A celebration of a music fan’s life at a festival unexpectedly ended with an “unforgettable tribute” when his ashes were fired from a confetti cannon.

Stuart Mitchell’s family sold his Creamfields tickets to help fund his funeral after he died in July.

They asked the buyers, Ryan and Liam Millen, to scatter some of his ashes at the site so he could go one last time.

The cousins said they were “astounded” when organisers suggested firing the ashes out during the DJ’s headline act.

Mr Mitchell’s sister Laura said the surprise gesture was “amazing and overwhelming”.

She said her brother, who was “a funny guy with a lot of love”, had taken his own life in July and left behind a three-year-old son in Norfolk, where his family live.

After the cousins, who live in Halewood on Merseyside, bought the tickets for the event in Daresbury, Cheshire, Mr Mitchell’s father sent them a small amount of his son’s ashes and a letter that said he would be “most grateful if you were able to scatter them somewhere at Creamfields, so that he truly went there one last time”.

The pair decided they had to make their weekend at the festival a celebration of Mr Mitchell’s life and had two banners made bearing a picture of him and the message “this last dance is for you mate”.

Ryan Millen, 34, said they had intended to get pictures of people holding the banners around the site, but decided to ask the event’s organisers to take some pictures of it on the main stage.

He said they were “absolutely bowled over” when staff suggested setting they put the ashes inside one of the cannons that would be used during Tiesto’s festival-closing headline set on Sunday night.

He added that it had been “an unforgettable tribute to someone who was taken from this earth far before his time”.

Ms Mitchell said hearing that the two cousins had agreed to scatter the ashes and were making banners in memory of her brother was “the first bit of good news” the family had received since her brother died.

“I thought ‘oh my goodness, he’s going to Creamfields’,” she said.

“But I did not expect ‘we blew him out of a cannon’.”

She said her brother had been a fan of Tiesto and the superstar DJ’s song Adagio for Strings had been played at his funeral.

She added that the cousins’ efforts had “110% helped with the grieving process” and had prompted her to work with them to campaign to raise awareness of youth suicide, which has already seen them raise £1,200 for suicide prevention charity Papyrus.