A horror blaze ripped through Tomorrowland festival’s main stage and burned it to the ground as firefighters tried to battle it, with festival bosses declaring a “serious incident”
A huge fire has destroyed the main stage at Tomorrowland festival, just two days before the iconic dance festival was set to open.
The horror blaze engulfed the main stage at around 6pm on Wednesday evening (July 16). Shocking scenes saw firefighters try their best to tackle the towering inferno at the festival site in Boom, Belgium.
Shocking footage of the “serious incident” showed the flames ripping through the ice-themed stage and giant plumes of smoke billowing above it. The fire started at around 6pm local time on Wednesday, but the cause of it remains unknown.
Luckily, nobody was injured during the fire but the stage has been “severely damaged”. Festival organisers said: “Due to a serious incident and fire on the Tomorrowland Mainstage, our beloved Mainstage has been severely damaged. We can confirm that no one was injured during the incident.
Festival organisers also confirmed the campsite would still open as planned on Thursday ahead of the festival – and that they were “finding solutions” for the festival weekend. They added: “We can announce that, DreamVille (campsite) will open tomorrow (Thursday, July 17) as planned and will be ready for all DreamVille visitors.
“All Global Journey activities in Brussels and Antwerp will take place as planned. We are focused on finding solutions for the festival weekend (Friday – Saturday – Sunday). More updates and detailed information will be communicated as soon as possible.”
Around 1,000 employees were reportedly working on the festival grounds at the time of the fire, but no members of public were present. Tomorrowland spokeswoman Debby Wilmsen told local outlet De Telegraaf: “Emergency services are on site. Our top priority now is safety.”
Residents nearby have been asked to close their windows and doors as the fire is not yet under control (at the time of writing). The mayor of Boom, Jeroen Baert has reportedly cancelled his holiday in Germany and will be returning to handle the fall out from the fire.
Emergency workers have been working to stop the flames reaching neighbouring homes and woodland. Some local residents have been evacuated due to the fire.
It’s expected 400,000 people will attend the festival over two weekends. The first weekend runs from Friday (18 July) until July 20, and the second from July 25 until July 27.
Some of the world’s biggest DJs are slated to perform at the festival, including DJ Martin Garrix, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Charlotte De Witte, ANNA, Fisher and Amelie Lens are due to play Tomorrowland’s main stage. The electronic festival is featuring over 600 artists in total across 16 stages.
This year marks the 19th edition of the legendary dance festival. This year’s theme is “Orbyz” – described by Tomorrowland as “a magical universe sculpted entirely from ice”.
It’s not the first time a fire has thrown Tomorrowland into chaos. Back in 2017, over 22,000 had to be evacuated from Barcelona’s Tomorrowland Unite due to a fire – just hours before Steve Aoki was due to headline.
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