Irish creamery flutter

34,000 bodies mashed into five tents and entertained by some of the best dance musicians and DJs in the world. Sound like fun? Well it was, and as festivals go, Creamfields was a buzz on just about every level.

The day had something to offer the dedicated clubber no matter what style of music they preferred. Indeed, the mix of people at Creamfields is one of its main attractions, with trance-dollies in furry bras and glitter mixing it with blissed-out techno-heads in baggy jeans and Diesel; these people probably wouldn’t bump into each other in a whole weekend of serious clubbing at home – here they were one, even if they were not the same!

The Lush tent offered hard-house, while Cream purveyed a trancier groove, complete with go-go dancing girls on-stage (presumably meant to be ironic!). Techno fiends were best off at the Bugged Out arena, especially when Luke Slater came on, and jungle or drum ‘n’ bass devotees – though there weren’t a whole lot of them – were well served by the Metalheadz posse, including a storming set by Eastenders’ Goldie.

Of the highlights on the Main Stage, our very own Mr Spring was as good on the day as any of the imported talents – some of whom, notably Paul Oakenfold and Darren Emerson, have probably had better gigs. Nevertheless, there were storming sets by Norman Cook – employing every crowd-pleasing, cheesy trick in the book and still coming across as cool as a frozen cucumber – and Beck, who, while he can hardly be called a dance performer in the classic sense still managed to deliver a storming set. Well, apart from the rather ill-considered acoustic interlude, which led to a discernible thinning of the early evening crowd.

If you were there, we hope you had as much fun as we did. If you weren’t, check out our photos and you’ll get a feel for what you missed…