Review: Creamfields, August 25 2007

Celebrating it’s 10th anniversary, the Northwest's most famous dance festival pounded back in to action this bank holiday as 50,000 clubbers from across the UK and Europe descended upon the Creamfields site in Cheshire for 15 hours of non-stop stomping to, among others The Chemical Brothers, Mark Ronson and Kelis.

The sun blazed down as the music kicked off around with Mark Ronson live on the main stage. Despite being a somewhat unusual choice for a dance festival, the crowd seemed appreciative of his efforts. Unfortunately his success didn’t continue and his rather lame and unoriginal DJ set executed in the Beatdown tent later on inspired a mass exodus, leaving it half empty.

LCD Soundsystem had everyone bopping enthusiastically to their truly disco punk rock sound, the perfect warm up to Groove Armada who came on just as the sun was setting. Their repertoire of classic and new tunes had the crowd shakin’ their asses and when they banged out Superstylin, the entire field broke out in a unanimous bounce.

There were a number of unfortunate clashes - Groove Armada and The Chemical Brothers, one of the finest acts of the weekend, played at the same time as Simian Mobile Disco and the aforementioned Tom and Ed with their spectacular light and visual show, clashed with French DJ duo Justice - the jam packed line-up literally left people spoiled for choice but that’s an inevitability of any decent music festival.

There were too many artists to praise but a special mention must go out to Sven Vath and Dave Clarke who both played tremendous sets. But again, they clashed with each other - rather bad timing for two equally talented techno DJs. The site also seemed to have emptied out by the time they played from 4am - 6am. Elsewhere, highlights included 2 Many DJs, Carl Cox, David Guetta, Ferry Corsten and Above and Beyond.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t all good. The omnipresent scallies who seem to blight every Creamfields were out in force and seemed to be more aggressive than ever. Despite the metal detectors at the entrance, the increased CCTV and lighting and a no-tracksuit rule, at least one person had a knife pulled on them. And there are many reports of people having property stolen including sunglasses and hats straight from their heads – in fact not only did I witness two large fights but a friend had his watch taken from his wrist, along with his phone and wallet as he slept.

Security seemed too tight when it didn’t need to be and too lax when dangerous crowd situations began to develop. The stewards often seemed angry and uncooperative. Most of them didn’t know what was going on or who was in charge and they seemed to be doling out incorrect information.

However, the bad eggs remained in the minority. Most of the other festival-goers and all the bar staff I spoke to seemed more than willing to have a laugh, a dance and a random conversation.

Reports coming from the forum are paradoxical - some people believe it was the best ever Creamfields but others claim it to be the worst. I had a terrific time but can appreciate how people would be spooked by the intimidation of a few idiots looking for trouble. It’s a problem which affects every Creamfields, seemingly more so than other British festivals. If they manage to sort it out, Creamfields will most definitely deserve its accolade of best UK dance festival.