Creamfields Festival

Every August, a sprawling field near Northwich transforms into one of Europe's biggest electronic music festivals. Creamfields pulls in over 150,000 people for a long weekend of live stages, DJs, and the sort of organised mayhem that makes for proper memorable holidays.

The festival spans multiple arenas - each with its own vibe, from techno to house to drum and bass - so even if one stage isn't your thing, you've got options. The production is genuinely impressive: massive screens, lasers, pyrotechnics. Yes, you'll be standing in mud if it rains, and yes, the portaloos get grim by Sunday morning, but that's rather the point.

It's absolutely for dance music fans, obviously. If you don't care about electronic music, you'll have a miserable time. Families rarely attend - this is proper rave territory. The festival runs annually in August and requires advance ticket purchase; day passes sell out quickly.

Staying in Cheshire for the weekend makes sense. Belmont Hall Camping sits just five miles away and gets booked up fast during festival season - book months ahead if you want it. Cheshire Glamping at Lady Heyes offers something less spartan if you're not keen on sleeping in a tent while sleep-deprived and half-deaf. The glamping pods are a reasonable middle ground between campsite roughing it and hotel comfort.

If you're into electronic music and don't mind a bit of festival grime, Creamfields is worth the trip north. Just accept what you're signing up for and get there with realistic expectations.