CREAMFIELDS

Relocated last year from the Old Liverpool Airfield, Speke, to Daresbury Estate in Cheshire, Creamfields UK drew more than 40,000 music fans to its green field site this year to see headliners the Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada, Kelis and LCD Soundsystem along with the extraordinary line-up of top DJs that the event is famous for.

    Dance lovers travelled from all corners of the UK and beyond, with many taking advantage of low-cost flights from Europe and the event’s close proximity to Manchester and Liverpool airports, resulting in an increase in international ticket sales. On the other hand, the relocation of the site away from Liverpool reduced the influx of spontaneous visits from youngsters who had just left the pubs and bars in the city centre, thus raising the quality of the clientele and ensuring only dedicated festival fans attended.

    The Chemical Brothers closed the main stage action with one of the finest performances in Creamfields’ history, while Groove Armada’s sunset appearance featured classic summertime highlights from their highly acclaimed new album. The man of the moment, Mark Ronson was one of the many stars of the day, living up to all expectations as he performed live on the main stage and DJ’d to a packed-out audience in the Beatdown Arena. Carl Cox’s highly anticipated return to the 10,000 capacity Cream Arena had thousands queuing to get in, and undeterred they enjoyed the music from the outside.

    Showsec has supported Creamfields event management company, Loud Sound, for a number of years, working in close partnership with them on many different events all over the country. During the run-up to the show, Showsec developed an all encompassing crowd management plan that covered everything from traffic management to on site crowd control for the 15-hour long event.

    The tailored crowd management plan covered the pit, ingresses and egresses, traffic flow, perimeter fences, the main tented structures, artist dressing rooms and backstage areas, using over 400 staff. Almost 50% of the 406 security staff provided for the event held SIA licenses, making them one of the most qualified teams to date.

    A senior management team was appointed to oversee operations. Showsec’s operations director, Mark Logan, was head of security for the festival. Accompanied by four qualified area managers, Alan Wallace, Steve Reynolds, Brian Lewis and Ken Gunn, from the company’s network of UK offices, he oversaw the implementation of the crowd management plan.

    Logan said the new site was a lot easier to manage than the last: “A good percentage of people now come in minibuses whereas before a lot of people were dropped off from central Liverpool and it was harder to time the ingress.”

    Production manager Lee Charteris said of the new site: “It’s more conducive to a festival; it’s amazing what a difference a few trees make. Speke was a bit more flat and dusty.”

    Logan explained that tight security was needed at this particular festival because visitors tend to treat it like a large nightclub, whereas when camping is involved at festivals people feel more like they are a guest.

    But Showsec is prepared for such demands: “This year the crowd management covered more areas than before, checking the authenticity of tickets using sophisticated PDA technology and introducing a ‘Challenge 21’ initiative. This ensured that everyone that looked below the age of 21 was asked for proof of ID and was wristbanded before entering the site, making it easier for the bars and concessions on site,” Logan said.

    “We also worked closely with the Police and Halton Borough Council to ensure the safety of the local community, as well as visitors to the site. With residential properties surrounding the estate and a constant flow of people and traffic to the site, all parties involved in safety procedures worked in tandem to ensure the sharing of information and the smooth running of the site.”

    Showsec has developed its security strategy since its first experience at the new site. Explained Logan: “This year we have a more flexible staffing schedule with a greater number on site managing certain areas, and an increase in the ratio of SIA approved staff; we have gone well beyond the requirement of legislation.”

    An increase in the number of staff at the peripheries of the event ensured people leaving the festival were kept moving, and directed away from the local community.

    Overall there were no major incidents and only 22 people received street cautions, mainly for drugs offences. James Barton, Cream’s CEO, said: “We are absolutely delighted with the overall operation of this year’s Creamfields. We are especially happy that the increased levels of security and policing prevented any major incidents and didn’t stop a very good natured crowd having a good time. We would like to thank all the agencies involved for helping this year’s show be one of the best to date.”

    Cheshire Police Inspector Paul Carroll was leading this year's planning team. He said: “Our policing operation achieved what we set out to do, which was to minimise any disruption to local residents and to ensure that visitors enjoyed the festival safely.”

    HSL supplied and co-ordinated lighting and sound production and 40 crew covering all 10 arenas for Loud Sound. ML Executives was brought onboard as HSL’s audio partner and all departments worked closely with Lee Charteris and Loud Sound’s Jim King and Jo MacKay. HSL’s on-site co-ordinator was Ian Stevens who collaborated with project manager Mike Oates.

    Two dedicated HSL crew chiefs, Dave Jolly and Jonny Harper, were appointed and spent a whole week in the warehouse ahead of the get-in to ensure that the six trucks’ worth of lighting arrived on-site fully prepped, tested and marked up for efficient deployment around the arenas.

    “The Creamfields operation ran the smoothest yet for us this year,” confirmed Oates, “and that was due to the rigorous prep and fantastic teamwork by all crew on-site.”

    Oates explained that they had learned much since their first year at the new site: “We ended up digging holes in the ground last year for the trussing because it was on such a slope! This year we’ve put all the trussing on the stage.”

     The main stage lighting was looked after for HSL by Steven Abbiss. HSL matched as many elements of both headline band’s lighting schemes as possible, and Groove Armada also contracted HSL separately to provide all their specials, including over 120 Element Labs VersaTube LED fixtures, built into six portable columns. The main rig included Robe ColorWash and ColorSpot 1200E ATs, Martin Atomic strobes and colour scrollers, linear 4-lites and 8-lites with scrollers, all arranged across a standard four-truss festival design.

    The trussing was used conventional style for Groove Armada and then re-configured in the changeover into a ‘V’ shape upstage of the Chemical Brothers’ Element Labs Stealth video screen. Groove Armada’s LD Jonny Gaskell used the house Whole Hog II (and Wing) lighting console, while Chemical Bros show director Ricardo Lorenzini brought in their own grandMA console (their LD is Tom Lesh) on which he ran all lighting and visuals.

    APL Event handled site management and logistics for the event. Gigabyte ensured the crew’s energy levels were kept to a maximum by providing a fantastic spread of food; A&J Roberts provided the big tops, Eve Trakway the fences, roads and barriers, Kingfisher put up all the marquees, ESP powered the site, Rock City supplied site crew, Mojo Barriers installed stage barriers and Star Events Group provided the stages and platforms.