Festivals
Review
Creamfields delivers two new stages and an all-star line-up for 2025
With the addition of two brand new stages, Creamfields once again proved why it's the torchbearer of rave culture
Creamfields might lack the name-brand recognition of festivals like Glastonbury or Reading, but for UK ravers it’s basically the centre of the universe. Each year, the festival turns a field in Cheshire into a debauched celebration of all things dance music, platforming some of the biggest names across all genres of EDM and sparing no expense when it comes to production. 2025 was no exception.
This year saw the addition of two new stages: HALO – a 45-meter diameter circular arena offering ravers the opportunity to immerse themselves in 360 degrees of booming bass and hypnotic visuals – and The Forest Stage, which, as its name suggests, was decked out in a suitably surreal woodland theme. Returning stages like APEX – a 30,000-capacity indoor arena with a monstrous sound system – and The Arc Stage – an outdoor venue flanked by giant screens and stacks of speakers – were all given technical tune-ups, ensuring that this year’s Creamfields looked, sounded and felt better than ever.
Didn’t make it to Creamfields this year? Here are a few highlights from across the four-day festival.
FISHER
In a 2017 interview with Esquire, DJ Harvey lamented, “I don’t know why people stare at the DJ. I grew up in a time when the focus was the people you were dancing with.” Sorry Harvey, but those times are long gone, and FISHER is at least partly to blame. When the Aussie tech-house titan headlined Creamfield’s APEX tent on Friday night, he was backed by a massive screen that looped increasingly unhinged visuals all starring himself (there was audible laughter at one that depicted FISHER twirling in a matching fur coat and bucket hat combo), a nod to the fact that his career has been propelled as much by an irresistibly fun personality and knack for social media virality as it has by the equally infectious beats he consistently pumps out. FISHER brought plenty of those too, and throughout his two-hour set there were beaming faces as far as the eye could see.
Chase & Status
While FISHER was strutting his stuff inside the APEX arena, Chase & Status were putting on a show at Arc Stage that was almost diametrically opposed, both visually and atmospherically. The London-based duo played their set in front of massive screens that were, for the most part, occupied by just a single block of colour, and lasers, pyrotechnics and fireworks were all deployed sparingly. Given the impressive technological capabilities of the stage, the restraint felt like a statement, with Chase & Status – currently basking in the success of ‘BADADAN’, their first single to top the UK charts – relying solely on their deep arsenal of sinister, bone-shaking beats to get the crowd going. And going they got, transforming the field in front of the Arc Stage into a sea of gun-fingers aimed at the sky.
John Summit
He might have been dubbed “the hottest name in dance music” by Rolling Stone, but John Summit has yet to attain household name status among British ravers. After the masterclass he laid down inside the Steel Yard tent at this year’s Creamfields, we’d bet that’s about to change. Summit’s set was all energy, with the Chicago native dripping a combination of sweat and the kind of earnest enthusiasm that only an American DJ could pull off as he expertly wove together hands-in-the-air house with grittier tech beats. The performance ended memorably, with a blast of confetti and flame marking the final drop of ‘Go Back,’ Summit’s euphoric collaboration with Sub Focus.
Four Tet
Four Tet’s discography is perhaps more varied than that of any other electronic artist, and his sets can be equally unpredictable. But when Kieran Hebden stepped up to the decks at Creamfield’s HALO stage on Sunday evening, it was clear he’d come with a single purpose: to drop bangers. As the sun set and the tunes got progressively gnarlier the crowd swelled, with ravers who happened to be walking past sucked in by the thunderous basslines and scorching synths until the mass of bodies extended well beyond HALO’s boundaries. Hebden closed out proceedings with ‘Looking At Your Pager’ – an infectiously catchy ripper released under his KH alias – the track’s guttural wobbles sending those present into something not far off a frenzy.
Maddix
Once confined to the grimy underbelly of Rotterdam’s rave scene, hardstyle has been enjoying an upswell of popularity. Maddix – an early pioneer of the sound – has been riding the surge, and this year he rode it straight to Creamfields’ Misfit Stage. The Dutch producer’s set was packed full of vicious synths, mangled kicks and raucous acid riffs, although melodic reprieves were granted occasionally, giving ravers the chance to catch a breath before the savagery resumed. The visuals matched the sonics – all red lasers and dazzling strobes – while Maddix’s visage loomed down from a massive screen as if surveying the carnage being unleashed inside the tent.
Fatboy Slim
The rave scene’s foremost elder statesman, Fatboy Slim (real name Norman Cook) has been going strong for almost 40 years. If his 2025 Creamfields set is anything to go by, he won’t be slowing down any time soon. The 62-year-old big beat pioneer headlined his very own Fatboy Slim Loves stage on the festival’s final day, treating festivalgoers to feel-good belters and a mind-melting array of surreal visual effects. His set also featured one of the festival’s few political moments, with a jab at the American president drawing loud cheers and defiant middle fingers that carried a palpable sense of catharsis. Cook, for his part, danced and strutted his way around the stage with as much – and in many cases more – energy than other DJs half his age, clearly delighting in the adoration pouring off the crowd.
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