We arrived at Creamfields at 4.30 and were directed to the nearest car park. To our amazement we had to pay £5 to park. Having no choice in the matter, we parked up and made our way to the site. There were 1000's of frustrated clubbers queuing up, many of which had been there since 2.30. There weren't any toilets located outside the festival, so there were many desperate people running around trying to find somewhere to relieve themselves, most of them were directed by the police to the nearest bush. I then purchased my line up which cost me £6. It will never cease to amaze me how fleeced we are getting in clubland. They know we will pay it because we have paid £55 entrance and £5 to park, so we aren't gonna waste that money by missing our favourite dj's!!

'Everybody Stop Pushing the doors are opening soon' was the message heard from the helicopter circling above. The gates finally opened at 4.50pm, apparently after a little push from a frustrated crowd. Our wait wasn't so bad, it's the people who were standing there for nearly 2 hours I feel sorry for. So what was the reason?? We heard two rumours, one from the police saying Cream hadn't signed the Health and Safety license and couldn't open the door until they had & another from a worker saying they had no tills, whether either of them are true, I'm not sure, but who cares we were on our way in!!

The sun was creeping through the clouds and we made our way to the Goodgreef tent. The tent was huge with giant light bulbs running down the middle. The atmosphere was rolling, the tension must have been building up in the queue because Liverpool's party was already in full swing!!

We headed over to aftershock tent and as described in the flyer, it was an instant party. Free water pistols for all, after soaking everyone I knew(and some I didn't), I was challenged to a sumo duel, oh what fun it was too, we couldn't stop laughing, we were rolling around on the floor like two fast food addicts, struggling to get up.
We went inside the aftershock tent to see our very own Stu Bradley, and what a set it was. I was slightly dubious when I heard Stu was playing the aftershock tent but my worries were put to one side when Stu took to the decks. He had the 150 strong crowd in the palm of his hand. Starting off with Radio 4 - Absolute Affirmation [cosmos dub mix] nicely warming the crowd up, following with Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence, Stu's final tune was the highlight of my night and by the cheesy grins on everyone elses faces it seemed to be a winner all round, it was Yeke Yeke mixed with sweet dreams, the most perfect bootleg I have ever heard Well done Stu!!

Deep Dish in the Essential Mix Arena were next, the sound in this arena was awful, it was so quiet you could easily have a conversation without raising your voice, such a shame because it nearly took away from the atmosphere. Not what I expected from Pete and the boy's at Radio 1. Deep Dish were wicked as usual, playing deep dirty house with some nice surprises like Three Drives - Greece 2004 and finishing off with Deep Dish - Say Hello. Always a winner!!

New York's much acclaimed band was next. The Scissor Sisters on the Outdoor Stage, the crowd was huge, they were late starting, it was beginning to get cold so the anticipation was building, When Ana Matronic announced 'America may be the land of the brave but England was land of the rave' the crowd went wild. I wasn't a big Scissor Sisters fan before, obviously I have heard their hits, but they certainly surprised me. They had so many different songs ranging through all genres, mixing dance music, pop and glam rock in such a brilliant way; they had so much energy on stage, most of the time holding a steady 4/4 beat with some funky bass lines on top. When they played Laura all you could hear was 1000's of people singing along.. Another great tune was their cover of Comfortably Numb which I really enjoyed. I heard a few moans from the Pink Floyd faithfuls but I really enjoyed it as did thousands of others. Big up the Scissor Sisters!!

After a wander around we made our way to Goodgreef tent, on the decks was Paul Oakenfold. Good job we arrived early as the tent was full to the seams, 8000 excited clubbers packed in like sardines. The atmosphere was sensational, the tunes were banging out. Man with No Name - Teleportation, Oakie's 2004 remix of U2 - Beautiful day, Tina Hie - Traffic & a Sarah McGlachlan tune, im not sure of the name.

Next was our favourite South American - Hernan Cattaneo. This was definitely the highlight of the festival. Setting down his eclectic deep house from the beginning, he was toying with the crowd with his hypnotic vocals, mixing them in with his tribal & progressive beats. Always a favourite of ours, we dragged all of our gang to see him, as expected he won them all over. Including the banging trance fans along with the funky house divas!

Back to the Goodgreef tent for Ferry Corsten, the tent was rocking. The highlight of is set being Rock Your Body Rock!! The roars seemed to raise the roof. Ferry is my favourite of the trance superstars, he manages to retain the best parts of trance but leaves the cheesy repetitive rifts alone!! He knows when to bang it out, and bang it out he did, 4am on a wet windy morning in Liverpool 1000s of clubbers making shapes to his mix of Trance, Techno, Breaks and Hard House.

Our legs were starting to protest about the constant stomping they had received for the last 12 hours, we started to collect our friends and head for the gate. Creamfields is always fun, it's the big send off to the summer & hailing from Liverpool it's always a good opportunity to get together with your nearest and dearest.
By J McLean

www.cream.co.uk

• Contact Us
• About Us
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Feedback Form
• Submit Link
• Search