Written by: Anna Loumbrozo
Creamfields you beautiful, messy thing! ❤️
Hard to believe it’s already been a couple of weeks since we were treading through your glorious mud-fields, and honestly, I’m still thinking about this weekend. For those who know me well, you know that rain at a festival is basically my nemesis. I despise it!
This was by far the muddiest festival experience I’ve ever had, and somehow, I had the absolute BEST time. The music was sensational, the atmosphere was electric, and there were so many moments throughout the weekend where I was just ridiculously happy to be there. It was my second Creamfields, and somehow I loved it even more this time around.
There were SO many highlights, so let’s recap how the 20th anniversary of the event being held at its iconic home in Daresbury Estate, Cheshire went!
Friday
Friday started with rushing straight to I Hate Models at the Steel Yard upon arrival, where he played a sick new remix of David Guetta’s “Love Is Gone”.
From there, I headed over to Ben Nicky at Native, who brought out all the classics, including Nadia Ali’s “Rapture”. It was exactly what I wanted from a Friday night, with so many awesome sing-along tracks and such a fun crowd.
Fisher was another HUGE favorite of mine. Everyone was there to have the best time and dance hard, and his visuals were absolutely hilarious. What a party!
Finally, we closed night 1 with the one-and-only Carl Cox, who threw down as always and played one of my favorite remixes of the entire weekend from Prospa & Cloonee’s “Free Your Mind” – simply unreal.
Saturday
Saturday is always my favorite day of the festival because it’s the longest, and this year it went until 4am. You know we were there until the very end!
It was also Drum & Bass day, aka one of my favorite genres, so I was very much in my element. There was so much space to dance at the d&b stage, and I managed to walk right up to the rail for both Kanine and Culture Shock and absolutely rocked out.
I also always feel like the d&b stages have some of the best vibes, and this was no exception.
And of course, Saturday was Calvin Harris night! I’ve been waiting years to finally see Calvin again, and wow, did he deliver.
He played such a beautiful set with all of his classics, both old and new, and hearing him play Avicii’s “Levels” was such a special moment. It was honestly a little emotional hearing that song in that setting.
I also got to meet up with a group of local ladies as well as some friends from California, which made the day even more fun.
We took advantage of the fact that there are SO many stages at Creamfields and popped into a bunch of different areas throughout the day, including Teletech for some hard techno.
The Forest stage was also such a vibe, and one of my favorite things about Creamfields is that there is always something completely different happening somewhere – you just have to find it!
Sunday
Sunday started with a mission to make it to Swedish House Mafia at Apex for their 3pm set.
The festival shuttle buses took a little longer than expected (I stayed at a hotel in nearby Liverpool) and the lines getting in were longer, so once I finally made it through the gates, I basically ran to the stage. It was packed, but we managed to get in, and it was absolutely worth it.
Swedish House Mafia are always so special to me. Their songs are timeless, and hearing them surrounded by thousands of people who share their love for them was such a joy.
They ended with their newest track “Happiness Is So Sad”, which was a great way to wrap up the set.
After that, it was time for all the Sunday side quests and checking out everything I hadn’t managed to see yet. We found the San Miguel side stage, which had really good house music in a small, intimate space where you could get right up to the DJ, complete with a disco ball hanging from the ceiling.
We finally checked out Ravers Return too, which is basically a full-on beer garden and actually ended up being such a nice place to chill. We climbed upstairs and had an amazing view of the entire festival, which gave us a chance to really take it all in.
Then we headed back to the Hospitality tent to grab some food, where they were playing Defected Records style tunes with live saxophone!
Of course, that’s when the rain decided to really make a full-blown appearance!
It started absolutely pouring, so we chilled in the Hospitality area for a while, and the rain was so intense that the music even had to stop for a few minutes all throughout the festival.
We had a few drinks, met a lovely couple, and ended up having a really nice chat with them. Honestly, everyone we met throughout the weekend was so friendly.
Once the rain finally stopped, we listened to a little more music before making our way to one of my favorite duos, Gorgon City, at the Halo stage.
Gorgon City absolutely mesmerized me and this ended up being my favorite set of the entire weekend. They just went SO hard, and they have this way of completely hypnotizing me. We made it pretty close to the front, which made it even better, and I genuinely did not want the set to end.
We closed out the whole festival with the one and only Sonny Fodera, and there is something so special about seeing Sonny in the UK.
It was definitely another “sing-along-with-Sonny” moment, as I like to call it, with everyone around us singing along to his anthems. He brought out the incredible Becky Hill, played a Calvin Harris track along with his classics, and even dropped Rufus Du Sol’s “Innerbloom”, before closing out with his anthem “Somedays” alongside a fireworks display.
Looking out at the crowd and seeing everyone together, singing, smiling and completely into the music was such an incredible way to close out the weekend.
Until Next Time!
There were SO many other moments I’ll be talking about for a while too, from finally seeing Calvin after all these years, racing to make Swedish House Mafia at 3PM, being right at the front for Dom Dolla at The Steel Yard while it was pouring outside and having absolutely no idea what was happening out there, and getting to dance on the rail for Culture Shock and Kanine.
One of my favorite things about Creamfields is how much there is to discover.
There are so many stages and different sounds, huge productions and little pockets of energy happening everywhere. Of course, that also means there are WAY too many set clashes!
Add in all the incredible people I met along the way, the electric atmosphere, and just having the freedom to wander around and completely lose yourself in the music, and it’s easy to remember why I came back for round two.
Yet, somehow, even with all the rain and mud, I had the absolute time of my life. If you know me, you know that is saying A LOT!
Creamfields, thank you for one of the most fun weekends of the year.
The music was sensational, the people were amazing, and I genuinely loved every muddy, chaotic, ridiculously fun second of it.
Until next time!