Culture 3 min read By Mason Emerson
Police unearth buried drug stash at Creamfields festival site
Cheshire police discovered a large quantity of illegal drugs buried underground at the Creamfields festival site days before the event opens, including nitrous oxide canisters, ketamine, MDMA, and ecstasy.
Police have uncovered a large quantity of illegal drugs buried underground at the Creamfields festival site, just days before the event is set to welcome more than 80,000 attendees. The discovery came during a pre-event search of the grounds in Cheshire, where officers found 204 canisters of laughing gas, along with bags containing ketamine tablets, MDMA, and ecstasy.
Superintendent Andy Blizard said the find is part of a recurring pattern of festival-goers attempting to hide substances at the site well in advance of the event. “Every year, we counter a number of brazen individuals who think they can outsmart us by concealing drugs from view or burying them at the site months in advance,” he said, adding that police maintain a “zero-tolerance policy regarding drugs.”
The festival gates open Thursday, August 27, for the 2026 edition, with headliners including Eric Prydz, Calvin Harris, Swedish House Mafia, Alesso, Martin Garrix, Tiësto, and Disclosure. Blizard confirmed that additional searches of the grounds will take place over the coming days, meaning that “many of those who chose to bury these items” will be “very much disappointed to find them no longer where they left them.”
Police will be present at the festival alongside security staff throughout the weekend. In a lighthearted note, Blizard invited anyone who buried a rucksack at the site to “get in contact with us” if they want it back.
This is not the first time authorities have intercepted drugs stashed ahead of a major music event. In 2024, addiction counsellors at the Providence Project claimed that Oasis fans had “stashed drugs” in Manchester’s Heaton Park ahead of the band’s 2025 reunion shows. The rehab facility said members of the addiction community had told them they had already hidden substances in the park, and warned organisers to remain vigilant. Reports at the time described fans bragging about plans to smuggle drugs into the concert using glow sticks, toys, merchandise, and plaster casts as concealment methods.
Liam Gallagher responded to the reports with a characteristically jovial remark, saying, “I did it years ago when I went to see the pope in HP it’s not a new thing.”
The Creamfields seizure underscores the ongoing challenge festival organisers and law enforcement face in preventing drug use at large-scale events, even as efforts to search venues intensify before audiences arrive.
