Creamfields 2026: the clash guide — set times are out, here are the hard calls

Set times are live in the official Creamfields app, and Daresbury now has a real timetable: 246 sets, 14 stages, roughly 290 hours of music across 27–30 August — with up to nine stages running at once by Friday evening. This guide replaces our pre-times planner with the actual hard calls, day by day.

FestWave is an independent tool — not affiliated with Creamfields. Times per the official Creamfields app timetable; slots can still shift, so re-check the app on the day.

One lineup change to absorb before anything else: John Summit is off the bill. He cancelled his remaining August festival dates (Creamfields included) ahead of his autumn arena tour, which is why the Apex has a Friday gap where his set was headed. FISHER now carries Friday's arena alone.

Thursday 27 August — arrive, don't peak

The soft open runs a tight 17:00–23:00 on four stages (Steel Yard, Cream, Nation, Rong). The card is built for settling in: Laidback Luke closes the Steel Yard 21:45–23:00, Ferreck Dawn (21:00) and Matt Sassari (22:00) hold Cream for the house heads, and Rong is a full trance room all evening (Richard Durand 21:00, Maria Healy, Tenishia). Nothing here should ruin your weekend planning — the only 22:00 decision is Laidback Luke vs Sassari vs Shugz. Bank the sleep; Saturday runs until 04:00.

Friday 28 August — the 21:30 triple: FISHER vs Carl Cox vs Disclosure

Friday opens at 15:00 and by 18:00 all nine of the day's stages are running — the weekend's peak concurrency. Two PSAs before the headline window:

Then the night splits three ways at once: FISHER owns the Apex 21:00–23:00, Carl Cox closes Halo 21:30–23:00, and Disclosure (live) close the Arc 21:30–23:00. Three generations of headliner, three stages, one window — this is Friday's referendum, and there's no partial credit: all three run to curfew.

The undercard around it: Lilly Palmer 20:30–21:45 on Nation (after a Ben Nicky → Darren Styles fast-lane run), Shy FX 20:00–21:30 in The Forest, Chris Stussy 19:30–21:00 on the Arc right before Disclosure, and Paul Oakenfold at 19:00 opening the Pepsi MAX trance evening. If you want Cox at full length, you're giving up all of FISHER; the split-the-difference route is Stussy → FISHER's first half-hour → Cox from 22:00.

Saturday 29 August — the conveyor, the 21:30 pile-up, and a 04:00 close

Saturday is the deepest day of the festival — 89 sets once you count the closers that run into Sunday's small hours, from 14:00 to 04:00. The Apex becomes a pure headliner conveyor: MK 17:00 → Armin van Buuren 18:45 → Martin Garrix 20:15 → Ben Hemsley 21:45 → Alesso 23:15 → Dimitri Vegas 00:45 → Third Party x DubVision x Matisse & Sadko 02:00–03:30.

The moment the whole weekend narrows to: 21:30. Calvin Harris starts on the Arc (21:30–23:00) while Garrix is still on the Apex until 21:45, Underworld (live) run the Steel Yard until 22:00, and Patrick Topping goes b2b with Rebūke on Halo 21:30–23:00. Four defensible answers, one body.

After midnight the field flips from arena to underground:

Pepsi MAX runs peak trance into hard dance (Mauro Picotto 18:30, Bryan Kearney, Billy Gillies 20:45, then Warface and Mish till 04:00). If you only buy one day ticket, it's still this one — and the timetable just made the shortlist problem worse, not better.

Sunday 30 August — Swedish House Mafia at THREE PM

The timetable's biggest shock isn't a clash, it's a slot: Swedish House Mafia play the Apex at 15:00–16:30. Not a misprint — the reunion-tour headliner is Sunday's mid-afternoon anchor. If you roll in at 19:00 expecting them to close, you'll have missed the booking of the day. Ewan McVicar (20:00–21:30) actually closes the Apex.

The evening then stacks the classics: Faithless (live) 20:00–21:00 into Tiësto 21:30–23:00 on the Steel Yard — a one-two for anyone who was raving in 1998 or wishes they had been — while Fatboy Slim headlines his own curated stage 21:00–23:00. The 21:30 closing wall is Tiësto vs Fatboy (mid-set) vs Sonny Fodera on the Arc vs Prospa on Halo vs Kolter deep in The Forest.

Earlier calls worth planning: Armand Van Helden 17:00 on the Arc, Becky Hill 19:30 against Faithless at 20:00 and Gorgon City at 20:00, Angerfist b2b Hardkar 20:30–21:45 for the Teletech faithful, and Ferry Corsten (15:45) → Aly & Fila (17:00) closing out the weekend's trance before Pepsi MAX turns hard (Coone 21:00, Sickmode 22:00).

Don't sort a poster, sort a shortlist

Two hundred forty-six sets and a nine-stage peak means you'll physically see maybe a tenth of this. The fix is knowing which sets are yours before you're standing in a field at 21:29.

That's what FestWave does: export your Spotify liked songs (two minutes, no login), upload the file, and the whole Creamfields timetable is colour-coded — green for artists already in your library, amber for acts that match your sound, hour by hour, with the after-midnight closers filed under the right night. The Garrix-or-Underworld question answers itself in one glance. Your library is read entirely in your browser and never uploaded.

Want to try it first? Every past festival on FestWave is free — build a grid for one and see how it works before the bank holiday.

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FAQ

How does FestWave know my music taste?

You export your own Spotify Liked Songs with the free Exportify tool and upload the CSV — or just pick your favourite artists by hand. The file is read in your browser; your music data never reaches our servers.

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Nothing right now — every 2026 festival is completely free, including the full personalised, editable grid. Just pick a festival and add your taste. Festivals in later years may become paid.

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What do the colours in the grid mean?

Green (★ Liked) — the artist is in your library. Amber (◆ Taste) — the act fits the genres you listen to most. Everything else just plays. You can click any set to re-tier it yourself.

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