For any seasoned dance festival goer, Creamfields was a far cry from the usual electro scene. Granted, they had some big name djs taking the stage, and they even tried to add electro-pop spice with costumed stilt-walkers and a festooned carnival ride. But these techno tokens failed to disguise the fact that the audience lacked energy.
When Calvin Harris took the stage as the first big act, you could literally walk right through the crowd to the front… because no one was dancing. There was plenty of awkward bobbing action going on though: festival goers would sway back and forth to the hard hitting beat with a look on their face asking, “Is this what we’re supposed to be doing?” Harris himself put on a brilliant performance, despite the chatty spectators who seemed to think he was a jazz act at a cocktail party.
As the night continued, things started to improve. The House and Underground tents filled up fast, and props to Laidback Luke for putting on the best show of the evening. He figured out that the crowd likes anything they’ve heard on Radio One, and began mixing top ten samples with dancier electro beats. The tent almost fell down from all the teenyboppers leaping around.
Given that Emirates Palace played host to Creamfields, the event was classier than typical fest fare. Instead of grimy porta-potties, there were fancy bathroom trailers staffed by cleaning attendants. Prices matched the venue, with drinks going for premium amounts of money. And the cost of VIP tickets—a hefty Dhs995 —was comical, considering the fact that the VIP area was mostly empty and offered no discounts at the bar (although the performed moisturizer in the VIP women’s restroom was a nice touch).
By the time DeadMau5 donned his infamous mouse mask, the festival goers had warmed up. The awkward bobbing of earlier was replaced with some tentative dancing, jumping, and even a bit of moshing up at the front. If Creamfields Abu Dhabi becomes an annual thing, we recommend tossing out the ‘all-ages’ policy—the dance mood is killed when there’s an overflux of younger guests wandering around at 2 a.m.
Considering the fact that Creamfields was the first electro music festival to hit the Middle East, it gets an A+ for effort. They pulled in the big-name djs, set up giant speakers, and got people dancing(ish). But it’s got a long way to go before it can come close to matching the electro-fests elsewhere.
A slightly sterile tone permeated the entire night—the event was lacking the outrageous whimsy that makes DJ festivals so successful. At any other electro event I’ve attended, the crowd dresses crazy. They throw on their monochrome plastic jackets and douse their hair in glitter. Light show masters thrust glowsticks through darkness to paint pink and green neon landscapes. Dancers contort robotically in time with the beat, using moves that would look ridiculous anywhere else. People show up ready to let loose and that’s exactly what they do. It’s supposed to be a realm of fantasy for dance goers, and that type of fun was conspicuously absent at Creamfields on Friday.
