The first ever Creamfields Ireland takes place on June 24th at Punchestown Racecourse. Situated only twenty five minutes by car from Dublin, and boasting a line up that brings together some of the best names in modern dance music, the event is a welcome addition to the increasingly busy Irish festival calendar.
Despite the resounding success of Homelands at the end of April and a load of other open air music events planned for the Summer months, event promoters MCD are confident that the event will sell out, attracting 30,000 clubbers to Punchestown. After all, by the last week in June, all those frustrated students will have finished their exams and, MCD hope that the sun will make an appearance.
Although Creamfields Ireland is one in a series of Creamfields events the Liverpool superclub are hosting one in their hometown and plan to bring Creamfields to mainland Europe this year the Irish event has more than its fair share of local talent rubbing shoulders with the international names.
For starters, there s Digital Beat s own Mark Kavanagh in the Cream arena. One of the longest serving Irish spinners, Mark has just signed to esteemed UK hard house stamp Tripoli Trax, with a mix CD planned for release this year. In the 2FM/BBM Outdoor Arena, Mark s old sparring partner Mister Spring (aka Timmy Hannigan) plays back to back with 2FM s John Power, while the insanely irritating but undoubtedly popular Mark Maniac McCabe makes an appearance in the same arena.
Elsewhere, Kitchen resident Podje and Lush! regular Col Hamilton hope he s wearing those designer wellies again spin in the Cream Arena, Bass Odyssey bring their breaks to the Metalheadz zone and Glen Brady s new live project, Third Eye Surfers open up proceedings in the Bugged Out! Tent. Despite initial fears that the Creamfields Ireland line up would consist entirely of UK DJs, MCD have allowed Dublin nightclub The Kitchen host their own arena, a sign that the organizers have recognised the importance and popularity of Irish jocks.
With appearances from fast rising Irish names like live act Decadence, house DJ Raymond Franklin and DJ Ted, who recently reactivated Galway s GPO label with his debut single, Freedom , the arena also boasts some of the most respected Irish DJs. There s disco house Cork spinner Angie, former PoD resident Paddy Sheridan, Norn Iron trancers Agnelli and Nelson and the headline slot comes from DJ of the people, the ever green, always entertaining Kitchen resident Francois.
Cream have obviously worked closely with the promoters of Metalheadz and Bugged Out! to programme the UK and international section of the bill, meaning that although the Creamfields bill doesn t have much in the way of US house or garage, it has a formidable techno, hard house/trance, breaks n beatz and drum n bass offering.
Metalheadz has slots from Storm, Doc Scott, Randall, V Recordings boss Bryan G and drum n bass don Goldie, there s cool hip-hop from emerging UK acts The Scratch Perverts and People Under the Stairs and the peak time sound of banging, snare roll inflected trance is taken care of by The World s Most Successful DJ Paul Oakenfold, Cream residents Paul Bleasdale and Seb Fontaine and two of the UK s hardest working, most in demand spinners, Tall Paul and Judge Jules.
David Holmes has just released his third album, Bow Down To The Exit Sign, so expect anything from weird sixties psychedelia to Public Enemy when he takes to the decks, and Jon Carter and Cut La Roc s new found tuff house direction should be worth a gander too. Meanwhile, Mo Wax boss James Lavelle takes a break from discovering booty music for a few hours of eclectic mayhem. The Jockey Slut affiliated Bugged Out! has always supported techno through thick and thin, so it comes as no surprise that the Manchester club has got Dave Baron Of Techno Clarke, Chicago s finest, Felix Da Housecat, Darren Emerson check his new Global Underground mix CD and a headline live performance from Laurent Garnier, the man who made the genre sound sexy again.
The headline acts for the event are four across the board live acts, representing a general return to open minded attitudes in dance music. There s appearances from Basement Jaxx, who last year revolutionized modern house music with the ragga, garage, Latin and soul influenced anthems of their debut album and The Chemical Brothers, who ve come a long way from their student days in Manchester to a zeitgeist capturing, block rocking dance act, and an anticipated performance by r&b goddess Kelis, responsible for the ball busting Kaleidoscope album.
Meanwhile, the fourth and final headline act, Moloko, the authors of the Ibiza conquering Bring It Back and The Time Is Now are fronted by an Irish woman, Roisin, just one of the homegrown highlights Creamfields Ireland has to offer.