Creamfields

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title: "Creamfields" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["music-festivals-established-in-1998", "music-festivals-in-cheshire", "rave-culture-in-the-united-kingdom", "1998-establishments-in-the-united-kingdom", "organised-events-in-liverpool", "tourist-attractions-in-cheshire", "electronic-music-festivals-in-the-united-kingdom"] description: "English annual dance music festival held in Cheshire" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creamfields" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary English annual dance music festival held in Cheshire ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox music festival"]

Field	Value
name	Creamfields
location	Main location UK:
Winchester, Hampshire
(1998)
Liverpool, Merseyside
(1999–2005)
Daresbury, Cheshire
(2006–present)
For spin offs see here
years_active	1998–present
founders	Cream
organiser	Live Nation
dates	North: August Bank Holiday Weekend
South: Late May Bank Holiday Weekend
genre	Electronic dance music
capacity	70,000
attendance	280,000
website	Official website
::

| name = Creamfields | image = | caption = | location = Main location UK: Winchester, Hampshire (1998) Liverpool, Merseyside (1999–2005) Daresbury, Cheshire (2006–present) For spin offs see here | years_active = 1998–present | founders = Cream | organiser = Live Nation | dates = North: August Bank Holiday Weekend South: Late May Bank Holiday Weekend | genre = Electronic dance music | capacity = 70,000 | attendance = 280,000 | website = Official website Creamfields is an electronic dance music festival series founded and organised by British club promoter Cream, 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, the festival moved to Cream's home city of Liverpool the following year, taking place on the old Liverpool airport, before moving to its current location on the Daresbury estate in Cheshire. 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 across the Platinum Jubilee 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 Liverpool night club Cream. This first edition was held in Winchester, Hampshire, and attracted 25,000 people. The following year Creamfields moved to the old Liverpool Airfield in Liverpool, Merseyside. 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 Daresbury, Cheshire. 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, 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 Liverpool and London; 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 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, with a virtual festival taking its place. Following Boris Johnson'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 Hylands Park in Chelmsford, hosting headline acts such as David Guetta and Calvin Harris. 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. However, after just two editions, in September 2023 Live Nation announced that the Chelmsford event would be discontinued. Rather than holding separate North and South events in 2024, Creamfields consolidated into a single massive four‑day festival at Daresbury, Cheshire. The South edition was officially ended and merged back into the main North location from August 2024 onwards.

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.

