We’re starting to get pretty excited about the upcoming Creamfields festival in Abu Dhabi – not least because of the potential showdown between joint headliners Armin van Buuren and David Guetta. After ruling DJ Mag’s prestigious Top 100 for four years running, van Buuren was knocked off the top spot last year by house-pop hitmaker Guetta. But in this year’s poll the Dutchman has reclaimed his crown, with Guetta (who’s French, incidentally) sliding down three places. Who will rule on the night behind the decks?
Those unlikely rivals aside, with the full line-up for the Sunday December 9 gig now released, we’re also intrigued to hear that Example, fresh from pulling out of Sandance last month with an Achilles injury, has been added to the bill, alongside other headliners AN21 & Max Vangeli, ARTY, Riva Starr and maDJam. However in sadder times we’ve heard there’ll be just two stages this year, with local promoters Audio Tonic not hosting a tent this time. For a full preview of the event, see the November 28 issue of Time Out.
It’s a week of big festival news, with more details emerging about the next Atelier/Festival. We were surprised when both Gorillaz and Faithless were down to play the Monday December 31 gig – despite the fact both bands have split up. As we guessed last week, it’s now been confirmed that it will be a Gorillaz Sound System set without founder Damon Albarn, although a source told us the Blur frontman might come over anyway, just to see in the New Year.
We don’t like to say ‘I told you so’, but we were right about Faithless, too – it’s a live PA and DJ set from two of the now-defunct quartet, Maxi Jazz and Sister Bliss (the latter played Sandance for NYE 2011/12). However, despite this news, with sets now confirmed from DJ giant Armand van Helden, Euro-pop singers September and Inna, plus two more headliners to be announced, it’s shaping up to be quite a show. And let’s not forget bill-topping Snoop Dogg, who may or may not be bringing his new reggae alias, ‘Snoop Lion’. Enough talk for now – it’s time to get out and party.
