Abu Dhabi to hold Creamfields event

Loveday Morris

• Last Updated: October 20. 2009 4:47PM UAE / October 20. 2009 12:47PM GMT

ABU DHABI // Creamfields, a British dance festival that has already extended its brand to 15 countries, will come to the UAE for the first time on December 11 for a one-day festival in the grounds of the Emirates Palace hotel, event organisers said yesterday.

It will be the first time the country has played host to a major outdoor dance festival, and it is expected to become an annual event for the capital, said John Lickrish, managing director of Flash Entertainment.

The line-up for the festival, which for much of its early existence was held on an abandoned airfield near Liverpool, will be formally announced at a later date.

The festival will include both “up-and-coming” and “iconic” dance acts, Mr Lickrish said. Past performers at Creamfields include Paul Oakenfold, the Chemical Brothers, Groove Armada and Basement Jaxx.

Flash aims to bring an increasingly diverse range of music to the city, after securing a series of more mainstream acts in the past two years, including Shakira, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake.

“We’ve done a lot of mainstream pop acts and the dance scene in the region seems to be very popular so we thought we’d do something a little bit different and diversify our portfolio of entertainment,” Mr Lickrish said.

Creamfields began in 1998 in Winchester, with a line-up including Run DMC and Primal Scream, to provide club-goers with a large-scale outdoor event. It drew 25,000 in its first year and moved to the old Liverpool Airfield, where it remained until 2005 when the site was purchased for development. The UK festival now takes place in Daresbury, Cheshire.

Creamfields has grown into an international brand, with events in countries including Spain, Poland and the Czech Republic.

The Abu Dhabi event is expected to attract a crowd of around 10,000, drawing dance music fans from across the region, Mr Lickrish said.

Victoria Townsend, 23, a UK native who works in Abu Dhabi, said she would definitely buy tickets.

“I’d love to go,” she said. “I go to festivals like Creamfields all the time in the UK, and there’s absolutely nothing here like that. There are concerts, and events in clubs in Dubai but not festivals, nothing big like that.”

The grounds of the Emirates Palace will be transformed, dotted with chill-out areas and stalls, said Flash. There will be a main stage, where the headliners will perform, and other smaller arenas, including a “house tent”.

“We’ll have a lot of entertainment around it; it’s not just about DJs and a stage,” said Mr Lickrish. “It’s more of a festival feel and there are things to do in the day, all kinds of different activities.”

He said he did not foresee any extraordinary security issues for the event, as there was “not a lot of rowdiness” in the dance community, but said Flash would co-ordinate closely with the police and other emergency services on safety issues.

The latest Creamfields festival in the UK drew more than 60,000 fans, many of whom camped to enjoy two days of music. Eight hundred police officers were brought in, and 10 people were arrested for drink-driving. Twenty-one others were cautioned for drug offences, local press reported.

Though the dance music scene abroad is often associated with recreational drugs, it is a minority that give it a bad name, Mr Lickrish said. “That’s not what these events are about, it’s about the music.”

With no similar events in the UAE before, he said Flash had made an effort to persuade artists and agents to perform here.

“It’s sometimes hard to convince the performer that Abu Dhabi’s the place to come,” he said.

“They don’t want to go out into an empty arena and whether the market has the potential for doing well it’s a concern, and there’s nothing to show them that’s gone before.”

Nevetheless, Flash has booked a host of acts over the last few months, including Beyoncé, Jamiroquai, Aerosmith and the Kings of Leon for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix event, and The Killers for a concert next month.

“Hosting Creamfields Abu Dhabi will ensure that the city instantly becomes recognised as a key destination on the dance festival circuit and we are proud to be making this happen,” Mr Lickrish said.

James Barton, chief executive of Cream Group, which owns the Creamfields brand, said festival-goers in Abu Dhabi could expect “the very best line-up of DJs who aren’t scared to push musical boundaries and who are every bit as enthusiastic about playing their set as the crowd are for hearing it.”

lmorris@thenational.ae