::data[format=table] | Year | Venue | Dates | url=https://www.skiddle.com/festivals/creamfields/history.html |title = Creamfields History|website=Skiddle.com}} | Headliners | Ref. | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 1998 | Winchester, Hampshire | 2 May | 25,000 | Sasha, Paul van Dyk, Daft Punk, Tony De Vit. | | | 1999 | Liverpool, Merseyside | 28 August | 50,000 | Pet Shop Boys, Basement Jaxx. | url=https://www.tvovermind.com/brief-history-creamfields-festival/ |title = A Brief History of the Creamfields Festival|date = 25 February 2018|website=Tvovermind.com}} | | 2000 | 26 August | 50,000 | Judge Jules, Groove Armada, Basement Jaxx, Moloko, Laurent Garnier. | | | | 2001 | 25 August | 50,000 | | | | | 2002 | 24 August | 50,000 | Faithless, Underworld, Kosheen. | | | | 2003 | 23 August | 50,000 | Paul Oakenfold, Erick Morillo, Harry Romero, Audio Bullys. | | | | 2004 | 28 August | 50,000 | The Chemical Brothers, Goldfrapp, Mylo, Scratch Perverts. | | | | 2005 | 27 August | 50,000 | Basement Jaxx, Faithless, Caged Baby. | | | | 2006 | Daresbury, Cheshire | 26 August | 50,000 | The Prodigy, Gnarls Barkley, Goldfrapp, The Zutons. | | | 2007 | 25 August | 50,000 | The Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada, Kelis, Mark Ronson, Carl Cox. | | | | 2008 | 23 and 24 August | 50,000 | Fatboy Slim, Ian Brown, Gossip, Paul van Dyk, Kasabian, Tiësto, Paul Oakenfold, David Guetta. | | | | 2009 | 29 and 30 August | 60,000 | Tiësto, Mylo, Basement Jaxx, Paul van Dyk, Dizzee Rascal. | | | | 2010 | 28 and 29 August | 80,000 | David Guetta, deadmau5, Leftfield, Tiësto, Calvin Harris, Paul van Dyk, Swedish House Mafia. | | | | 2011 | 27 and 28 August | 100,000 | The Chemical Brothers, Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia | | | | 2012 | 24, 25, and 26 August | 100,000 | Avicii, David Guetta, Sebastian Ingrosso, Steve Angello, Skrillex, deadmau5, Tiësto, Calvin Harris, Axwell. | | | | 2013 | 23, 24, and 25 August | 150,000 | The Prodigy, Avicii, Tiësto, David Guetta, Steve Angello, Sebastian Ingrosso, Above & Beyond, Paul van Dyk. | | | | 2014 | 22, 23, and 24 August | 150,000 | Aly & Fila, Armin van Buuren, Avicii, deadmau5, Steve Aoki, Calvin Harris, Hardwell, Paul van Dyk, Tiësto. | | | | 2015 | 28, 29, and 30 August | 150,000 | Armin van Buuren, Hardwell, Jamie Jones, Martin Garrix, The Chemical Brothers, Avicii, Knife Party, Alesso. | | | | 2016 | 25, 26, 27, and 28 August | 200,000 | Armin van Buuren, Chase & Status, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Avicii, Martin Garrix, Calvin Harris. | | | | 2017 | 24, 25, 26, and 27 August | 280,000 | deadmau5, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, Armin van Buuren, Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Eric Prydz, Tiësto, Martin Garrix, Hardwell | | | | 2018 | 23, 24, 25, and 26 August | 280,000 | Carl Cox, Armin van Buuren, The Chainsmokers, Axwell Λ Ingrosso, Giggs, Tiësto, Hardwell, Eric Prydz, Fatboy Slim, Adam Beyer. | | | | 2019 | 22, 23, 24, and 25 August | 280,000 | deadmau5, Martin Garrix, Carl Cox, Calvin Harris, The Chemical Brothers, Swedish House Mafia. | | | | 2020 | | | | | | | 2021 | 26, 27, 28, and 29 August | | David Guetta, Carl Cox, Eric Prydz, Martin Garrix, Adam Beyer, Tiësto, Laidback Luke | | | | 2022 | 25, 26, 27 and 28 August | TBA | Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Martin Garrix, Armin van Buuren, Tiësto, Camelphat, Carl Cox, Nina Kraviz, Belters Only, Above and Beyond, Scooter, Charlotte de Witte | | | ::

Album

Main article: Creamfields (2004 album)

On 9 August 2004, British DJ Paul Oakenfold 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 Daresbury, Cheshire. 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, London in 2017, before moving to Finsbury Park for 2018 and 2019 respectively, with a new date on the late-May bank holiday weekend.

In 2018, Steel Yard Liverpool partnered with Tomorrowland and Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike to bring "Garden of Madness" to the UK for a special one-off event.

Creamfields International

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6a/Creamfields_Brasil_2013.jpg" caption="Creamfields Brazil, 2013"] ::

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 , 2006–2008 – Wrocław)
• 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

::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2014	Special Award – Best International Dance Music Festival	Creamfields – UK
::

''DJ Magazine''{{'}}s top 50 Festivals

::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2019	World's Best Festival	Creamfields – Liverpool, UK	13th
::

Festicket Awards

::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2016	Best EDM/Dance Festival	Creamfields
::

International Dance Music Awards

::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2011	Best Music Event	Creamfields – Liverpool, UK
2016
::

UK Festival Awards

::data[format=table]

Year	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2004	Best Dance Festival	Creamfields UK
2005	Best Dance Festival
2008	Best Major Festival
Best Dance Festival
2009	Best Dance Festival
2010	Best Dance Festival
2011	Best Dance Festival
2013	Best Dance Festival
2014	Best Dance Festival
2015	Best Major Festival
Best Dance Festival
2016	Best Major Festival
::

