The mainstage at Belgium’s Tomorrowland music festival was “severely damaged” by fire, just two days before the big event is slated to begin in Boom on Friday.
It wasn’t immediately clear how the blaze began. Video of the Wednesday incident shows the flames raging as a plume of thick, black smoke floats above the stage.
“Due to a serious incident and fire … our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged,” festival organizers said in a statement. “We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident.”
Despite the stage being destroyed, organizers said that they’re still planning to move forward with the weekend of festivities. Their DreamVille campsite will open on Thursday as planned and be ready to accommodate guests.
All “Global Journey” activities in Brussels and Antwerp — which consist of four “magical trips to the most beautiful cities of Belgium” — are also expected to proceed as scheduled.
Organizers promised to update attendees about plans for Fridays, Saturday and Sunday as soon as possible. Electronic music and techno artists including Steve Aoki, Armin van Buuren, Charlotte de Witte and David Guetta are expected to perform.
“We are focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend,” organizers said.
Billboard dubs Tomorrowland “the world’s biggest dance music festival” because of the 400,000 attendees it attracts over its two weekends of shows. The festival began in 2005 and has inspired several spinoff events including Georgia’s TomorrowWorld, which was met with disaster in 2015 when hard rain and intense heat caused partygoers to flee for their safety.
Producing music festivals is known to be a difficult endeavor.
Earlier this week, Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland sold the rights to his infamous gathering for $245,000 on eBay after aborting the concert extravaganza for the second time in April. The first Fyre Fest in 2017 was a comically catastrophic failure that’s collapse was the focus of hugely popular documentaries on Netflix and Hulu.
Fyre Festival
AP This photo provided by Jake Strang shows mattress and tents set up for attendees of the Fyre Festival, Friday, April 28, 2017 in the Exuma islands, Bahamas. Organizers of the much-hyped music festival in the Bahamas canceled the weekend event at the last minute.
McFarland was sentenced to six years behind bars after pleading guilty to wire fraud in connection with the festival that saw jetsetters housed in disaster relief tents, where they were served cheese sandwiches while waiting for performances from Blink-182, Migos and Major Lazer that ultimately never happened.
There’s no indication that Tomorrowland’s setback is the result of impropriety.
Originally Published:
