118 arrested at Creamfields dance music festival

Police made 118 arrests at the UK’s biggest dance music festival over the bank holiday weekend.

The four-day Creamfields event held near Daresbury, Cheshire, which attracts 70,000 people, saw 164 crimes reported for a variety of offences, 99 being drug-related.

Cheshire Constabulary described the policing operation as “successful” with crime down on last year’s event.

The force did not give a breakdown of offences or say how many were violence-related.

Calvin Harris, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Eric Prydz and Fatboy Slim were some of the acts on over the four days.

Superintendent Sarah Heath, who led the policing operation, said: “Almost 70,000 people attend this year’s event and I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the vast majority of festival-goers for their co-operation and their behaviour and for all the agencies that worked together so well throughout.

“We recognise that large events can have an increased prevalence of drugs, and by working with other agencies in the run-up and during the weekend we have sought to address this.

“There were drugs dogs at entrances and opportunities for illegal substances and weapons to be placed in surrender bins along with an extensive search process by security personnel at entrances to the site.

“A conscious effort was also made to target those who were intent on supplying illegal substances at the event – which accounted for more than half of the arrests made – while we made use of other options available to us, such as community resolutions, for lower level offences.

“In addition, this year we had an increased presence with officers from Project Servator in attendance. This team’s aim was to deter and detect a range of criminal activity while providing a reassuring presence for the public.”

Project Servator is a national operation that works with partner agencies, including other police forces, businesses and the public, to protect people and make it difficult for criminals and terrorists to operate.