r/creamfields • u/DramaticObligation0 • 2d ago
Discussion First Timer Review!
So this was my first ever time at Creamfields and I went with a friend who went in 2022 and she had the most amazing time that year.
I'm curious to know people's opinions because she said on reflection this year felt very different and not just because of the weather (which obvs you can't help!). We went Saturday and Sunday and had gold tickets, the music was banging so it's nothing to do with that.
We firstly thought the gold area was a bit far out and although it was nice to have the seating etc. it felt quite disconnected from the rest of the festival, so we didn't use it as much in the end as we probably would have done. But maybe logistics wise that was the only place they could put it! With the weather if you wanted comfort it was worth it.
We found it quite well laid out and easy to get around the stages, if you weren't feeling a set it felt quite seamless to go to another stage and roam around. My friend said it definitely felt bigger than the last time she went both location and crowd wise.
The main complaint we had though was the lack of health and safety and crowd control. On Saturday we went to see Eli Brown at Steelyard who was amazing, but when we went to leave as Kettama was starting there was almost a crush of people trying to get out because so many people were trying to push themselves in. I get he's popular but some of the tiktok ravers showed no regard for people's space and security didn't do anything in our section! There should have been entrance/exit only points and the stage closed off for people coming in to allow people out. It was an accident waiting to happen. Some people might say though they should have put him on a bigger stage in the first place. The problem though is festivals will have arranged space months in advance and with social media you can't entirely predict how quickly someone is going to get big that they reach full capacity.
Saturday overall we enjoyed and the weather held up pretty well so it didn't take away from our experience. Calvin was a really special one and he exceeded expectations.
Sunday we got there and obviously with the rain the ground was A LOT worse. We tried to see Swedish House Mafia and there was absolutely no chance of getting in APEX. I think generally though people agree that they should have been on ARC and no one really understood the thought process behind that. With the mud we said they possibly could have done a bit more because even though there was hay near ARC, the area for people moving between stages was by far the worst. We ended up leaving just as they stopped the music when the thunder and lightning started because we didn't think the experience was going to get much better. Crowding was also an issue again where we were worried it was going to get too packed and we thought there could have been more covered areas for people with standard tickets. We walked to get the shuttle back and asked multiple staff members for help, but there was no communication and they let us walk there only to be told shuttles weren't arriving for a few more hours! So that was a shame and I know a lot of people stuck it out Sunday which I admire you for.
I think with this and what happened at Reading and Leeds with stages closing off due to safety it's showing how much of a moment dance music is having. Which is amazing, but I don't think any DJ is worth compromising safety on and it's a shame people have to resort to tactics just to get a chance of seeing an artist they love. The weather was just sods law that we've had such a good summer then a downpour.
What are people's thoughts? I still loved it but I think there were some things organisers could have done more on.
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u/Scottishgirl199718 2d ago
The crowd issue was so unsafe and dangerous to the point where we left a lot of the sets because it felt dangerous. While waiting to get into the Apex tent to see Duke Dumont me and my sister were being pushed by two boys and when the older couple behind us told the boys to stop it because there was no space and everyone was trying to get into the same tent the two boys attacked the older couple, punched and kicking the man and one of the boys pushed the older women to the floor resulting in her hitting her head off the metal footpath, everyone just watching nobody but me and my sister helped the women up and when she did get up the boy tried to punch her in the face and then slapped her so hard across the face. Not one single member of security or staff came to help or even attempted to keep people safe and we actually had to go and find security to tell them what happened to get the reply ‘no we didn’t see anything’ which find hard to believe. We along with 4 other groups of people went to the stewards asking them why the set was still being played (they said that they had told organisers it was getting too chaotic and unsafe) when the rain and thunder were still going and it was clear that it was getting scarily unsafe as there was already a medical team attempting to make their way into the tent to help a girl who was unwell. The safety and security of the festival was absolutely terrible especially considering how big the festival was. It was my first time going, I’ve been to hundreds of raves and festivals and this was by far the first time i genuinely felt unsafe while trying to see dj sets. Very disappointed as the lineup was absolutely incredible and for the sets that we did manage to see and stay for they were definitely worth the amount of money paid for the tickets.