That mad, fervent rush that can only be associated with peak season made its return last night with the arrival of not just the BBC Radio 1 weekend, but also Creamfields festival. In Ibiza, every single night of the week, all across the island, you've got enough DJs to fuel a festival, but it's all the more special to have one right here that's been cracking on in the UK since 1998. Creamfields was only making its second ever appearance on the White Isle, but it outdid even its own ridiculously high standards, unsurprisingly leading to crowds descending in their droves to soak up the madness.
This global badboy has now been everywhere from Portugal to Peru, and this year it shacked up at the world famous Space to help celebrate its final ever year - taking over the entire venue to fill it with musical goodness. We of course thrust ourselves right into the heart of the 10-hour raveathon to smell it, see it and hear it. Here's our lowdown of the standout scenes that touched us to our raving cores last night.
Dance music breeds
Give us a list of electronic music genres and Creamfields would have a big batch of them ticked right off. The line-up of over 30 names, which included legends like Armin Van Buuren, DJ EZ, Roger Sanchez, Pete Gooding, Jason Bye and Ben Santiago, had trance chucked in there with classic house stormers, Balearic house, deep house and UK garage. The line-up included, to use a clichéd phrase, 'something for everyone', so every member of the die-hard crowd got something to tickle their earbuds across the spread of rooms last night.
Armin Van Buuren smashin' the trance
The trance titan fuelled La Discoteca with breeds of trance that ranged from the old school to the new school quarters. Arms out with the big hugs over the decks and lasers joining the dots between ravers, van Buuren got the main room proper amped. At a time when trance is experiencing a bit of a revival, especially in bringing in the classics even from the techno camp, champion moments like hearing Chicane's euphoric monster, 'Saltwater', went down a storm.
Ravenous raving
Creamfields has global appeal, but as a UK brand, it's the Brits who make the annual pilgrimage to the island year in year out, and this summer they arrived in their masses. The beast of a session drew in a crowd that was packed out with Great Britain passport holders, but as a nation that propelled dance music to the stratosphere back in the early '90s and hasn't relented on its hunger for a good showdown, it's a recipe that produces a top crowd with a ton of energy and ridiculous amount of dance moves, and last night didn't disappoint.
Characters and chat up lines
Ibiza is a magnet for the eccentrics. If you're after the sort of characters who wouldn't be shy to have a block of cheese on a leash, then this is where you'd come. Creamfields is the kind of bash that has no barriers for dance floor expression and rampant fist pumping, and air pockets were well and truly pummeled. But your standout Creamfields cat from last night had to be the raver who stood out from the pack due to his penchant for metal facial decoration. And the chat up line award goes to your man who told me to stop looking at him without having received one glance. He got a couple after that.
Top tunes
A round up of the top moments from a biggie like Creamfields can't go without mentioning the most dance-inducing tunes of the night. In total, there were too many to mention, and as already nodded to, there were cuts from all flavours that rest under the electronic umbrella. Here's our playlist of some of the best, so get your ears around this and enjoy. We'll see you all on the dance floor next year.
WORDS | Aimee Lawrence PHOTOGRPAHY | James Chapman