Notes

References

References

1. (16 June 2017). "Top 10 largest music festivals in the UK".
2. (22 March 2017). "WE GO BEHIND THE SCENES AT CREAMFIELDS – PART 1".
3. (2018-06-28). "Flashback: os Flyers usados na divulgação das festas nos anos 90 – Eletro Vibez". Eletro Vibez.
4. "Travel to Creamfields".
5. "Creamfields 2021 | Festival Line up & Info".
6. "Top 10: Electronic Music Festivals in the UK 2020 – Festicket Magazine".
7. Woolston, Hope. (2022-06-07). "Creamfields South will return to Chelmsford next year".
8. Rice, Elle May. (2022-02-17). "Calvin Harris joins Creamfields 2022 line up for 25th anniversary".
9. Whitehouse, Ellis. (2023-09-28). "Creamfields South festival won't return to Essex next year".
10. (22 August 2015). "A history of Creamfields festival".
11. (22 February 2006). "Creamfields quits Speke airport site".
12. (9 May 2012). "Live Nation Buys EDM Entertainment Company Cream Holdings LTD, Owner of Creamfields Festivals".
13. (25 September 2019). "Creamfields invests £2m in festival site".
14. (24 September 2019). "Creamfields will invest £2 million into site improvements".
15. (26 August 2019). "Watch Swedish House Mafia at Creamfields UK 2019 [Full set]".
16. (3 August 2020). "Creamfields Announces August Virtual Event Featuring Never-Before-Seen Performances".
17. "Creamfields sells out and set to go ahead in Daresbury in August to be 'party of summer'".
18. "Creamfields History".
19. (25 February 2018). "A Brief History of the Creamfields Festival".
20. "Creamfields UK 2000".
21. "Creamfields UK 2001".
22. "Creamfields 2002".
23. "Creamfields 2003".
24. "More Added to Creamfields uk 2004 Line-up".
25. "Creamfields 2005 Announced!".
26. "Creamfields 2006 Announced".
27. "Creamfields 2007: Lineup and Tickets".
28. "Creamfields 08' Celebrates 10th Anniversary".
29. "Basement Jaxx + Tiesto Headline Creamfields 2009".
30. "Creamfields 2010 Lineup Released!".
31. "Creamfields 2011 Line-Up Announced".
32. (26 August 2012). "Flooded Creamfields called off". BBC News.
33. "Creamfields 2012 now on sale with Skiddle!".
34. "Creamfields 2013 lineup announced".
35. "Creamfields 2014".
36. Kirsty McHale. (26 February 2015). "From Nation to Daresbury: A history of Creamfields festival". [[Liverpool Echo]].
37. "Creamfields 2015".
38. "Creamfields 2016".
39. "Creamfields 2017".
40. "Creamfields 2018".
41. "ERIC PRYDZ TO UNVEIL V O I D STAGE SHOW AT CREAMFIELDS 2019".
42. "Creamfields 2019".
43. (13 May 2020). "Creamfields cancelled but organisers make huge promise for 2021".
44. "Creamfields 2020 Cancelled but First Artists Announced for 2021 – Festicket Magazine".
45. "Creamfields 2020".
46. "Creamfields 2021".
47. "The latest additions to Creamfields North 2022 line-up".
48. (18 December 2019). "Paul Oakenfold's Mix for Creamfield's 20th Year: Listen | Billboard".
49. "50m Super Structure ⋆ Acorn Events". Acorn Events.
50. (September 2016). "Creamfields Steel Yard comes to Central Docks".
51. "Creamfields' Steel Yard to Make its London Debut – Festicket Magazine".
52. "Steel Yard London — Creamfields 2019". Creamfields 2019.
53. "Tomorrowland & Creamfields Join Forces for Steel Yard Event This December".
54. (22 August 2017). "Creamfields International widens its reach".
55. "Eventpop | Creamfields Thailand 2022".
56. "2014: 17th Edition (Love)".
57. (16 May 2019). "DJ Mag's Top 50 festivals 2019".
58. "Festicket Awards 2016 Winners: Tomorrowland, Martin Garrix, Radiohead and More – Festicket Magazine".
59. "31st Annual International Dance Music Awards – Winter Music Conference 2018 – WMC 2018".
60. "31st Annual International Dance Music Awards – Winter Music Conference 2018 – WMC 2018".
61. (11 June 2013). "Creamfields gets nominated for four UK Festival Awards".
62. (12 January 2014). "Creamfields and Glastonbury win at UK Festival Awards".
63. Insights, Festival. (30 October 2015). "UK Festival Awards 2015 – The Shortlists".
64. "All the winners from the 2016 UK Festival Awards".
65. "Creamfields and Download amongst winners at UK Festival Awards 2016".
66. "Creamfields Home".

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