Creamfields bosses say lessons will be learned following public criticism of their handling of the first Knowlsey Hall Music Festival. Organisers, who are preparing for the launch of the second Creamfields dance event in Runcorn this August, have faced criticism over long queues for food, drink and toilets, and have received complaints over poor lighting at their most recent festival. Cream boss James Barton said the issues would be taken on board, but some rulings such as the confiscation of food and drink were standard across all festival events. He said: ‘The confiscation of food and drink is standard across the industry. ‘The only events where you can take your own are if you’re camping, and then you can’t take them into the main arena. ‘With food you get into the issues of concealment of drugs and weapons.’ ‘With regards to the queues, we appreciate if people aren’t allowed to bring their own drink we have to provide them with facilities and we didn’t have enough resources. We’ll rectify that. ‘With the toilets, we had adequate numbers but everything was just slow because of the weather.’ Mr Barton added that parking problems were exacerbated by poor weather. He said: ‘As soon as we saw there would be issues with mud caused by heavy rain we brought in tractors and 4x4s to start towing cars out. ‘We also put in extra roadways. ‘We had 30 cars needing removal on Saturday and 40 on Sunday, but our main priority was to keep traffic flowing so we had to prioritise.’ He added: ‘We had designated walkways and car parking but after 25,000 people had used them on Saturday they had to be re-jigged and some of the lighting didn’t follow.’ Creamfields 2007 takes place on Saturday, August 25, at Daresbury, Halton. Tickets, priced £57, are available on 0870 242 7326 and at www.ticketline.co .uk | 
