of course, back home in Stockholm for their final hoo-ha.
Though the whole weekend is littered in class, Saturday night is the premier evening over the weekend, that stomps through the night and keeps the ravers breaking out until roughly 4am. The Sunday night is for the light hearted, and sadly, draws to a close about 11pm – midnight. So remember that, as many fans get caught out thinking the Sunday is replica of the Saturday night.
Either way though, Ibiza is coming back to Liverpool for the weekend and the lands of Daresbury, Cheshire, are set to be destroyed for three days.
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